hp fanfiction author. aebbe on AO3. i write long multi-chaps with multiple povs, complex and twisty plots, romantic ups and downs, family relationships and friendships, lots of extra world-building, and plenty of ocs. if those are your things too, come on in. ask me anything about my fics, i love to ramble see pinned post for fic info.
Most of my fanfiction all fits into the same FAULTLINES universe. It's canon-compliant with the original book series, and broadly with JKR's early, post-series revelations about the wider wizarding world and the next generation. I cherry pick from Pottermore and the films (including FB), but treat Cursed Child and all game-lore as non-canon.
Eventually Faultlines will run from Founder-era to the end of Next Gen. Currently it's post-war Trio Era, and 2020s Next Gen. It's a bit of a sprawling epic, with multiple smaller series arcs, and lots planned that isn't published yet. The individual fics all link into each other, but almost all are entirely readable as stand-alones.
It started life in about 2010 on ff.net, but the early incarnations were somewhat different from where it's ended up. Some bits have been pruned out, lots more have been added.
In this house we love a complicated plot, a fun OC or ten, and a whole lot of additional worldbuilding.
FAULTLINES FICS UP ON AO3:
SCARS: 1998-1999. Post-war Harry/Ginny, slowburn rekindling of the relationship. Trauma, healing, Quidditch kids, and an Auror investigation into missing children that leads Harry into Knockturn Alley and secret werewolf communities. Background Ron/Hermione. The first fic of the REGROWTH series. Complete at 24 chapters.
UNFORGIVABLE: 2022-2023. A Next Generation ensemble cast Hogwarts adventure, also featuring Auror Harry and the other parentals. New threats rise in the Wizarding World as Harry investigates the cursing of a young Muggle girl. Loads of teenage drama and nonsense, alongside sinister dark magic societies. First in the DARK LEAGUE series. Complete at 33 chapters.
THESE MORTALS: Late 2023. Sequel to UNFORGIVABLE. The reverberations of the emergence of the sinister League of Magic still run through Hogwarts, but Albus is just trying to juggle Head Boy duties, NEWTs, and akward feelings for his ex, while his family won't stop causing chaos all around him. Featuring Lucy Weasley's theatre club attempting to stage Shakespeare with a group of 11-13-year-olds. Second in the DARK LEAGUE series. Complete at 25 chapters.
YOUR WORLD: 2024. James Sirius/OC. James falls for a Muggle, who also happens to be the best friend of his worst enemy. Navigating new love, strange worlds, and the Statute of Secrecy, while dealing with the fact that he threw away the possibility of his dream Quidditch career. Other Next Gen in the background. Technically part three of the DARK LEAGUE series, but really a little tangent on its own. WIP, 12/18 chapters published.
A TASTE OF FAULTLINES FICS TO COME:
ASHES: 1999-2000. Harry/Ginny post-war. Sequel to SCARS. Part two of REGROWTH. Harry and Ginny are back together but life in the spotlight brings its own challenges. Magical politics, new careers, trying to change the world. Plus the re-emergence of an elusive villain Harry swore he'd capture.
FIRECRAFT & HEXWORKS: 2026-27. Part Four of the DARK LEAGUE series. Fred II/OC. Fred Weasley steps in to help a girl in trouble, only to find that she's on the run from the League. But as secrets are revealed, she may not be the innocent victim she seems.
QUEEN OF HEARTS: c. 2027. Part Five of the DARK LEAGUE series. Lily Luna/OC. Lily sneaks into a Cabaret Night at the heart of Knockturn Alley expecting a wild night of fun. Instead, she finds herself in the middle of dark magic plots, and tangled up with a man she definitely shouldn't be with.
INHERITANCE: 2027-2028. Final Part of the DARK LEAGUE series. A vicious murder leads the Auror Department (including Trainee Auror Rose Weasley) onto the trail of the real forces behind the League. But the truth is deeper and older than they ever imagined. Featuring Hogwarts Quidditch, a mysterious little Muggleborn girl, ancient prophecies, unexpected kittens, embarassing hook-ups, budding romances, old pureblood grudges, and Lucy's theatre club again.
