Chapter 57: Harry Potter and Tom Marvolo Riddle (1/2)
If you want to read ahead, you can check out my Patreón @
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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AUTHOR'S NOTE REGARDING THE DIRECTION OF THIS STORY.
Read if you don't like the now dubbed COLORS ARC.
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I will be honest, I wasn't expecting that much of a push back against this concept. But after I thought about it I realized that the other stories have betrayed you guys because of something similar happening and then things going south.
To the readers who don't know about me that much, I would like to tell you guys that I am not one of those deep-thinking authors who can churn out storylines so unique that it stands out from the canon plot.
I love the canon timeline. I like to stick to the source material.
You guys saw how I remove Ginny as the Horcrux host, but then a few chapters later, I brought the storyline back to close to the canon by Mrs. Norris' petrification.
The canon plot gives me comfort, which I really like.
The 'cursed vault' wasn't even my idea. I discovered the existence of the cursed vaults in the games from a Discord member/fellow writer.
I admit I adapted it so that Quinn could do his own thing because I remember a reader telling me that Quinn and the story would become a slave to the canon plot at this rate.
This turned out to be good as I was able to spend an entire volume/story-year away from the plot with just a few intersections. Perfect for that point of the story.
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Now, we came to this year (Quinn's third year/Canon second year/Chamber of Secrets.)
I introduced the COLORS arc (I am using this now). The response is not so great.
A lot of readers said that this ruined the story for them. That it is cliche, overused, and doesn't make sense.
But, please take a moment as I bring to your attention the key features of this story.
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First is that Quinn is a pragmatic character (thank you @passive for using this adjective to describe Quinn). But a lot of you thought that because of the colors I am derailing the character because he is being influenced.
I would like to assure you guys that Quinn won't be going overboard. He would do things that are slightly out of character, but they won't be things like rāpé or torture or any other over-the-top things. The only time you guys might feel a little discomfort from his actions would come in the CLIMAX (a two-chapter simultaneous release.)
You don't have to worry about him going bat shit crazy and switching to the dark side. A lot of you may even like the things he will do under the influence of the colors.
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The second feature of this story is the steady progression of Quinn's power level.
This is one of the top-selling points if not the best-selling point of this story. It doesn't help me and the story if I throw it away.
He is not OP from the get-go; he works for the power he gains. I am not looking to kick him up the power chart in one fell swoop by using the colors because in the last two chapters you can see that the colors are improving his magic.
There is a twist during the CLIMAX. But that DOESN'T means that it would be NERF.
I may sometimes like to read stories without ups and downs, adversity, and trials, but I don't enjoy writing them. I showed it last year when he almost froze to death.
So, I would like to say that this isn't my way to give a huge power boost to Quinn.
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This isn't a feature, but a complaint that Quinn shouldn't come under the influence of colors because he has occlumency.
But, I haven't even told you guys the magic behind the colors. True, it has a major mental/mind portion, but even then, I have explained nothing about what the rune circles down in the vault did to Quinn.
The reason why he is under influence despite occlumency? I already mention ½ (half) of the reason already. It just needs the other ½ (half) so that it would click in the minds of the readers and make you pop out a reaction like 'Ah, that is why.' (At least I hope so.)
I will explain it later when Quinn manages to escape the colors.
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Now, the reason why I choose to add COLORS ARC to this story.
At first, it was just an idea I thought was good and entertaining. But as I wrote, @passive (big brain helper) told me that the vaults should help Quinn gain/learn something.
He told me that when the founders built Hogwarts, their main motive was to teach young ones about magic. Even though the DADA, History of Magic, Muggle Studies, and Divination doesn't reflect that motive, the main objective of Hogwarts is to impart knowledge.
So, I decided that I would try to write the story in such a way that every vault would be a way for Quinn to grow not only as a magic-user but also as a person.
It is my way of telling that Hogwarts did help Quinn grow as a person. That him giving the school seven years of life isn't going to waste.
I didn't think this while writing the Icy vault, but still, Quinn gained perseverance and caution from it because he didn't give up even after he almost died. And caution so that he won't make hasty mistakes.
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This vault and the colors are actually a major/good/important point in the storyline as it allows me to answer a few unanswered questions from the very first volume (Pre-Hogwarts: If any of you guys noticed the name of this volume you would have known that the choice between Hogwarts and Beauxbaton was an illusion.)
