It took a while due to RL stuff (that I should post about another time), but I managed to make my monthly posting deadline!
For January,
in_the_blue requested the following: I want to know what's going on with Hex and Maeve and Peter. It can be a fic, or just things you've been thinking about them, or brainstorming. :)
I thought about writing a fic - even three fics, one per character journal - in response, but that didn't happen because I felt like I had a lot of ground to cover (in Hex's case) or didn't have a lot to write about (in Maeve and Peter's cases). Also, everything I did have was all jumbled up in my head.
So I made a spreadsheet!
Year
t
age
Hex
Maeve
Peter
1998
0
18
7th year (disrupted)
7th year (disrupted)
7th year (disrupted)
1999
1
19
7th / 8th year
7th / 8th year
7th / 8th year
2000
2
20
8th year / return to US
8th year; establishes cordial relationship with her mother's family; moves in with Maggie McGonagall
8th year / returns to family farm (brings father home from St. Mungo's?)
2001
3
21
majors in electrical engineering at MIT (Spring '01); works at Best Buy; begins working for the Federal Bureau of Magical Investigation (FBMI); graduates from MIT (Fall '04)
invests her inheritance (successfully); occasionally meets up with Peter, or crosses the Pond to visit Hex; Maggie marries Tiny (Hex's foster dad) and moves to the US
runs family farm; lands job drawing a comic strip for the Daily Prophet
2002
4
22
meets Blanche Malfoy
2003
5
23
2004
6
24
marries Blanche (?)
2005
7
25
establishes wizarding electronics business; works for FBMI on the side
son (Owen) born
2006
8
26
proposes to Maeve
gets engaged to Hex
2007
9
27
marries Maeve
marries Hex; moves to the US
Owen is ring bearer at Hex and Maeve's wedding (and keeps his clothes on)
2008
10
28
2009
11
29
son (Peter) born
son (Peter) born
2010
12
30
father (also Owen) dies
2011
13
31
2012
14
32
2013
15
33
2014
16
34
daughter (Crystal) born
daughter (Crystal) born
2015
17
35
2016
18
36
2017
19
37
daughter (Linnet) born
daughter (Linnet) born
2018
20
38
2019
21
39
2020
22
40
2021
23
41
2022
24
42
2023
25
43
2024
26
44
discovers Hex's secret FBMI sideline
I decided that they all went back, like Hermione, to finish their educations at Hogwarts. In Hex's case, he needed the credentials to go to college. (It's interesting that he wanted to go, despite not being a model student. Maybe Tiny talked him into it.) I imagine that McGonagall - Minerva, that is, not Maggie - called in some favors at the Salem Wizards' Academy, but Hex still needed to start a semester late. While attending MIT, he works at a Best Buy (preferably the one in Watertown, between Cambridge and Waltham!) and somehow falls in with the Federal Bureau of Magical Investigation. Maybe he does tech stuff and undercover work for them. (Obviously, Hex's story got fleshed out a lot when I went to grad school, and watched
Chuck :) Then later, he goes from being somewhat like Chuck to somewhat like Harry Tasker in
True Lies!) I think his wizarding electronics business might be the first of its kind in the wizarding world, so there's a lot of potential for him to become really successful later in life.
I drew a huge blank with Maeve - Dogstar incarnation aside, she didn't seem to be interested in anything enough to make a career out of it, except perhaps to live large on her interest income. At least she could keep herself busy making her money work for her? (I'm still trying to figure out what her hobbies are, besides reading.) I thought about involving her in Hex's wizarding electronics business, too, but going into business with your partner/spouse seems tricky so I am iffy on that.
(BTW, Hex and Maeve get married at the Finch-Fletchleys' estate in England - where that is exactly, I'm not sure yet. [Kent was pretty when I went there....] Maeve wore a medieval-style wedding gown - and electric blue lingerie underneath ;) There is a partially-written fic on this, and another about her bachelorette party, which had the Dogstar ladies in attendance.)
Peter seems to come from the part of me that just wants to hole up someplace quiet and work from home. I think he, Maeve, and Hex (and Blanche) will always be best friends and have a great time whenever they're together, but he doesn't seem to be as adventurous as his friends. Right now, he is perfectly happy working his family farm and drawing a successful comic strip featuring the animals of the Hogwarts houses. I'm torn between it being a cutesy comic strip or a darker one (with potential for graphic novels). I'm also not sure whether he should bring his father home from St. Mungo's after finishing at Hogwarts - it makes sense since Peter will be at the farm, and his dad isn't on life support - and about when Peter and Blanche will get married. They'll definitely stay committed to each other once they've decided that they want to be (and maybe even have more than one child), but I kind of like having a less conventional arrangement, even for just a while.
Of course, I also have stories about their kids, mostly about Petie and Crystal. Petie will go to school in the US (and play a major role in Hex and Maeve's True Lies storyline), but Crystal decides to go to Hogwarts. She won't run into Owen there - their ages don't match up - but I think she'll become very close to his family because who else will look after her while she's abroad?
The fine print: I thought I got "the Federal Bureau of Magical Investigation" from an SQ fic, but searching the site for that specific name didn't turn up anything. (I did rediscover B. Nonymous' work in the process, though!) I just thought I'd mention this in case someone else really did think of the name first, and I just couldn't remember who. Also, Blanche Malfoy belongs to
shellebelle93. RPing Peter and Blanche together was so much fun that I now find it very difficult to imagine his life without her in it.
Thanks for the prompt! It was a great opportunity to actually sit down and map out my OCs' life stories. :) I don't think they ever really left me, they just got overtaken by other characters demanding that their stories be written.
If anyone else would like to play, please comment
here if you want to suggest a monthly posting prompt for me!