SLEEPING DRAGONS: The prequel to everything. A boy called Salazar arrives in a barely-unified England and meets the three people with whom he'll go down in legend. But his obsession with a dead man might cost him everything he loves - and send echoes down the centuries. The 'true story' of Salazar Slytherin.
plus lots more to come, in the form of backstories, side-fics, and sequels to particular arcs.
NON-FAULTLINES FICS:
are you breathing just a little & no fortress so strong: Less fics, just backstory set-up for an au roleplay, created with the friends who contributed to the same series. Expect crazy rare pairings and strange set-ups, because the goal was to go as different from canon as possible.
THE SHADOW OF THE SOUL: Somewhere in the pipeline of the future. A dark AU in which Voldemort won the war in 1981 and has reigned as Dark Lord for twenty-five years. No prophecy, no hallows, no horcrux-Harry. The Order of the Phoenix fights on from the underground, but far to the north a Muggleborn named Hermione Granger walks into the Hog's Head searching for a dead man, and nothing will be the same again. Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione, Draco/OC.
Hello! I loved the twists and turns of Scars and looking forward to Ashes and all of the Faultlines fics to come! Are there any new characters you are excited for readers to meet?
Hi, thank you so much, I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Not sure if you mean specifically new characters in the Scars/Ashes part of the timeline, or in the whole Faultlines series, but tbh I have so many fun new characters to come! Also characters who may have appeared already but will get developed more in future fics.
In Ashes, I'm excited to introduce Ginny's new teammates in the Harpies, and also Gwenog's baby, who will make an appearance! The baby is a cameo at this point, but sets things up for Gwenog's children and their unnamed father to play a bigger part in the next gen stories.
I also hinted at their existence in an early chapter of Scars, but there's a branch of Malfoys who are going to appear at some point in Ashes, in the form of Lucius' brother, and Draco's two much younger cousins, Arabel and Torquil (as well as Draco himself also making an appearance).
Looking ahead to the next gen stories, there are quite a few characters I'm really looking forward to introducing there, the one that springs to mind as an entirely new character (unmentioned anywhere so far) is Cillian Rafferty, who ties together several separate threads. He has links with Scars, in that he's an inhabitant of the White Wyvern in Knockturn Alley (and a sort-of-relative of Jemima), but is very much part of the next gen story, connected to the League of Magic, but also a future potential love interest for one of the big canon kids.
Oh and special mention to the little side-tangent Christmas-themed murder mystery I have planned (which might get done for Christmas 2026) in which I introduce terrible matriarch Esperanza Rosier and her horrible family.
I know OCs are never quite as beloved as canons in fanfiction, but hopefully other people will enjoy meeting them too!
There are lots more I could mention, but I'll leave it there and not ramble on forever. Thank you for sending this ask!
James Potter's screwed up a lot of things in life, including his chances at his dream Quidditch career. When the girl he thought he'd lost reappears in his life, he knows this is one he can't slip away.
But Hazel is a Muggle, and somehow they must learn to navigate each other's worlds, or lose each other for good.
latest chapter
chapter one
CHAPTER 12 NOW UP: A COLLECTIVE NOUN FOR WEASLEYS
As he stepped onto the hearthrug, there was a sudden pause in the general conversation. Most of the heads in the room turned towards him with a sort of curious interest that wasn’t just someone new arriving. He gazed around, slightly disconcerted. Had they been talking about him?
‘What?’ he said, into the pause.
‘Nothing at all.’ Grandma came bustling towards him and swept him into the usual tight hug. ‘Come in, sit down. Oh, Louis, love!’ She added, turning to greet Louis in the same manner as he arrived behind James. ‘Arthur, get them a drink.’
‘Of course, what’ll you have, lads. Beer?’ Grandad pushed himself up from his customary brown armchair, then paused in front of them. ‘Now, Jamie, is all this true—’
As Ginny returns to Hogwarts to find her place in a changing world, Harry navigates the unfamiliar new rules of the Auror Department. But past sins still echo, and as Harry's first investigation takes him deep into secretive, underground communities, it seems that some wounds may never heal.
