Chapter 10. BONUS: Behind the Characters
First year is over! A big thank you for everyone who has read it!
Sorry, this isn't really a chapter after all. More like info or something like that. Feel free to skip it, or feel free to read it. It's up to you. So, as the year one is over I want to take some time and explain some things about the characters and stuff with no spoilers about the future. Hopefully.
About the story:
I didn't want to write a typical Harry Potter OC story. First of all, I didn't want to create a Mary Sue to fall in love with an already existing character, and secondly I wanted my story to take place during the second generation (so I could use Albus, Rose, and Scorpius as well) instead of the nineties. So I created a character you now know as Alistair. He had absolutely nothing to do with Harry Potter and so started writing a story around him. Later I got the idea of yet another character, and so Ven was born.
Actually, when I started writing this I had no idea how long I would make the first year. You know, because when I had started writing this story it was about their fifth year and not about their first year (screw me…) so these first four years will eventually lead to what I had planned to happen when the characters are fifteen years old and these four years (in my eyes) will pretty much be written only to explain why certain characters act like they act later.
So this first year was actually written so you could get used to the characters, and most of the characters got actually pretty well introduced during the year. The second year will concentrate mostly on few minor plots (so it's kind of a filler year) instead of Alistair and Ven and their story. But of course, because they're the main characters, they'll still be there.
About the Hufflepuffs:
First of all, my main Hufflepuffs remind me of the Golden Trio. That wasn't intentional, though. Alistair, Toby, and Layla were the first characters to be created for this story. The Head of the Hufflepuff House, Wylie Buttonpress, didn't appear during the first year because she didn't teach any of them and so I didn't want to force her to make an appearance. She's a Muggle Studies professor. Actually I was going to make Neville, as he teaches Herbology, the Head of Hufflepuff but because he was a Gryffindor I scrapped that idea.
Alistair Nott was the very first character of this story and everything was written around him until I got the idea about Ven; the plot changed a lot, thanks to the Slytherin's point of few. Making Alistair a Hufflepuff was the most important part of creating the character. His parents being from different houses (Slytherin and Gryffindor respectively) he wasn't sure which house he would belong though he knew he shared some traits with his father like cleverness and some sort of cunningness, too, which would have made him a good Slytherin like the Sorting Hat would have wanted. He shows many Hufflepuff traits like patience and kindness as well as dedication to his friends and tolerance towards the students of other house. He's grown in a happy family but without any magical friends. He's a little clumsy and he doesn't pay attention on everything around himself which makes him even more Hufflepuff-like. He has strawberry blonde hair, freckles, and chocolate brown eyes. He is quite short but he will get his growth spurt.
Tobias Jones was probably the easiest character to make. A friendly Hufflepuff fellow with Gryffindor courage, that's Toby. I don't have really much to say about him at the moment. Well, he's quite of short-tempered when his badger pride is threatened which is pretty much every time when they have classes with Ravenclaw or Slytherin. He's the most childish of the Hufflepuff boys and knows the least about the muggle world. If anyone in this story loves his family more than Alistair it's definitely Toby. Born in the large family of Jones he has several cousins, uncles, and aunts. He loves talking about his Great Aunt Gwenog who is probably his favourite relative. Toby is all about Quidditch, you'll see. He was mentioned being taller than Alistair but he is actually quite short. His hair is dark brown, and he has dark copper coloured skin and mouldy green eyes.
Layla Macmillan, the obligatory female sidekick! Just kidding, Layla will be a more important character later. She was the first female character I actually made for this story, and she is best friends with Alistair and Toby. When compared to Chastity and Mary Layla is the most intelligent one. Her role during the first year was very small because she wasn't really needed for the plot at this point. She will become more important. Her parents are Ernie Macmillan (who is actually one of my favourite characters) and Laura Madley. They were both Hufflepuffs during the nineties. I wanted to make Layla to be as much as possible like her father. She also shares many traits with Hermione, with a slight exception that Layla actually likes Quidditch. Layla is the shortest of the Hufflepuffs. He has brownish blonde hair and narrow grey-green eyes
When talking about Hufflepuffs I have to mention Chastity Holmes. She is actually the only character who is intentionally based on some other character. If you have ever watched Emmerdale there's that amazing character called Chas Dingle. I mean, really. She's the best! I love Cain, too… I gave Chastity a wizard father and a squib mother to make her more unique. She's very proud of her mother and brother especially. Chastity is actually younger of the two Holmes children and she was born to look after her brother, Claude. She is one of the strongest female characters in this story. Though she's tomboyish she has also her girlish traits. He has a very twitching wand hand which she isn't afraid to use. That's because in addition of Chas Dingle I actually thought about Bellatrix Lestrange a lot when I created her. She has wavy, dark hair and grey eyes. During the first year she was the second tallest of the Hufflepuffs, only William being taller than her.
