The Years We Were Alive: Year 1

Description and Intro

Hi, y'all. 

This'll be a bit more of an intro, hopefully, it'll tell you a bit more about the story!

First and foremost, the goal of this is to be as canon as possible. Adding in a character inherently means that it is not, but I do want to try to get the rest as I'm not trying to rewrite the books! There are things that don't exist in canon and are up to interpretation. For example: what the heck happened with Remus' parents? Well, I wrote his own little story for that!

This is going to cover their lives from 11 until the last marauder dies. The point of view is of my added character, but there will be moments of shift to other characters. I wanted to write this in the same style as the original books. Meaning, that it is third person, but focusing on my main character. There are also letter clippings and the like just like the series.  

Lizzie, my added character is American. Now, I love y'all British people reading this story, but I have seen too many instances of American writers being flamed and mocked for their lack of knowledge of the UK. Since I am American, this is how I will get around that. I will use my inserted character as an excuse to make mistakes because I definitely will, I'm not perfect. If you catch a mistake or even any suggestions, tell me! I'd love to hear feedback on how I can do better!

The plan right now, is that as I write chapters I will post them here (maybe update on a schedule). Then, once I finish off Year 1, I will go through, do a big edit fest, and then fix the chapters on here. I will be adding the entire story to AO3 once the final conclusion has been reached. 

I am doing it this way because I am nervous about the prospect of having to update. I have found in the past that when I strive for updates, it isn't very good, so this is my way of making sure that I write because I want to and not to reach a quota. I figure the best way to do that while satiating my need to have my stuff posted is to cross-post once I am finished. 

I hope you enjoy it!

About me:

I am 20 years old, and American as I said. I read the Harry Potter books originally when I was a kid (I can't remember what age really!) and I've re-read the books maybe a dozen times since that. 

Over this past summer (2021) I re-read the books again, and became sucked back into my favorite form of escapism! I made a Harry Potter TikTok where I cosplay as Hermione and make other TikToks. I'm currently working towards some ideas for cosplaying Sirius. 

Then I decided that I wanted to write about it. I have written Harry Potter fanfiction before, but it was always a bit weird. My biggest gripe with my past stories were my self insert characters. Now, I love a good character insert, I like the dynamics it adds to the story, and I adore seeing how the known characters would interact with new characters. I do not, however, like self insert characters all that much. Lizzie Davies is based on a few people. My best friend whom I think about every single day of my life, they are my soul and my last brain cell. Lizzie really is mostly them, because Lizzie is the person I wish to be, and my best friend is the person I wish to be. She's also roughly based on Hermione. And she's based on an original character I have been cooking up for a while now. 

As I said, I am 20 years old. I am currently attending college to receive a Bachelor's degree in history so that I can teach secondary history classes! I'm very excited to be a teacher! My family always tells me that I should be an English teacher. They know how much I love to write, but I can't explain away where my passions lie. 

My cat is my baby and my life. (Spoiler for the chapter: Birthdays) and she is the reason I had the boys give Lizzie a cat for her birthday. I don't think the cat will pop up too much because the original Harry Potter books tended not to use the animals all too much when they didn't have a direct use (ie, there aren't really many scenes of Crookshanks just being pet, the cat is always working towards the plot!

Also also! I do not support J.K. Rowling. This is a safe space for trans people. I do not support terfs, and I think her behavior is absolutely abhorrent. 

I am posting this on November 14, 2021. I will hopefully be posting the first chapter within the week :)