How do you remake a world, when you can barely patch together the holes in your own heart?
featuring: aurors, quidditch ambitions, knockturn alley secrets, werewolf societies, kidnapped children, the scars of war and the beginning of healing.
Christmas Eve, and they were all pretending so, so hard.
Ginny left the bathroom, her hair still twisted in a towel, and Ron’s bedroom door opened across the hall. It wasn’t Ron who emerged, though, and her steps faltered.
‘Oh. Hey.’ Harry blinked at her and rubbed the back of his neck, looking half-asleep, his hair standing on end even more than usual.
‘Morning.’ Ginny held her bundled pyjamas against herself, wishing she’d at least put a bra on under the jumper, although it wasn’t like anything was visible.
Harry glanced over his shoulder at the humped shape that was Ron under a duvet and pulled the bedroom door closed behind him. He was only in a t-shirt and jogging bottoms, and he looked a little cold. Ginny felt a sudden longing to reach out to him, to touch the slight gooseflesh on his arms, to wrap herself, warm from the shower, around him, and feel the cold seep away from him.
‘I, er, didn’t realise anyone else was up,’ he said quietly.
Keep reading below or read the whole story on AO3
‘I think it’s just me.’ She looked away, down at the faded carpet of the hall. ‘I normally get up and go for a run before breakfast at school, so I’ve got used to waking up early.’
It shouldn’t be this awkward. It wasn’t awkward when they wrote letters to each other, when he told her everything he was allowed to about whatever mission he’d been on, and she caught him up on everything at Hogwarts, from the rebuilding work to how Hagrid was settling in as the new Head of Gryffindor, when they debated some Quidditch technique, or he told her funny stories about what Ron had done when he was drunk, when they filled their letters with every cheerful thought either of them could muster.
Writing to Harry was the only time that Ginny felt like happiness was a real thing again. But maybe it wasn’t like that for him. Maybe for him it had been as much of a pretence as her mum hanging holly around the mantelpiece and baking mince pies. Faking it for her sake.
‘Are you, um—are you finished in the bathroom?’ he asked.
‘Oh. Yeah, yeah, I’m done. All yours.’
He gave her the smallest smile as he moved past her, but it only made him seem further away, somehow. For a moment, she stood in the hallway as the bathroom door closed behind him. Where was he, the boy who used to make her laugh until she had tears on her cheeks, then kiss her until she was breathless?
He seemed far away, in a place she couldn’t reach him. Maybe gone forever.
Chapter 1
He turned back to Ginny, ceasing to care about privacy, or who knew or saw what. Taking a step towards her, he took her hand, feeling her tense for a moment in surprise, then relax as she looked up at him, her fingers curling around his.
‘Meet you here when we get back, okay?’ he said quietly.
She smiled, a real smile this time.
‘I’ll be here.’
They won the war, but the scars run deep.
As Ginny returns to Hogwarts to find her place in a changing world, Harry navigates the unfamiliar new rules of the Auror Department.
But past sins still echo, and as Harry's first investigation takes him deep into secretive, underground worlds, it seems that some wounds may never heal.
How do you remake a world, when you can barely patch together the holes in your own heart?
Hello, many thanks for your fics over the years! I am really enjoying your revised versions - are you planning to continue the series to include Inheritance?!
I have a horrible feeling that this has been sitting in my inbox a really long time, I'm so sorry! Thank you so much for this and for sticking with me and reading.
The answer is yes! There are always long gaps in my writing, I know, but eventually we will get to Inheritance! There are a few more fics to come in between because I've developed and deepened the lore and the storylines, so it may be a while yet, but I think the changes will make it even more worth it when we get there.
What detail(s) in the story are you particularly captivated with? Is there any behind the scenes info or backstory?
Gotta mention my personal little joke with myself that this fic is basically Shakespeare AU except without being AU. It's sort of A Midsummer Night's Dream, except not because people make different choices, but the parallels are there.
