Welcome to the world of Northumbrian. I used to say that I'm only just an Englishman, as I live north of Hadrian's Wall, but south of the border with Scotland. I am Northumbrian (I'm from that part of the UK that, twelve centuries ago, was the Kingdom of Northumbria) but in the last year or two I've become increasingly concerned about the labels we give each other. I refuse to be identified as English, or Scottish. I'll live with British Citizen, because it's legally correct, although, given our recent behaviour, being British is not something to be proud of. My preferred term has always been "EU Citizen" but let's not get into that argument.

I'm a person, as are my readers, and that should be enough.

/
\ Lindisfarne Castle (if anyone’s interested).

I've been writing stories which comply (almost) completely with book canon and JKR's interview statements when I started writing in 2009. Several statements from JKR and the creation of Pottermore have meant that some things I've done (like naming Harry's Potter grandparents, and making James one school year older than Albus) have, retrospectively, become wrong. If they're easy to fix, I may fix them, but I can't change James' birthday (more on this below).

All I can do is to say that my stories comply with the original canon created in the seven books written by JKR. I hope that's enough (and I know that even that isn't completely true, but I like the Buckbeak chapter of Tales of the Battle, so I'm not going to delete it).

I appear to be writing a lot of stories. In fact I'm only writing one. All my stories (apart from one) take place on the same timeline. In chronological order (which isn't the order in which they are been written) they run like this:

Bloodstone
Killers
Germ Free Adolescents
Black Death
Looking for Lily
Chaser
Nott: Father and Son
Molly and her Daughter
Hogsmeade
The Hufflepuff
Blaise Inglorious
Vituperation
Summer of '97
Fred and George's Busy Day
The Pencil Portrait Problem: A Theodore Nott Mystery
Locket
Tales of the Battle

Grave Days
The Badly Fitting Coat
Vault
Aurors and Schoolgirls
What Luna Sees
Spontaneity
The Mind of Arthur Weasley
Anticipation
The Girl from DRaCo MC
Players Rites
Mistletoe Kisses
Hunters and Prey
Research and Development
Little Victory
Disharmony
Zoinks! (A Halloween Tale)
Knavery
April Fool
Friends and Foes
Angelina
MLT: Muggle Liaison Team?
Swimsuit Quidditch
The Question
The Question (Again)
Bikini Girls on Brooms
The Professor and his Landlady
The Secret Diary of Hermione Granger
After Breakfast
MIT: Secret Keeper
MIT: Haunted House: Dead
Epithalamium
MIT: Hampstead Heath Corpse
Unspeakable
It Takes Two (a Duet)
E.C.C.E.N.T.R.I.C.
Bare
First Sight
Conceptions
Conversations
Moon
Brown
Concerns
Sleepless Night
Yggdrasil
Beard Hunters: A Yuletide Tale
New Year's Eve
Troth
Dennis
Ginny's Rival
MIT: Strange Place
Remembrance
Life Goes On
Strangers at Drakeshaugh
Sports Day
Moons
The Drakeshaugh Dragon
Xmas Daze
MIT: Entente Cordiale
Owl Post

Young Love
Quidditch Kids
Zygosis
James and Me
Just Another Valentine
Centuries
Now and Forever

The vast majority of my stories (the ones between the lines) take place within the "Nineteen Years", that time between the last chapter of Deathly Hallows and the Epilogue. As for the others:

The earliest (Bloodstone) is set in 6th Century Rome and Northumbria.

The last (Now and Forever) takes place in 2097

Just to complicate matters, some stories span across others. I try to ensure that everything I write stands alone, so hopefully this shouldn't create any problems.

Two examples:
MIT: Secret Keeper opens on the day of Ron and Hermione's wedding (the events in After Breakfast) and then leaps forwards to conclude AFTER the events of MIT: Haunted House Dead.

Little Victory is a short story spanning Victoire's life from her birth (which is where it's placed on the timeline) to her wedding (which is after the events in Young Love).

If the story title is bold (Summer of '97) it's complete; if it isn't (Friends and Foes) it's a work in progress.

The Cursed Child, and Canon Compliance

I’ve been posting “canon compliant” stories (at a pathetically slow rate) for more than 2,500 days, which (until very recently) equalled 60,000 turns of a Time-Turner. I have always tried to keep my stories within canon, and JKR’s twitter post on 1st September 2015 last year was enough to concern me.