William Thomas, son of Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil, but I guess you already knew that much. He wasn't on my first list of the characters but he was created at the same time with Mary and Jeremiah during the second character list I made. William is artistic and prefers football over Quidditch, just like his father, but he actually has this little quirk of his for being a bit gossipy, which was trait from his mother. But William gossips only with Jeremiah. William has his father's dark skin colour and brown eyes.
Jeremiah Percival Greenden, JP for short, is the chubby bookworm of the Hufflepuffs. Like Layla, he's very intelligent and doesn't need to study as much as the others though he studies anyway because he gets easily nervous about his grades. He's actually quite touchy about his looks and watches what he eats. He is actually good friends with William and Mary. He has light brown hair and green eyes.
Mary Hiffgins is a quiet and gentle Muggle-born girl. Come on, I had to have a character like her. It was actually my sister who gave the actual idea about her. She described her as a girl in clothes ten sizes too big for her. Mary isn't actually a pushover though she gets teased by other students, mainly by the Slytherin girls. I actually dislike the name 'Mary' but it suits her so I didn't change it when my sister suggested that name for her. She has bright brown eyes and dirty blonde hair.
About the Slytherins:
All my Slytherin boys end with an S! Ventus, Albus, Scorpius, and Darius. It was partly intentional. It represents that they're snakes (and yes, Tobias ends in S, too. He would have actually made a rather nice Slytherin actually). Professor Imelda Blishwick was the first teacher I made for the story, hooray, and I like to write about her. As I have said I actually hadn't planned writing about Slytherins but when Ven was created I noticed that I had to. And I'm glad I did.
Ven Zabini was actually my fourth character to be created (Alistair, Toby, and Layla being the three before him). He appeared in my mind as a rival to Alistair because of their very different backgrounds. Ven is a Slytherin to the core; he's determined and clever, but he also appreciates the feeling of fraternity he gets from his fellow Slytherins. I had from the start decided Ven's mother wouldn't stay in the picture for long. Ven is not familiar with love and shows very little compassion towards his family. I mean, Blaise is an intelligent man but I never saw him as a father figure. Blaise showed no pull towards the dark side when he was younger and with a motto 'you can never trust a Slytherin completely' I made him an Auror. He's often away from the manor and so Ven is very close to their house elf, Tabby. Nevertheless Ven is very strong but usually quiet which makes him sound blunt when he talks. He's always a little overshadowed by Albus and Scorpius but it doesn't bother him at all. Ven isn't actually interested in Death Eaters, and he has no will to have anything to do with them but still he keeps an eye on so called Death Eater descendants. He doesn't look after Alistair more than he looks after Scorpius; it's actually the opposite because he's with the Malfoy heir all the time. Even though, Ven's fascinated how a member of a Death Eater family could be in Hufflepuff and he's very curious about Alistair. Ven is tall but not as tall as Darius and Scorpius. He has dark skin, though not as dark as Blaise's, and dark brown, almost black, hair. His eyes are almond-shaped and hazel coloured.
Albus Potter was one of the most difficult characters to portray. You've probably read stories about Albus being sorted into Slytherin so I'm sure it didn't really surprise you. When I started writing this story I had no idea what kind of personality I was going to give to Albus. I mean, yes, he's the son of mighty Harry Potter and he has an older brother, James, who is kind of a perfect mixture of Harry and Ginny. Albus wants to be different from his father and brother. The Deathly Hallows epilogue shows that James has a habit of teasing his brother. When James tells (lies!) about Scorpius to Albus he didn't even consider Albus might get friends with a Malfoy, and eventually decide to join the Slytherin House and finally have a chance to show his brother that he won't always stand in his brother's shadow. So nice one, James. When I was making the earliest drafts of the story, Albus appeared for the first time I was like 'oh, right, I have to write about Albus here… Umm, well' and he ended up being a little bit like young Sirius instead of a silent and thoughtful boy. I gave him a laid-back, 'I don't care' attitude to counter all the calmness Ven and Scorpius showed most of the time. To them Albus is positive and loyal and a bit annoying because he doesn't try to act like someone he's not. True, Albus isn't the most intelligent one of them but well, he's Albus Potter. He has messy black hair and piercing green eyes.
