On the Implications of a Problem · 6:21pm Mar 31st, 2020
Yeah, I'll admit, I'm having too much fun with the 'On the Implications of ___' title. But so?
Thing is, I have a small problem. I had an idea for On the Implications of Parallel Worlds last night, and discussed it with my editors... but I'm still not decided. Thing is, I want to somehow show the darkness of Rowling's world (not just Voldemort), without relying on canon materials to do that for me. Because, if I show that darkness, I also give the good- and the light- a chance to shine through, to prove its worth. The idea I've come up with, that would tend to draw attention fairly quickly, would be a muggleborn student getting disowned by their parents at the Leaky Cauldron.
The problem is... for it to be more than a one-off notion that gets forgotten and has no real effect on the story, this darkness needs to affect one of my main characters- or at the very least, supporting cast. And, as near as I've been able to tell, there are exactly two canon muggleborn in Harry's year: Justin Finch-Fletchley, who I'm not familiar enough with to even begin to write... and Hermione.
And giving Hermione parents that would disown her would completely destroy her character- something I'm not willing to do, at all.
On the other hoof, I had an idea for how to solve that.
You see, Hermione's parents are dentists. Both of them. What happens when they're both working? Do they leave an 11-year-old child alone in the house? Chances are, no. They get a babysitter.
So what would happen if her parents were there when she got her letter, discussed, and agreed that she could go... then whichever staff came to help them showed up while they were both at work, and the babysitter present?
Normally, nothing special would happen. The staffmember would likely be asked to come back on another day, when one or more of her parents would be available, and given a date on which to do so.
But what if that babysitter were malicious? Pretended to be Hermione's parent, all the way up to the Leaky Cauldron... then abandoned them, and "disowned" the girl despite not having the authority to do so? And of course, left the oven on or something, such that the house burned down before Hermione- or her parents- returned, hence preventing them from reuniting?
What if Hogwarts, the Equestrians, and so on, were unable to find her parents? For, say, a year, or more? Yet, Hermione's letters were able to make it to her parents via Muggle Post (because of course they filed a change of address)... but their responses could never make it back to her?
Yes, I would have to void a few layers of popular fanon (mostly in the self-updating paperwork department) to pull it off, and at least a little bit of canon too, from what I hear. But, if I'm entirely honest, The Gate saw large numbers of complaints that I wasn't modifying the Harry Potter universe enough...
Such an event would span a large portion of the story, and make way for some very powerful worldbuilding and characterbuilding, both right off the bat and down the road. It would set the stage for the Equestrians to have a purpose in the human world, as well- a reason to stay, after they learned the secrets of wand manufacture and harvested all the textbooks. It would also, however, be somewhat of a departure from the tone of the story so far- and set a potentially very different tone than The Gate had.
What are your thoughts? To do, or not to do? And, if I may ask, why or why not?
Honestly, I think it's too easy of a trope to slip into. The whole 'personal trauma' leading into 'successful character' is very overdone in media.
And, as a DM & Tabletop player, I loath it when Depressingly Tragic Backstory or DM killed off important figure from character's background are in play. It makes players not have those backgrounds, not have connections that make the character feel more real.
The latter might have influenced the former statement.
Still. If a character has a background, use it to influence the story in ways that are, at best, moderately contrived. If a babysitter saw Hermione do something strange, and decided to go full mental-break, maybe they did burn the house down while Hermione was inside, miraculously unharmed. Maybe they tried to abscond with Hermione, but Hermione's a smart girl, she'd realize right quick something was likely going wrong. Perhaps she does a duck and roll out the car door and make a break from a kidnapper. Perhaps she apparates and has to spend a few days away from home while there's the equivalent of an amber-alert going on. (This could be your tie-in.)
If you do decide to go with Horribly Tragic Backstory, you might also consider that the character this happens to is more likely to be a failure at whatever they try to do. Being unsuccessful when the dice are in play and losing it all is a route that people with issues occasionally suffer from. And they might be able to hide it quite well up until that point. And no one saves them. Or maybe there's an irrational rage spike from them every once in a while with no unique provocation. Common thing to see in traumatized people who try to bury it deep inside.
There's a sad reason why people who've suffered trauma tend to be slowly ostracized from society.
I really don't like this. Parents are likely to get to know the baby sitter pretty well after a while. If they have been working, and having a baby sitter during the non-muggle-school time, then the only way this could be pulled off is if they had to change sitters, and this new one is new.
What year are you setting this in? If this is 1992 (original), maybe; if it's today, Hermione would have a cell phone to contact her parents in an emergency.
Finally, how hard would it be for Dumbledore to track down one muggle family?
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That's... a good argument against abandonment by parents. My question, though, would be: Would she be traumatized by being abandoned by someone that she didn't care for that much in the first place? Because she is smart, and she would know her parents still loved her... all she had to do was find them. Plus, she had someone else with her at the time: That staff member...
That said, seeing the house burned down when she got back (the sitter might have made a genuine mistake when heading out, and forgotten about the oven, or whatever else) would probably be pretty scary.
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Actually, the original story starts in 1991, not 92- that's Chamber of Secrets.
That said, this story takes place in 2021. And... while everyone and their brother seems to have cell phones these days, me and my siblings didn't have cell phones until we got jobs. Considering how much Hermione likes her books, and her social-cactus nature, I could see her either not having one... or forgetting it at home. And yeah, new babysitter would be about the only way to do that. Maybe the old one moved away...