There are always behind the scenes stories with me, though, so here are a few:
This is the first fic that introduces one of my fave OCs, Titus Hart, and his entire family backstory is very close to my heart. His mum has also been introduced in Scars (eagle-eyed and sharp-memoried readers might have noticed that Titus says his grandparents own the White Wyvern pub in Knockturn Alley) but there's a lot more to his extended family, which will become relevant in future fics (especially his adopted step-uncle Cillian, who links into other, very important little backstories).
You also very briefly heard mention of Lucy Weasley's cousin Orpheus, who is obviously NOT one of the canon Weasleys. Orpheus popped up in a chapter of Scars too, aged about ten, where Ron briefly explained his backstory with Ron-like lack of detail, but basically he's the son of one of Ron's many cousins. The result of a teen pregnancy, he was brought up mainly by his mother (because 19yo fathers unfortunately don't always step up, even when they're Weasleys) and therefore has slightly complicated feelings about his dad's family. I'm not sure when/if he'll get to take to take centre stage, but he is vaguely relevant to a fic I'm hoping to publish before Christmas.
And finally, less backstory and more forwardstory, the fall-out of some of the teen drama in These Mortals may eventually make its way into a side-story fic featuring an illicit house party, a swimming pool, way too much underage drinking, and some sweet revenge.
What was your main goal for the story and/or writing experience? Do you think that you achieved it?
Unforgivable is adapted from a fic I initially wrote so so long ago, if I remember my original goals for it then they've changed so much that they'd be irrelevant now.
I guess the point of that one is to sort of be an adventure in the style of the original books, but drawing in the wider magical world outside Hogwarts, in the form of Harry and co. as adults. It's the foundation of the series really, where the characters are introduced and the scene is set-up for all the future developments.
I had fun with it, and I think it achieves the basic goals. It's probably not the tightest in terms of story, because of being based on something that started with no plan, so there are lots of branching storylines. But it has a special place in my heart.
What scene were you most excited to write? Did it end up being the one you enjoyed writing the most?
I started Scars without a plan so I had no idea what scenes I was going to write.
One of the earliest bits I did plan was the part with Harry in the hospital, so I was excited to get to that, and yes it was one of my favourite scenes because I love writing the core six kids together and I think it's the only scene in the fic where it's just them.
And of course the scene where Harry and Ginny finally get back together, although hard to say I was excited to write it because I had no real idea of exactly how it was going to happen until shortly before I wrote it.
Sometimes the unplanned parts are the most exciting to write.
A bunch of scenes I've been planning for ages and I'm really looking forward to sharing with everyone are coming in Part Two of the duology, though.
What was the key choice or decision you had to make for this story? If you had chosen differently, what would the story have turned into?
The actual key choice for the whole series was probably when I decided to revisit the project I started with no clear vision in c. 2010 and turn it into a coherent series. If I hadn't done that it would have turned into an abandoned and unfinished series.
There have been so many decisions in the course of writing that it's hard to pick out the key ones. Looking all the way back to the start, I know I was playing with loads of different ideas but tbh I can't even remember them now (there was something about a cursed pack of cards that disappeared somewhere along the way?). And originally, my plan was for Lily/Scorpius to be a proper pairing, but I quickly decided that I didn't like them as endgame, so they became a teenage false start instead.
I think the biggest thing was probably the creation of the Dark League themselves though, and then the choosing of the Final Villain (which came out of a throwaway creation for a fic that doesn't even exist in the series anymore), which I won't go into details about because that would be spoilers.
Without that, it would probably have been a much simpler and more basic story, and my life would be way easier.
❓No dumb questions amnesty - can you explain this [line/dialogue/moment from the story]?
🏴☠️ Were there any points in which your characters tried (or succeeded) to commit mutiny against your planned plot? Where did they most want to rebel?
🥇 What scene were you most excited to write? Did it end up being the one you enjoyed writing the most?
🙏 Was there anything your character(s) really really really wanted to do? Did you let them?
🍆 What scene do you think was the hottest? What scene do you think your readers thought was the hottest? Are they the same?
🔮Have you imagined what happens to [character(s)] in the future? Or does the story only exist to you as a moment in time?
