firethesound: (Dr Who chucks)
cunning as a weevil ([personal profile] firethesound) wrote2014-07-13 03:42 pm

Claiming my Smoochfest fic

Title: All the Ashes Like Leaves
Wordcount: 21k
Summary: Nothing about being the Chosen One had prepared Harry for this. With most of the population blinded and man-eating plants running amok, he can only stay close to his friends as they make their way to safety. Not that he’d call Malfoy a friend, but the end of the world does rather make their ongoing feud seem trivial. And it just figures that it took nothing short of an apocalypse to make Malfoy seem like less of a git.
Rating/Warnings: R for Non-graphic violence and small amounts of blood. Off-screen death of minor characters. Swearing. AU Potterverse and a post-apocalyptic setting.
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.


Yep, so, this one's mine. I was sort of on the fence about doing Smoochfest, but this prompt really called to me. It's a remix of The Day of the Triffids, and both the book and movie versions of it have long been favorites of mine, and I was so thrilled that someone else out there loved it enough to prompt it that I pretty much had to take it. I dusted off my copy of the book and gave it a reread, and had so much fun plotting it out -- four pages of color-coded notes!

Then came actually writing it and that was... a learning experience, I guess I should say. I've never done a remix before and screwed up my first draft pretty bad by making the mistake of sticking far too close to the plot of Triffids instead of keeping it a Potter story first and foremost, as it should have been. My first draft was way longer, way darker and grittier and much more violent, my characterization was sort of wonky, and Draco didn't even show up until 15k into the story. A great big THANK YOU to [livejournal.com profile] catplusfox for being ruthless in calling me out on all of it and basically pointing out that the best way to fix it all would be a complete rewrite. And then, because she's the best person in the world, she stayed up all night with me while I rewrote it and listened to me flail every ten minutes. Literally, every ten minutes. Cat, as always, you're far more than I deserve, and without you I probably would have given up and gone to go cry in the corner or something. The wonderful [livejournal.com profile] barefacedbandit also deserves a huge thank you, for being so gracious when I dropped this on her for a Britpick at the eleventh hour. Darling, I seriously owe you one.

The final version of this story is something I'm pretty satisfied with, despite all the trouble I had with getting it started. All the hugs in the world to everyone who read and commented and recced. I was sort of expecting people to take one look at it and go, "Man-eating plants? Post-apocalyptic AU? wtf, no thanks!" and once again I have underestimated you all. One day I'll stop doing that. <3
birdsofshore: (curlew)

[personal profile] birdsofshore 2014-07-13 07:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay, well done you. I've heard great things about this. Takes some guts to do a big rewrite like that and lovely to hear the support that you got when working on it <3
gracerene: (HP: Glasses)

[personal profile] gracerene 2014-07-13 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I love post-apocalyptic AUs and I hadn't read that many in HP, so I was so excited to read this one! I loved what you came up with!

And of course, now I've added The Day of the Triffids to my ever-growing to-read list!

[identity profile] catplusfox.livejournal.com 2014-07-13 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
I will always associate this time period with fond memories of 'plant vagina', poor Neville, the coincidental/underwhelming meteor shower, and "Iron Fists." ^__^
nia_kantorka: (Default)

[personal profile] nia_kantorka 2014-07-13 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm currently working on reading all the smoochfest fics I didn't have so far. This will be the next. I'm disappointed about myself that I missed yours yet. Can't wait for it. Love apocalyptic stories.
Edited 2014-07-13 20:57 (UTC)

[identity profile] this-bloody-cat.livejournal.com 2014-07-13 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
That story made me so happy! :) I don't actually know that book, but I love post-apocalyptic tales -- the fight for survival, the disquieting atmosphere, the adventure ♥♥♥ And somehow there's not much of that in this fandom (or maybe in fanfiction in general? Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places?) Eh, I don't know, and I digress because what I actually meant to say was that this was LOVELY, and delightfully refreshing, and I'm ridiculously glad you've written it :')

[identity profile] dustmouth.livejournal.com 2014-07-14 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
Oh your story really was one of my absolute favourites from the fest. I love that you did a re-write, the fact that you managed to fit one unvierse inside of another was one of the most brilliant things.

[identity profile] dicta-contrion.livejournal.com 2014-07-14 05:21 pm (UTC)(link)
This was so fantastic. It's totally made me want to read the original. It's also one of those fics that's just stayed with me; I have such strong mental images of them fighting their way out of London, of their escape from the car, of Draco slyly pulling lube out of his pocket, of the plants themselves. I'm not in the least surprised that you're behind such evocative images. Really, this was a total pleasure to read. ♥♥
capitu: (sultry)

[personal profile] capitu 2014-07-14 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
This was amazing, amazing! I finished reading and all I wanted was MOAR.

[identity profile] kedavranox.livejournal.com 2014-07-14 10:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I loved this fic. Did I comment on it?
I'm a dick.