With this week’s leak of J.K. Rowling’s pen name (one of them, at least), I thought it would be fun to share a lively piece of fan fiction. It’s one blogger’s re-written epilogue to the Harry Potter series. The writer’s name is Ailsa Martin, and her preamble to the alternate epilogue reads:
“So, we all know that the epilogue of the unbearably good final Harry Potter book is unbearably disappointing. I find it spectacularly unsatisfying, so this what I like to imagine happened; a satisfying conclusion that ties up loose ends, nods at the emotional aftermath of traumatic events and closes some character arcs, unlike the official ending. I like to believe that Harry played Quidditch for England and became a teacher at Hogwarts. It’s his home. Eventually he will become Headmaster and live happily there for most of his life. He gets married to Ginny, who becomes the business manager of Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes and makes it an astonishing success with George’s help as the inventor. Ron becomes a nurse and then a stay-at-home dad. It turns out he has a talent for domestic magic, which he never discovered before because he’d never tried. Hermione will become the first female Minister for Magic and is extremely popular, and never compromises her principles. She succeeds in liberating the house elves. When she retires from politics, she writes the next generation of Hogwarts textbooks. Neville goes to wizard university to get a wizard PhD and becomes a world expert in aquatic magical plants. Luna just carries on with her brilliant self. Teddy Lupin turns out a good hearted guy with a lot of girlfriends and a dragon leather jacket. He rides Sirius’s flying motorbike. Hagrid stays exactly the same. No one is named Albus Severus.”
[Hey, Ailsa, at least no one is named Renesmee.]
The rest of Ms. Martin’s epilogue, written in story form, can be found here at her blog, The Seabird Monastery, and it made me so nostalgic I feel like re-reading the entire Harry Potter series. That’s pretty impressive for a piece of fan fiction! I don’t know Ailsa Martin, but I thoroughly enjoyed her take on the story and it makes me wonder if you ShelfTalker readers have alternate epilogue thoughts of your own, and if so, hope to see them in the comments!
Without even reading it yet (I will soon), I’m disappointed that the epilogue breaks one of the major rules of writing: Don’t introduce new information at the end of a story, so as not to cheat the reader. I’m talking specifically about Ron’s storyline. That comes completely out of left field, and there’s no basis for it in the books, that I can remember. Generally, it’s not a good idea to say, “He never knew it, but he had this talent all along and will use it henceforth, even though no sign of it showed up in the previous six and a half tomes.”
I’ll still read it to see how the rest goes, though. 🙂
It’s refreshing to hear something good about fan fiction. Sometimes all you hear about is the bad but there are some very talented upcoming writers who are now getting their start with fan fiction.
I’m curious. Out of the forty million alternate epilogues posted to the Internet over the last six years, why does PW link this one?
This is the only one I’ve read, Abra! And I liked it.
So much better. Much, much, much better. Thank you. I’ll just paste that into the back of my Deathly Hallows, shall I?