Scorpius Malfoy was much easier to write about. The son of a Death Eater who is raised to follow pureblood superiority rules and make other kids lick his shoes… Not. From the moment I decided to bring Scorpius into this story he was going to the House of Slytherin. Why? He doesn't act like a true Slytherin at all! Wrong. Scorpius hides his sensitiveness behind calm demeanour for the most of the time and he's emotionally very introverted but he has few strong Slytherin traits. He shows determination to prove himself, just like Albus, he's cunning and clever, and you'll see that as a cherry on top he has a certain disregard for the rules. In the group of Slytherins Scorpius resembles Remus Lupin the most – he doesn't agree with everything Albus (Sirius) and Ven (James) do but he supports them with his kindness and intelligence, proving the stereotypes against himself wrong. Scorpius has platinum blonde hair and stormy grey eyes.
Darius Flint is the son of Marcus Flint and a woman whose name I haven't yet mentioned because I won't tell who I ship him with (Well, I actually ship Marcus with Oliver Wood but because I'm not a big fan of mpreg Darius in not related to Wood). Darius was made to be a filler character. He's the fourth member of the 'Slytherin Marauders' where he represents Peter Pettigrew. Is Darius like Peter, then? Yes, he quite is. Darius adore the other boys in his dorm, especially Albus. He likes to eat, and he's a little careless and sometimes he needs the help of his friends. Darius doesn't spend all his time with the other Slytherins of his year; he likes to hang out with the older Slytherins. He is the tallest of the Slytherins. He has brown hair and dark brown eyes.
Acacia Rosier, the other of two mentioned Slytherin girls, is from a Death Eater family just like Alistair and Scorpius. She doesn't really know about her heritage because Rosiers returned to the light side after the Second War and neither of her parents was a Death Eater, or she simply doesn't care. She's not Evan Rosier's daughter. Acacia was created during the first list of characters, being the only Slytherin girl at the time. She's noisy, cheeky, and well, plain mean. She has black hair and blue eyes.
Lucinda Cross, the best friend of Acacia, was created a lot later. She didn't really have much to do during the first year so there's actually nothing to say about her, except that she can be quite bitchy. She's written to be pretty but her nature clashes with her looks. She is taller than Acacia, and she has blonde, curly hair and hazel eyes.
About the characters from the other Houses:
As this story is about Hufflepuff and Slytherin, the other Houses will have to stay on the background. Filius Flitwick is still the Head of Ravenclaw and the Transfiguration Professor Caius Norwood is the new Head of the Gryffindor House. I really don't have much to say about him.
Claude Holmes, the twin brother of Chastity, is a Ravenclaw. He has a brilliant mind which is why he was sorted into different House than his sister. Claude is by no means weak. He's determined that someday he won't be pushed around and bullied and he's patiently waiting for that to happen. And about him talking… We could say he talks only to people he likes. He looks a lot like Chastity as he, too, has dark hair and grey eyes.
Luke Corner, son of Michael Corner, is also a Ravenclaw. His best friends are Emmett Darcy and Leon Flannery. Luke acts like their leader, and he's pretty much a git. He doesn't really like Claude and he teases him a lot. Don't blame him! He's just written that way. He has blond hair and brown eyes.
Emmett Darcy is not much better than Luke but he's somehow smarter as he doesn't try to pick up a fight with Chastity. He's also taller than Luke and Leon. He has spiky, dark hair and dark eyes.
The third boy in their group, Leon Flannery, didn't really have a role during the first year. He was only briefly mentioned being with Luke and Emmett at the Quidditch pitch. He has blondish, ginger hair and blue eyes.
Rose Weasley, brilliant daughter of Ron and Hermione Weasley, is a Gryffindor. I don't actually like her much, and I don't like writing about her either. It has probably something to do with the fact I never really liked either of her parents very much. She's intelligent and kind and has a big group of Gryffindor friends but she also likes to chat with Albus and his fellow Slytherins. She has bushy, auburn coloured hair and blue eyes. Her group of friends includes Sarida Rai, who Ven mentioned shortly only by her last name, and Gennifer Parker, whose last name was only mentioned during the Sorting Ceremony.
Leonard Yale (the kid who fall in the lake, does anyone remember him?) is also a Gryffindor and a part of Rose's friends but he doesn't hang out with the other Gryffindor girls than her. He's clumsy and chubbier than Jeremiah. He has light brown hair and grey eyes.
In addition to these characters the list goes on and on. As a matter of fact in my list of original first year characters were actually only four Hufflepuffs (Alistair, Toby, Layla, and Chastity), four Ravenclaws (Claude, Luke, Emmett, and Leon), and three Slytherins (Ven, Darius, and Acacia), and… Yeah, well. There was no Gryffindors, I hated creating them. I'm not an anti-Gryffindor! I just had problems with them. But I may make the Gryffindor lose the House Cup again…
The next chapter will start the second year.
Again, thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed!