EXTRAS - An Unbreakable Bond

BTS - Researching Characters

I'm currently having to completely rewrite the next chapter of the fanfiction, which is why there has been a delay in posting. As I am conscious that it has been a while since the last update, I figured I would give you a little "behind the scenes" info in the meantime.

Today I wanted to talk about when this fanfiction is set, and how I've chosen which characters will appear, and when. I wanted to talk about this because I recieved a comment a while ago asking if, because Molly is in the fanfiction, we would be seeing the Marauders, too.

Molly Weasley was born on 30th October in EITHER 1949 or 1950. I chose to have her born in 1950, so that she would be in the same school year as other characters, who are born in 1951 (for example, we know that Rita Skeeter is born in 1951).

The Marauders' birthdays are as follows:
Sirius Black: 3rd November 1959
Remus Lupin: 10th March 1960
James Potter: 27th March 1960
Peter Pettigrew: sometime in 1960

So, as they are born almost 10 years later than the students in Persephone's year, they will not be attending Hogwarts with them. However that's not to say they won't be in the fanfiction at a later date...(I'll say no more bc spoilers)

But let's move onto the topic this question made me want to talk about.

For many characters, like James, Sirius and Remus we have exact birth dates. For others, like Molly, we have a rough year. And for some, like Rita and Peter, we have only the year of their birth.

However, there are many characters that we know even less about.

A prime example of this is Frank Longbottom. We know nothing about when he was born.

However, we do know that, when Neville was born in 1980, he was already an Auror. We also know that it takes three years of training to become an Auror, which is obviously done after you leave Hogwarts. In the UK, you can leave education at the age of 18. So add three more years and Frank would've had to be 21, at the very youngest, to become an Auror. 1980 - 21 = 1959.

On top of this, we know that Frank defied Voldemort at least 3 times ("thrice defied"), so must have been an Auror for a while before having Neville. Also it's possible that he didn't train as an Auror immediately after leaving Hogwarts, so there it's possible to add on another few years to allow for both those factors. Therefore, him being born in 1951 is not unreasonable.

I have followed a similar format to work out the ages of many other characters you'll see in this fanfiction. I say this now, as in the next chapter you're going to be introduced to many other characters and I thought it might be useful for you to know how I've placed them in the same year.

As you can see, I try to do a lot of research for this fanfiction, in order to make it as accurate as possible. That, as well as the length of the chapters I put out, is why I'm not able to constantly update this fanfiction every single day, like some people are able to.

In theory, I could break the chapters down into little ones, however I feel like that would be too "jumpy" and I personally like being able to write and post longer, more in-depth chapters. I've also planned the whole story out like a proper little book series, which sounds kinda weird but honestly it's amazing what you can do when you procrastinate! And although I've planned it out and have a lot of chapters already written I've found I often have to go back through and redo a few scenes again because I drafted them quite a while ago and they need updating, or I've changed my mind about something.

With that in mind, I'm going to try and post chapters as often as I can but please don't hate me if some take a little longer than others to come out. In fact, at least you know if one is taking a little while to be posted, you know I'm working extra hard on it to make it more enjoyable to read.

If you want things in between chapters, add this book to your library as I'll be posting updates and little extras here that won't go in the main book. Also, follow me on twitter (SpellsAndBeasts) because I'll often post about what I'm writing at that moment, as well as giving you the chance to decide what happens to characters in polls!

See you soon with another update!
- Emily :)