My Father's Only Rule || DRACO MALFOY X SNAPE'S DAUGHTER

Thank You And Farewell

*read to the end for a surprise*

Hello Lovelies,

I started writing this story on December 12th, 2022. I wrote the entirety of Part One (year four) in the span of one week. It ended up being 25 chapters plus the prologue which added up to 28 thousand words. I was utterly astonished to have written that much in a mere seven days. I finished writing it on August 9th, 2024. Clearly, the other three books took much longer to write. And now, my completed story stands at 130 thousand words, a total of 117 chapters, written in four parts, over the span of one year and 8 months. Today (November 12th, 2024) is my 20th birthday, and it seems only fitting that my posting schedule allowed me to publish the ending to my story today of all days, as I feel like it's perfect to capture the page I am about to turn in my own life.

When I started writing, I didn't have an end goal in mind. If it isn't evident by now, I am a huge Draco Malfoy girlie, and when Dracotok was popular back in 2020, you better believe I was all over those fanfics. And when I was a senior in high school, it loomed in my mind that I was also a "seventh year" at Hogwarts, and a season of my life was coming to a close. A tradition we have in our family is that we go to Universal studios in the summer, and we pretend we're back to school shopping in Diagon Alley. When my brother turned eleven, we even took a special trip after he got his "Hogwarts acceptance letter." We even interacted with some of the staff as if we were real Hogwarts students. Our trips to Harry Potter world are more of a LARPing experience. So when I started writing this fanfiction during my senior year, it was really just an excuse to finally put myself in a story I loved so much- and date the guys I wanted for once in my life.

I definitely modeled Grace after myself, and I'm well aware of how cringey that is. I wanted to give myself a story in the world I desperately wished I could be a part of. I never intended for the story to actually be thematic. It was just fun. I made everything up as I went. But overtime, the story slowly started to fall together on its own, revealing it could actually be more than just what I wrote to fantasize about being a Hogwarts student. I realized that Grace Snape was on the search for her identity and her place in this world.

Not to mention, it's been great writing practice, and it's taught me so much about being a writer. About halfway through Part 2 (Fifth year) as I was writing a scene between Grace and Jane, I realized then and there that Jane would die in the Battle of Hogwarts. Did I want this? Of course not. It was just an intuition. Then other things would come to me, like how I knew I wanted Grace's perception of her father to change when she saw his memories, but I didn't know how. It wasn't until I was writing the scene before did I feel the need to suddenly spark an argument between Grace and Draco, in which Grace has a realization that she has her father's traits. I felt like I was realizing it at the exact moment Grace did. That set the stage for Grace's mind to be changed after looking in the pensieve. Throughout all four parts, pieces of the story came together on their own while I was writing off nothing but intuition. "Well I can't explain why, but this needs to happen here." Four chapters later, "Oh, that ties in perfectly to what I wrote in the other chapter!"

Throughout this experience, I learned that being a writer is not always making the story, but simply telling it. I feel like this isn't my story. I feel like this is a story that already exists, and I'm simply the messenger. I didn't create this story, I simply told you what happened. I didn't kill Jane, I simply told you that she died. I didn't break Grace and Harry up, I simply told you that it happened. In the words of Simon Hastings from Modern Family, "The words are all out there, I just arrange them in a financially rewarding way." Except I've yet to be paid for any of my writing, but you get the idea. The story was out there already, all I did was tell it.

The point I'm trying to make in this very long statement that I'm sure none of you will read, is that this story was never supposed to be what it became. It was just my guilty pleasure, until I realized that Grace had a lot to learn, and I had to teach it to her. I didn't realize until I was writing part 4 (year 7) that Grace was searching for identity. When I realized that, only then did all her decisions finally made sense to me, even though I wrote them. I knew in the end she had to find her place, and she did. When Narcissa tells her and Draco that they must rebuild the Malfoy name, she finally feels like she's where she's supposed to be. She must work to restore and redefine what it means to be Malfoy, and she must do it the way that only she can as the last Snape, bringing her father's influence into the Malfoy legacy.

For a story that was never supposed to have any kind of moral, I think it ended up being a very relatable story for any of us who are searching for where we belong. We often try to find it by giving ourselves as many options as possible, even ones that contradict each other, just like Grace did. As a believer, I like to pick one bible verse to represent each work I write to capsure the theme I hope to get across to my readers. What I hope to get across is that your searching for belonging, succeeding and failing, and chapters in your life will all add up to perfectly reveal your purpose on earth. And as I reflect on the end of this journey with Grace Snape, only one verse comes to mind.

"Perhaps this is the moment for which you were created." Esther 4:14

Mischief Managed,

Lauren

As a birthday present to myself, I ordered a hardback book-binded copy of this story. Legally I cannot sell these for profit, but I would be more than happy to send anyone a FREE copy of it- just message me!