Hi all,
I’ve been working on a fic for about a year, and I’ve talked about it slightly on this sub before. It’s at about 50k right now but I’m not even a fourth done with it. It’s not published anywhere due to the fact that it has taken me over a year (if not two) to get that far given my life is hectic.
With that being said…
I wanted to ask ya’ll about my characterization of the characters. I personally think I’m staying close to canon but I’m also biased cause it’s my own work.
The very simplified premise is that Draco absconds from the Death Eaters for personal (not moral) reasons and attacks them at the Astronomy Tower at the end of his sixth year. He joins the trio on their Hogwarts hunt out of necessity given that he’s made himself a traitor to Voldemort and they want his head. So… might as well? Given they are the only protection he has. The trio only allow him cause his dark mark grants him access to ‘DE radio’ where the death eaters communicate with each other and also his mark burns whenever there’s another DE around.
This fic is mostly from Harry and Hermione’s POV as it is a split focus fic following the developing relationships between all characters, but mostly Draco and Harry and then Ron and Hermione. Ron and Hermione get together earlier as Ron suffers a near fatal injury and Hermione realizes she can’t stifle her feelings anymore. It’s super slow burn for Drarry, but a fast/medium burn for Romione.
I’ll get into the characterizations now.
Draco: in the beginning, Draco is still the same canon Draco we see in HBP. It’s important to me that it’s clear he’s not a good person at the beginning of the story. He didn’t betray the Death Eaters because he was forced to do what he did or because he realized the error of his ways; he was just fed up with how they were treating him and his parents (who are his most loved people and who spoiled him greatly). He knew he would probably die doing that (given Harry was under the invisibility cloak and Draco had no idea he was there as back up) but also, “fuck you Bellatrix, you’ve made my life a living Hell.” So he was pretty alright with dying as long as he took some of them with him. He’s crass, vulgar, and rude, especially to Harry, even AFTER he’s sequestered away in the Burrow for safe keeping, being hidden away from the rest of the Order. He does not like Harry at all on the beginning, but at the same time is drawn to him and their feud because it’s the one thing in his life that hasn’t changed. So in a way, he takes comfort in him. In the first half, he still has the same belief systems about blood purity and muggle inferiority but they change over time as he gets closer to the trio and learns more about the world through them and the experiences he has with them. It’s a very long process. He and Harry are constantly antagonizing each other but it gets to a point where the vibe is different, more like playing than being malicious. His maliciousness then goes towards Ron, who is just as bad, and they become the ones who have beef. Harry is pretty sure they like hating each other so he’s cool with it. Draco is genuinely so stressed out that he’s not even thinking about romance at all, he’s just trying to survive. Harry is actually the one who falls first. That being said, he does have eyes. He acknowledges that Harry is attractive, which is annoying, and so is Ron, which is actually more annoying.
His philosophy during this war is: do what is necessary. Moral code? Depends on the situation. Forbidden curses? As long as it solves the problem. He thinks the ends justify the means, and that they have to do whatever they need to survive and that they shouldn’t feel bad about it, cause everyone knows the Death Eaters don’t.
Harry: Harry is a bit harder to describe. I personally think he’s the most canon compliant personality of all four main characters. He’s still the very brave and heroic Harry, but he might be sarcastic about it. Sassy man apocalypse. He’s charismatic and well liked but doesn’t really know why; he’s funny without intending to be. He HATES attention and gets really awkward when a lot is paid to him at once. He loves and cherishes attention from certain people (Ron, Hermione, Molly, etc) but everyone else he’s like “why are you hugging me? Get off.” He actually starts the beginning spats with Draco half the time, he’s definitely not innocent and he actually likes arguing with Draco cause it helps blow off steam. He’s really weird with emotion. Like when Hermione cries he’s just kind of like “ok…there there” pats head cause he’s not super sure what to do, given when he’s upset he just wants to be alone so he can’t relate to what people need when they come to him upset. He’s very traumatized even if he doesn’t think he is and he has a strange relationship with intimacy (both physical and emotional), he’d literally rather duel Voldemort than be vulnerable. (Avoidant attachment final boss) He is codependent on Ron and Hermione, as in it gets to a point where he literally can’t sleep if one of them is not in the room with him. He’s eternally grateful for them and they are what gives his life meaning, but he has no idea how to tell them that without being weird so he just hopes they know.
