Musings of Her Purple Fluffiness

Today, the 4th April 2016, marks the 10th anniversary of this account, and of my pen-name purplefluffycat!

To celebrate, I thought I'd post this meme and see If I get any takers :-) It was doing the rounds a while back, and was clearly sufficiently nifty to have stuck in the memory...

"Give me one of my own stories, and a timestamp sometime in the future after the end of the story, or sometime in the past before the story started, and I'll write you at least 100 words of what happened then, whether it's five minutes before the story started or ten years in the future."

An up-to-date list of my fics in alphabetical order are on AO3, here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=✓&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=title_to_sort_on&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&commit=Sort+and+Filter&user_id=PurpleFluffyCat


Alternatively/additionally a far more general meme: feel free to ask me anything that strikes your fancy. About my writing (generically, or any particular piece), RL, favourites/unfavourites, random topics of conversation? All very much welcome!


To state the reflection that is so common in these situations: ten years feels like a very long time - and yet the stories and memories from my early years in fandom still seem really fresh and recent. Time is oxymoronic like that, isn't it? I've been through a lot, both good and bad,  in these ten years, and this LJversary has provided a bit of an opportunity to navel-gaze; to think about how life has changed and grown in expected and unexpected ways, and also to really value and appreciate the things that haven't changed - the core of one's life-choices and personality, if you will.

I think that the little niche of fandom that I am so lucky to have found is very close to that core. Fandom has been a source of such joy and discovery. It has, in many ways, been an education - both related to the kind invitation I received in 2009 to join Daily Deviant(!), and otherwise. It gave me the confidence to write and to love language - a trait that I had thought I'd lost when 'creative writing' tasks in school made way for calculations and factual essays. It gave me the opportunity to meet wonderful people that share my enthusiasms and world-view  - and also equally wonderful people who have a very different world-view that they explain so eloquently I am enriched and broadened by it. It gave me the opportunity to make friends across the miles - some who I have had the joy of meeting in person, and many sadly not, as yet - who are each special and dear to me.

So, from the bottom of my heart, I send thanks to every author who has written a story I have enjoyed, every artist who has created a work I have admired, every reader who has been so kind as to have left a comment on my work, and every one of you reading this. A community is merely the sum and product of its people, and I feel honoured to have been part of one so beautiful.

Title: The Hero Stone
Author: purplefluffycat
Characters/Pairings: Severus Snape/Lily Evans, Eileen Snape
Rating: R
Warnings: Teen/teen sexuality
Word Count: About 2000
Summary/Description: A story of young hopes and fragile expectations. "Green always wins, in the end. Better to be a snake in the grass than a lion bleeding to death, any day."

Author's Notes: Written for daily_deviant, for the theme 'oculophilia' - Severus/Lily seemed such a natural choice. I hope you like my take on the pairing, here :-)

( In the last year of primary school, Severus had a class teacher who fancied himself as a philosopher. )

Title: Past the Port
Author: purplefluffycat
Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Horace Slughorn, Rubeus Hagrid. Various pairings mentioned, but nothing explicit.
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~5400
Summary:

Two things of which Minerva was very fond were propriety and Scotch. It was so rare these days, she reflected, that Scotch got a look-in.

A story about the trials of life, the joy of experience, and the importance of friendship – in which Horace soul-searches, Hagrid blushes, and Minerva surprises them both.

Warnings: Tipsy professors?

Author's Notes: This was written for miss_morland in the 2013 edition of the delightful hoggywartyxmas fest. I tried to include a few of Miss M's different prompts, here: ‘McGonagall/older woman,’ ‘Someone spends Christmas alone, against their will,’ and ‘The Little Match Girl’.


( There comes a point in every party – at least, in every party at which the stiffer aqua vitae of life are served – when the guests have two fundamental options. Either, they may sense the oncoming roll of head with respect to horizon, feel the recalcitrance of foot for straight line and tongue for complex syllable, and deem the point at hand an excellent one at which to make polite – if slightly overfond – goodbyes, and return themselves to bed before anything embarrassing might happen. Alternatively, they might grab the nearest decanter and carry on regardless. )

Title: Friends Forever
Author: purplefluffycat
Characters/Pairings: Sybill Trelawney/Alecto Carrow
Rating: R
Warnings: Brief threat of violence
Word Count: About 3000
Summary/Description: Bad relationships don't necessarily start out that way.

Author's Notes: An unlikely pairing, generated by daily_deviant's 'alternate pairing' challenge. (the mods' wobbly smiley says it all: "o_O") - but the more I thought about these two, the more that a history between them made some sense. I hope you like what I've come up with, here.


( Friends Forever )

Title: His, To Reason Why
Author: purplefluffycat
Characters/Pairings: Apollyon Pringle, Arabella Figg/Gideon Prewett/Fabian Prewett, Bellatrix Lestrange/Lord Voldemort, Dolores Umbridge/Lucius Malfoy (unrequited), Remus Lupin/Sirius Black, Argus Filch
Rating: R
Kinks/Themes Chosen: Padlocks
Other Warnings: Chastity devices, incest between brothers, masturbation, mild BDSM
Word Count: About 2600

Summary/Description: Apollyon gave the address differently, depending on who was asking. He had two different business cards – one bold, loud and innocent, and the other understated in neat, black script – and two different front doors. Upon both, however, were the same simple words: Apollyon Pringle. Locksmith.

Author's Notes: This was written for daily_deviant's theme, 'Padlocks'. Initially, I thought of a number of ways this could go; luckily Apollyon let me have a go at including several of them! Quite a lot of thinkerty-thoughts to go with the erotica, this time.