🔎 What detail(s) in the story are you particularly captivated with? Is there any behind the scenes info or backstory?
🧭 What was the key choice or decision you had to make for this story? If you had chosen differently, what would the story have turned into?
📖 Could the story have been a different length? What would you have included/removed?
🫂How would the story have changed if you wrote it for [this pairing] instead?
💭 If you could wish into creation a transformative piece for your story, made by a real human who isn’t you, what would it be? Art, video, sequel, podfic, etc.
📋What was your main goal for the story and/or writing experience? Do you think that you achieved it?
🎤 Do you think the story was written in your typical voice? Why or why not?
👉👈What two stories have you written that are most similar? Why?
👈👉What two stories have you written that are most different? Why?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
A ghost of a grin passed over his face.
‘Oh, you follow rules now? Is that a new thing?’
Ginny poked him in the chest.
‘It ought to be your new thing. You’re an Auror.’
chapter 19/22 and the slowburn finally comes to fruition.
or read from the beginning.
They won the war. Now they have the chance to build a better world.
But how do you remake a world, when you can barely patch together the holes in your own heart?
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
A ghost of a grin passed over his face.
‘Oh, you follow rules now? Is that a new thing?’
Ginny poked him in the chest.
‘It ought to be your new thing. You’re an Auror.’
chapter 19/22 and the slowburn finally comes to fruition.
or read from the beginning.
They won the war. Now they have the chance to build a better world.
But how do you remake a world, when you can barely patch together the holes in your own heart?
At 19, James Potter has already screwed up a lot of things in his life—including his dream of a Quidditch career. But when the girl he thought he’d lost comes unexpectedly back into his life, he knows that this is one he can’t get wrong.
But Hazel is a Muggle, and, if they're going to make it work, somehow they have to learn to navigate each other's worlds, or lose each other for good.
CHAPTER 10/18
hazel's 18th birthday arrives, and james has to survive in a roomful of muggles who all want to get to know him - not to mention the unwelcome presence of scorpius malfoy.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
finally back with an update! so sorry for the wait, but there are now seventeen chapters of scars, and we're inching towards the end (still several more chaps to go though).
i'm a bit behind with posting links on here, so do make sure you've caught up on previous chapters before jumping into this one.
chapter 17: ginny gets some exciting news, but also faces up to difficult emotions and choices.
‘My whole life, I’ve felt like I wasn’t living up to them,’ Neville said, staring at the wall in front of him instead of at Ginny. ‘Like I could never be as good or brave as them. But then in the war, it changed. I started feeling like maybe they’d be proud of me, if they knew. It sort of kept me going sometimes.’
‘Neville, they would be proud,’ Ginny broke in, as he paused for breath. ‘I mean, they would have been anyway, but—'
‘Well, I—I think they would, yeah. But I had to keep going for them. Like—like justice or something. I thought I’d feel different after we caught Lestrange. Like I’d got some sort of justice for them and I could stop. But I didn’t really get justice, did I? Because it doesn’t change anything, catching the people who did it. It doesn’t—’
His voice caught, and Ginny finished the sentence softly.
‘It doesn’t bring them back.’
an ordinary, non-magical, small-town girl with big dreams and strong ideals - and a secret she can't share with anyone in her world.
The old normal was distant and surreal. She'd been so naïve when she'd made those plans. Even after what had happened to Fiona, she'd treated it like a game. Like the magical world was some sparkly fairytale she could somehow be a part of.
It wasn't; it was much darker—and much realer—than she'd ever imagined, and yet now, for better or worse, she was part of it. It knew about her.
There was no going back to a time before.
meet hazel for the first time in unforgivable, or find out what happens when she falls for someone who's not only a wizard, but also happens to be son of the hero of the magical world, in your world (james sirius x hazel; wip).
Hi, did you maybe used to go by themadmage? I saw an old rec for a fic called Choices by themadmage, and the only result on Google was for your fic Choices on ffn, so I was just wondering if that's the same fic.
Hey anon, afraid I've never gone by that username, so it must have been a different fic with the same title. Sorry I can't help!
Aebbe's Writing @aebbeswriting - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