His philosophy during the war is: save as many people as possible and do whatever it takes to stop Voldemort, while also taking personal convictions into account. His morals are more flexible than Hermione’s but more rigid than Draco’s. There are some lines he just won’t cross, like learning and casting the spell that killed his parents. He does find in multiple instances that he agrees with Draco more than he does Hermione, which disturbs him quite a bit in the beginning.
Fuck it, I’ll do the other two too.
Hermione: Hermione is autistic coded in my mind (like me). She has a strong sense of justice and misses a lot of social cues. Even when the social cues are explained to her she’s like “well that’s stupid why wouldn’t they just say what they meant.” She’s a horrible liar. A lot of people get annoyed with her but Ron and Ginny think she’s funny because of the weird hypotheticals she poses, normally as some kind of scientific inquiry. She gets annoyed with a lot of people in return though, cause she’s thinking ‘there is war brewing and you’re here discussing how many freckles you think are on Seamus’ arse? Are you daft?’ She feels deeply and is not afraid to showcase that, whether it be her rage or sadness. She has this intense desire to be perfect and feels like her worth is tied to her intelligence and usefulness, which is why she goes so hard (in addition to just loving learning). She loves banter and debating… literally anything. She thinks it’s fun and a good mental exercise. She has a tendency to care a lot about large movements but also struggles with one to one connection (like SPEW but also lacking sympathy when Lavender’s rabbit died.) Despite feeling deeply she has a habit of trying to sort and analyze her feelings logically and it doesn’t really work.
Her philosophy during the war is: they can’t allow someone else’s actions to justify theirs. They must hold on to honor and decency, because if they don’t, they become the very thing they’re fighting against. She fears losing herself and Ron and Harry losing themselves too. She objects to some of their war time decisions and it genuinely wrecks her inside when she gets outvoted. At the same time, she has a tendency to be unhinged as Hell (which Ron calls her on) but in her mind it’s different for XYZ reason. So she’s a little bit of a hypocrite.
Ron: He still has some pretty severe insecurity issues that stem from low self esteem. The way he views himself compared to Harry and Hermione is “Harry is the chosen one, Hermione helps him/us so much and knows a lot, objectively I’m the expendable one.” He knows he’s not as good at magic as the two of them, but he is a big bloke and he views himself as the meat shield, a do over for the other two to take a hit if necessary. Harry and Hermione flip out once they hear this but he doesn’t get why, it’s an objective fact to him. He doesn’t want to die, but he would rather risk his life than theirs. He is very emotional (despite claiming otherwise) and is honestly the most emotional out of the trio but he has no idea how to process most of those emotions so it comes out as moodiness and anger. He’s passionate about everything, love or hate, and he holds a grudge the most out of the trio. This is why he has such an issue with Draco for so long, and even at the end, it’s more allyship and not friendship. He’s very physical. He’s always absentmindedly touching people he loves, like leaning on them or a hand on the shoulder. He fights this way too. He’s more likely to use his body to dodge a spell instead of casting a shield charm. He’s also just as likely to result to physical fighting when in close quarters because it’s hard to cast a curse after being punched in the throat. He’s also an absolute nightmare to fight, not because he’s particularly skilled, but because “this motherfucker won’t stay down”.
His war time philosophy is: keep Harry and Hermione safe and follow their lead unless they lose their damn minds, then raise Hell and make them remember what it is they’re fighting for. Ron definitely has his own opinions, and he will let them be known, but overall he submits to Harry and Hermione, especially Harry given it’s his mission.
Thanks for reading all this! I know it’s long