The aftermath which will come in the summer after the school year will give you guys a chance to know Quinn a lot more. It will be serious character development that will allow you to connect to Quinn.
(You guys can level up with Quinn too! For reference check out the image in the paragraph comment. Refresh if you can't see it.)
This volume also gives me the chance to tie up some loose ends and gives me the ability to create some new loose ends that I can tie up later in the story.
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And finally, I can't snap this arc out of existence because I have 7 chapters in my stack out of which 5 chapters are on Patreón, and the remaining two are for rainy days.
So, if you really don't want to read this arc, I would suggest that you start stacking up chapters so that you can blaze through them in one sitting and don't have to sit through something you guys don't enjoy every single day till this is over.
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And last but not the least, I would again reassure you that Quinn would be back to his dandy self by the end of this volume/year. In fact, he would be better as I would have injected a booster shot of character development.
I would iterate something I stated in the Aux chapter of this novel.
”Let's start something new, hoping it would turn out into something enjoyable.”
So, give this content a chance, and I hope that this novel would stand up to your expectations.
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THE ABOVE MESSAGE WAS FROM THE AUTHOR -- FictionOnlyReader.
THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE IS FROM THE PERSON BEHIND FictionOnlyReader.
Click this paragraph comment to read the message.
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|| START OF THE STORY || - You guys didn't want colors, so you won't get in this one.
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”You are an idiot!” yelled Ivy, glaring at her brother, who was looking away from her. ”You hissed at people in the library. Everybody there heard you hissing.”
She tore a handful of grass from the ground and threw it at him, ”What were you thinking?!”
”I wasn't thinking, alright!” barked Harry, cleaning the blades of grass from his clothes, ”They were being stupid, so I just did it to scare them.”
”They are already plenty scare of you,” scoffed Hermione, looking at the Black Lake in the distance.
The castle had become a little too stuffy for Harry. So the gang decided to take a walk. Spending their time outside, away from the eyes of everyone in the castle.
”I don't understand what is wrong with everyone,” Ron chimed in, lying in the grass, ”Harry isn't the Heir of Slytherin. I am sure that it is that git, Malfoy. Just look at him; he hates muggle and muggleborns.”
”And, if he had held his tongue for a few more days,” said Ivy, pointing at Harry, ”Then the Polyjuice potion would have allowed us to get some information. Do you know how difficult it is to move around the castle with eyes following you everywhere?”
From the looks of it, Ivy was more worried about this situation than Harry. While the girl twin was pulling her hair in frustration, the boy twin was silently brooding.
Harry decided he needed some time alone, away from Ivy's occasional glares and Hermione's quips. He stood up from his spot, ready to leave.
”Now, where are you going?” asked Ivy.
”I just need some time alone,” replied Harry, brushing his clothes, ”Don't follow me.”
Ivy tried to stop him, but Harry ignored his sister and walked away from his friends, deciding to return to the castle.
This wasn't how he wanted his second year to go. Last year, he had spent worrying about Snape and how he was trying to steal Philosopher's stone, but in the end, it turned out it wasn't Snape, but Voldemort stuck to the back of his Defense Against Dark Arts, Quirrell.
An entire year of his scar hurting, occasional headaches, and burning pains were stressful for him. Not to mention he had almost lost his sister to a Troll (she would disagree).
Thinking about his second year, Harry had hoped to be free of situations like these and hoped that it would be a carefree year with no extraordinary events, but it wasn't in his luck.
Even before his year started, Harry had met with an oddity, a house-elf by the name of Dobby, who warned him not to go to Hogwarts this year, talking about a danger that awaited him, but Harry had ignored the elf's ramblings and thought little about them.
At the start of the year, he and Ron had been blocked from entering platform nine and three-quarters. They had flown to Hogwarts in Ron's father's car. Which, in foresight, was an idiotic decision.
A decision that had almost gotten him expelled. Harry's mum had scolded him for hours and had been angry with him for a couple of weeks. Even his usual chill dad had been furious at Harry because multiple muggles had noticed the car flying in the sky.
Not to mention that the Whomping Willow had almost killed them by crushing the car while they were inside it. He and Ron got dirty looks from professor Sprout because of the damage to the tree by the car.
His new Defense Against Dark Arts didn't turn out like he imagined and taught them nothing and just made them recreate the scenes from his books and had them write poems about him and his achievements. His detentions with Lockhart were a menial work of replying to fan letters. And listening to him ramble on how to get famous and earn fame.