( His, To Reason Why )

Title: The Reluctant Phoenix
Author: purplefluffycat
Pairings: Albus Dumbledore/Minerva McGonagall, Horace Slughorn/Elphias Doge, Albus Dumbledore/Horace Slughorn
Rating: Up to NC-17 (although most of the story rates lower)
Word Count: ~23,600
Warnings/Content Information: Cross-gen - teacher/student (Minerva is 18), infidelity in secondary pairing.

Summary: Albus thought that he was a non-running member of the human race when it came to romantic relationships. If pushed, he would have said that he was the kind of wizard who preferred wizards. -All that, of course, was before Minerva came along.

Author's/Artist's Notes: Thanks to Dueltastic for such open-ended and thought-provoking prompts; this was written for her in the 2013 edition of the excellent hp_beholder fest. I tried to incorporate elements of the following suggestions into this story: "non-traditional relationships, things people make work in their own ways when it's not obvious how or why it does", "eras and places we see only hints of in canon", "age differences being acknowledged", "blurry definitions" and "fluidity in gender roles and sexual orientation." Many thanks also to atdelphi for modding hp_beholder 2013!

The Relectant Phoenix - Part One

The Relectant Phoenix - Part Two

( The Reluctant Phoenix - Part Three )

Title: The Reluctant Phoenix
Author: purplefluffycat
Pairings: Albus Dumbledore/Minerva McGonagall, Horace Slughorn/Elphias Doge, Albus Dumbledore/Horace Slughorn
Rating: Up to NC-17 (although most of the story rates lower)
Word Count: ~23,600
Warnings/Content Information: Cross-gen - teacher/student (Minerva is 18), infidelity in secondary pairing.

Summary: Albus thought that he was a non-running member of the human race when it came to romantic relationships. If pushed, he would have said that he was the kind of wizard who preferred wizards. -All that, of course, was before Minerva came along.

Author's/Artist's Notes: Thanks to Dueltastic for such open-ended and thought-provoking prompts; this was written for her in the 2013 edition of the excellent hp_beholder fest. I tried to incorporate elements of the following suggestions into this story: "non-traditional relationships, things people make work in their own ways when it's not obvious how or why it does", "eras and places we see only hints of in canon", "age differences being acknowledged", "blurry definitions" and "fluidity in gender roles and sexual orientation." Many thanks also to atdelphi for modding hp_beholder 2013!



( The Reluctant Phoenix - Part One )

Title: Cassandra’s Gift
Author: purplefluffycat
Characters: Sybill Trelawney, Luna Lovegood
Rating: G
Word Count: ~2700
Recipient: vaysh11

Summary: In front of her lay the free copy that she had been promised – the people at The Quibbler were very nice; so very much nicer than those horrid scribblers at The Prophet… and here it was in print, word-for-word, exactly as Sybill had spoken it.

Author's Notes: This was written in response to vaysh11’s prompt, ‘Fic that explores Sybill's Seer talent’, in the excellent hoggywartyxmas fest. Despite Minerva's taunting on the subject, I’ve managed a little more than a drabble!


( Cassandra’s Gift )

Title: Last Gasps Come Later
Author: purplefluffycat
Pairings: Draco Malfoy/Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy/Astoria Greengrass (Malfoy), Pansy Parkinson/Astoria Greengrass (implied), Pansy Parkinson/OFC (mentioned).
Rating: R
Warnings: Voyeurism, of sorts.
Word Count: About 1850

Summary/Description: Years have passed, and a somewhat-older Draco and Pansy meet for drinks in a secluded members club, as is their habit. The world has moved on, but they cannot help but look back to those times at Hogwarts.

Author's Notes: This story was written for daily_deviant's 'back to school' and 'traditional domestic roles' themes. Also, it is - believe it or not - my first time writing any of these characters... so I hope you like my take on them, here! :-)

( Last Gasps Come Later )

Title: Professor C. Binns: A Personal History
Author: purplefluffycat
Pairings: Cuthbert Binns/Walburga Black, Walburga Black/Orion Black
Rating: PG
Word Count: About 13,300

Summary:

Transcribed from back cover of book:

Professor Cuthbert Binns (living: 1865-1963, haunting: 1963- ) is the leading Magical Historian of his day. He has published widely on topics ranging from, 'The origins of magic in native rock art,' to 'Wizard-Muggle relations through the ages', and was awarded an Order of Merlin (second class) in 1936, when his seminal work, 'A History of the magical world in 100,000 pages' became the best-selling Historical text on record.

This volume, however, is - for the first time - autobiographical in nature. It is thus somewhat experimental in nature, but serves to remind both the author and the reader that we each build the fabric of History, in our own ways, however small.

"Being in love with a person is more difficult than being in love with a book. You can carry a book with you wherever you go, but a person moves around on their own, and one is never sure where they are or where one will see them, next. Also, books get older in a predictable way: if you take good care of them they don't seem very different at all - aside from the odd scratch on the cover or a looseness to the spine - but people can change their thoughts and feelings and opinions, such that what was once written there disappears altogether and is replaced by information of an entirely different sort.

That is why people are so difficult."

Author: C. Binns.
Dictation: Gluey the House elf.
Production: A.P.W.B. Dumbledore, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
Published, 1964; Revised, 1991.


Author's Notes: This story was written for odogoddess in the fabulous hp_beholder exchange, 2012. Her request included 'friendship' and 'a meeting of the minds', and I have attempted to include these ideas here. The tale is also somewhat inspired by 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' by Mark Haddon.


( Professor C. Binns: A Personal History )