“I'm in Edinburgh, so could somebody at King's Cross wish James S Potter good luck for me? He's starting at Hogwarts today.”

As I said at the time, with that announcement, JKR fixed James Sirius Potter’s birthday as falling between 1 September 2003, and 31 August 2004, and places him two school years ahead of Al. In my stories, his birthday is 8 October 2004, and he’s only one year ahead of Al (although he is a little over 21 months older than his brother, whose birthday I’ve fixed as 14 July 2006. Although “my” Lily is two school years behind Al, her birthday (29 February 2008) makes her only 19 months younger than Al. I have always tried to keep to canon. That was the first crack in my canon timeline, and it concerned me. Now, of course, I have a much bigger problem.

I’ve tried to stick to canon, and I’ve tried to incorporate much of what JKR said in her interviews and comments, too. That is no longer possible. I don’t own the Cursed Child, I haven’t read it, and I haven’t seen the play. The information I have is based on spoiler reviews. So, on that basis, some of what follows may be incorrect.

My understanding of the Cursed Child is that it’s a time-travel story. That might have been no big deal, because Prisoner of Azkaban is a time travel story. But...

PoA is a very cleverly plotted “predestination” story. Harry and Hermione don’t directly interact with anyone. They save Buckbeak, simply because they need a way to free Sirius. They had assumed Buckbeak was dead, but they didn’t actually know the truth. It’s almost certain that Dumbledore suspected they’d had a hand in it, hence his instructions to them. And although Harry thinks his father saved him, he realises that he saves himself. It’s a closed loop. Everything that happens, happens.

Cursed Child uses a new and more powerful Time-Turner which allows travel back years, not hours. It’s in the hands of the Malfoys (if it’s a Malfoy heirloom, why didn’t they use it to change time to help themselves win the Battle?) Timelines are changed several times (and changed back again, too). The plot (it seems to me) is a reverse “Let’s Kill Hitler” paradox. Voldemort’s daughter (seriously? Is that right?) has Daddy issues, and she wants him back.

Leaving aside the problems with book canon, I have a really hard time believing that the 1/7th of a man Voldemort is in HBP has any interest in fathering a child, or even having sex. But the two biggest problems for me are the “Lets Kill Hitler” paradox at the centre of the plot, and Harry’s relationship with Albus.

First: The “Let’s Kill Hitler” paradox. It runs like this.

Adolf Hitler was responsible for some unspeakable atrocities, the world would be better off had he never existed. So, someone invents a Time Machine, travels into the past, and kills baby Hitler. Easy? Problem solved? No, because if Hitler is dead, why would the man who kills him travel into the past and commit infanticide? He doesn’t know how evil the man is, because he Hitler never grew up. But if he doesn’t kill baby Hitler, then Hitler grows up and... That, simply, is why not even the Doctor tries to change the past (remember the mess that Rose’s attempt to save her father created?).

Second: Harry and Albus.

I got this message recently, from someone who has never left me a review, and who—so far as I can tell—joined fanfiction.net simply to send me this message:

I imagine that you are conflicted about The Cursed Child and how it conflicts with your version of the characters. I'm writing because I feel for you and I want you to know that although I enjoyed The Cursed Child, your version of the Potters during those years, including what Albus Potter is like, is still more consistent with canon to me than the Albus and Harry in The Cursed Child. There has been a lot written about what is inconsistent with Rowling's world having to do with time travel and some of the mechanics, but for me it comes down to the interaction between Harry and Albus right before he gets on the Hogwarts Express at the end of Deathly Hallows. That is the conversation between a sweet, sensitive boy (who is close with his cousin Rose), who really does fear being in Slytherin, would prefer to be in Gryffindor, and who has a dad who listens to him and hears him already. Those are the characters that I know and that you write about!

I have to say that I agree with all of this. In addition, a regular reviewer sent me this:

I would rather you not let this book change your stories. I personally prefer things how they are currently.

So, I can no longer claim that my stories are fully canon, but I hope that I can, and will always be able to state that:

My stories comply with canon as established in the seven books in the original Harry Potter series.

Let’s just wait and see what surprises “Fantastic Beasts” brings, shall we?

-N-

If you're interested in what I write, why not Check out my fictionpress account.