As per how hard it could be, that's the part I'd have to introduce those changes to pull off. Who knows, they might've unknowingly purchased a Fidelus-ed home from the wizarding secret-keeper, who forgot about the charm... and had a post office box, rather than delivered mail, so it wouldn't be pointed out that way. Shipments would constantly be finding their way back to the delivery office, though, forcing them to go pick it up, and confusing them to no end (because it's right there, of course). That would certainly be an... interesting scenario. Which, funny enough, would tend to pull it off without violating those fanon & canon parts...
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For all that's touted that kids bounce back easily, they really don't. They can adapt quickly, even to trauma, but they don't understand coping mechanisms well at all. The best way they cope is generally that they tend to utterly forget about it.
If a kid figures out that you are doing something that they really don't want, they aren't going to be calm or rational about it. I don't see Hermione going very far along with the plan to take her away. I suppose it is possible, but babysitters are usually part of some sort of organization today, or a local friend. Neither of which is a hard trail to follow up on. I suppose there's always ad in the newspaper sort of way for the babysitter to have been introduced, but that seems a but underclass for the Grangers given their occupations.
On the house burning down bit, you have to think about it like this. For an adult, a house burns down, and it really sucks. Memories, items, money, all gone. A good percentage of their life is literally up in smoke. For child, especially an introvert, that's everything. +95%. They don't have the experience to realize that it's only just goods or money, it could very well be things that they've had and experienced from the week they were born. Traumatize accordingly. The kid gets bad feelings so wants their teddy-bear to make the bad feelings go away but it's gone too which makes more bad feelings, etc, etc. The parents don't want to even let the kid see the burnt down house as it's dangerous to be around and is painful for the parents to look at or think about so the kid themselves doesn't even emotionally understand why they can't get rid of the pain. It's right awful.
So, now I'll answer your question. Children have less memories than adults. This somewhat means that the passage of time, and the effects of new memories is more impactful on kids than it is on adults. Her parents still love her, but she was taken away from them a relatively long time ago. If she finds them soon, then she will likely be okay. If she doesn't, she might have difficulty reconnecting with them. If she blames an authority figure for taking her away from her parents, and another from not immediately taking her back to them, she might begin to generalize/resent them. It might not be logical, but more emotional, due to the stress.
would be a downright heartbreaking quote to hear from a child when reunited with their parents, who, up till that point, could do anything.
As a side note, the Wizarding World is seen to put a staggeringly huge emphasis on nuclear families. There's next to no chance, (in my opinion, not necessarily in jive with what you are thinking for the WW's culture), that they'd not pull out the stops in order for her to reconnect with her family. Malfoy, Dumbledore, Weasley, Crouch, Blacks, etc. The only three counterexamples are are Sirius, (who's the second to be killed off), Percy, (who's derided when he does so and celebrated when he returns), and Voldemort, (who's the main villain.)
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This is true.
And that said, I daresay it's decided. Doing this to her would do too much damage to Hermione's character- as such, she'll be going to Diagon Alley with her parents, not any sitters, the oven won't be left on, and she won't get abandoned. Just like canon... Well, not just like canon, because of course she's going to encounter somepony while she's there, right?
Things you might have her encounter while there:
1. Starlight. Seriously. Starlight is coming to see what's involved in doing the time magic for the next year to help everyone get set up. Hermione and Starlight might even get into a conversation about whether you should let people do their own thing, or if you should guide and help them. I mean, Hermione is trying to be a teacher to the other students (not very well, but she tries to guide them), and Starlight's whole "Our Town" was based around "I can guide you to greatness!".
Can you imagine the two of them, and the question, "If you know what's best for someone else, what's the proper action to take?". You wanted to do something with her parents, let them be in earshot.
I support this and im fine if you change the tone of the story. Its your story first of all. But also while i enjoyed the gate i feel this one is a definite step up from it and therefore much more serious.
The gate had serious parts, but overall it felt lighthearted to me. Here now, the new story doesn't feel lighthearted. It has parts that feel light but its not like the whole thing is.
It feels more like a stort rather than a comedy piece.
In the gate a lot of funny crazy stuff happened without no real rhyme or reason. In this story the funny stuff clearly has a reason and it just feels right.
Having darker parts of it is an excellent idea. Especially because this is about the ponies exploring the human world essentially and we're not perfect. They need to see the darkness and the darkness of harry potter.
Looking at the canon books again. The "darkness" of the HP world seems to be a mirror of the darkness of our own world.
The racial bigotry.
The Nazi-like behavior of the slytherins in wartime (book 7).
Heck, WW2 being the muggle side of Grindleward's war against Dumbledore. (That was Rowling, not Lesswrong, right?)
As much as HP books didn't seem consistent, remember it's basically the story of an isolated 11 year old finding a new world of stuff that he has no background in, and finding people in that world ... that are just like our world. The "My family is better than yours", the "I'm a serious student", the "I'm not taking things seriously yet, I'm only 11, and my older brothers teach me to be non-serious", the "My family was destroyed in the war", etc.
Teachers playing favorites?
Staff not being consistent with punishments?
Was Hermione right to wage a campaign for the rights of house elves, when they are basically magically-bound to be in service?
What could have happened between wizards and goblins to make the current state of goblin-run economy/bank and yet no actual power? Or was that just another example of ordinary workers having little to no actual power as they manipulate the goods owned by others?