The Refiner's Fire
By Abraxan
I'm going to keep this brief because I'm about three-quarters asleep right now, but I definitely wanted to give you credit. That's one of the more sudden reshapings of a character I've seen in a
while, and you did in a throughly dramatic way. I didn't really see the life-or-death situation coming, let alone the new-look, new-power Harry, so you obviously had me fooled.
There were several other things that definitely caught my attention, especially that it was Ginny (or, probably more accurately at this point, her love) that was Harry's light in the dark. And that
quidditch talk lures him back from the bring was just hilarious once I stopped and thought about it.
There was one thing I found vexing in that you never drew a clear connection between what we saw in the last chapter and the onset of the disease. It would have been nice to get a clearer picture of
Refiner's Fire's causes and means of diagnosis (for example Hermione reciting a textbook definition) so the getting from Point A to Point B would take a little less assumption.
But there's no debating that move has produced a major change. The boy we saw frolicking with Casey is gone, both physically and emotionally, now isn't he. I can only assume your shaping him to face
the challenges ahead (and to please this more assertive Ginny).
Anyway, very intriguing overall. The comparison to Merlin and Dumbledore, plus the new powers, makes things very wide open going forward. I look forward to seeing where you take it next.
-KC
Credit! COOL!! :D Thanks!
Yup, Ginny's love is Harry's light in the dark, the only ray of hope he sees for the future he'd like to have. And Quidditch pulling him back from the brink - well, I just thought that was fun
(and logical, given that this is Harry and Ron we're talking about), so I did it. Glad you liked it!
The trigger for the disease in Harry's case (It's different for everyone, but there has to be a major traumatic something or other to start things rolling) was Harry removing so many memories at
once, plus the extent of his grief, the depth of his depression and guilt, plus variables that nobody can really understand (similarly to the common cold or cancer in someone who lives a healthy
lifestyle - sometimes a disease just IS and there's no REASON for it that can be discovered).
One thing I truly HATE about the films (which I love) is "Info-Dump Hermione," so nope, no way would I have her being the one to explain it all. Dumbledore either gave or will give (I don't
remember anymore) all the explanation that's possible, so look for that if it hasn't happened yet. I don't always resolve things within a chapter - sometimes (as in one thing in "Now and
Forever") it's resolved MANY chapters later and not mentioned in the meantime - and that's deliberate. And some things are never resolved because that's true to life, honestly.
It's interesting that you said the boy we knew is gone, and so suddenly. I recently witnessed such a transformation in a young man in real life - he went from boy to man in such a short time,
it was dizzying, and a major, serious event in his life precipitated it. I had not witnessed such a thing in real life when I wrote this, but now that I have, it turns out what I wrote was
extremely accurate, which is really kinda cool for me as a writer, and heartbreaking as well, because I know for real now what for those who go through such a transformation suffer. And
amazingly enough, I captured it in this story. The good news is, both Harry and the young man I'm referring to turned into the best possible men they can be. I'm both proud and
honored to know both of them.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the story! Thanks for your fun review!
Abraxan
Outstanding chapter. This is one of my favorite series.
gunny
Thanks very much!
Abraxan
good explanation of the illness, but i want to know if they are going to get revenge on Rita. i would be bloody pissed, they should at the very least turn her in as an illegal animagus
Revenge is not a healthy thing for the person who's seeking it. Harry's growing up, maturing into a wise and compassionate man. While he will always resent Rita, revenge isn't in him. But Rita DOES get quite an excellent comeuppance. You'll just have to keep reading to see what happens!
Abraxan
I haven't cried and laughed so much in ages!!! I can't wait to finish all of this whole universe you've got going!
Cool! Thanks! When you finish my fanfics, you might be interested in my ORIGINAL fiction, "Star Sons - Dawn of the Two" which you can order on BarnesandNoble.com or Amazon.com - just search for "Lynda Sappington" (that's me) and you'll find it. You can read a sample chapter at www.whimsyhill.com.
Thanks for writing!
Abraxan
Why the HECK does harry have a beard!
To look different - and have you seen the pictures of Dan Radcliffe with a beard? Harry would look quite handsome in one - just like Dan! :D
Abraxan
The pain being worth it if he ended up taller than Malfoy had me laughing. Love the idea of the fire. While Pirate Harry is briefly entertaining, I hope he doesn't keep the beard or he'll end up giving Ginny whisker burn.
Mabye Ginny LIKES whisker burn!! heehee. He'll keep it when he isn't in school. If you go to my Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPRefinersFire) and look in the photo files, you'll see a picture of Tom Welling (who plays "Clark Kent" in "Smallville" on the WB) with longer hair than usual and a beard - that's EXACTLY how I pictured the "grown" Harry (Tom's even 6'3!) So now there's a visual for just how tasty he'll be as a grown man. . .very tasty indeed! :-D
Abraxan
Hmmm...yummy. Definitely yummy. I've been trying to envision Harry's pirate beard since you first mentioned it in Time...I'll agree with Ginny. He's a lot more cheerful w/o his memories of Casey. This refiner's fire disease sounds neat, and I love the way you set it up, its symptoms, its history, its effect, its cure. Very cool
Well, it looks like Harry is over the worst of it. But, muggle or not, I still wish he'd ended up with Casey.
I'm in two minds about the Refiners Fire. One half of me likes the idea, telling me it's a good, believeable way of making Harry stronger, the other half tells me it's contrived and unrealistic. I'm going to ignore the other half, I think. Hell, it's not even half. More like the dissenting, unsatisfiable, cynic within me. Who's not a fun person. I've not seen something like this done before (or if I have, it's ripping you off), and it was written very well. It sounds incredibly painful, and is a good way of giving Harry incredible powers without being too easy, or a cop-out. Ok, that's my scrambled thoughts for another chapter.
The Refiner's Fire idea is based on how gold is refined - you melt the raw gold and skim off the impurities, leaving the pure gold behind. It seemed a good way to "evolve" Harry's magic.
Yeah, I imagine there are folks out there ripping off my ideas - I've seen my stories uploaded to sites with other people's names on them as author - uploaded verbatim!! I let the sites know and the people were banned, but one person did it over and over and over on various sites, but my readers caught him/her every time and I nailed him/her as soon as I heard about it. That particular person finally stopped, but good grief!!! What a pain!
Thanks for writing!
Abraxan