#some with arrows

[isahorcrux]

some with arrows, some with traps: chapter seven

jilychallenge september | @flowersgrowback vs @isahorcrux | celebrity AU - ‘we’re actors who have been quite vocal about hating each other, but the casting agent cast us as the romantic leads in the same movie and i am sooo annoyed at your perfect abs’

chapter seven: all’s well that ends well to end up with you

continue on ao3 || start from the beginning

[isahorcrux]

I am so angry that this dwd media circus is inspiring me to write the Perry Hewitt aftermath in SWA.

[isahorcrux]

Directors cut for some with arrows!! Please and thanks - specifically how you came up with up with the idea of the phone being fake lost and that spiral (you’re a genius)

Omg, firstly you are too kind.

I think the idea came to me in two fold. One, when I was trying to figure out what movie Lily and James would be starring in - and I think I looked at my book shelf and saw a copy of Much Ado About Nothing and was like great, public domain. And then I was like...wait, Much Ado is enemy to lovers...what if this was a modern Much Ado. For me, Much Ado at is core is so much about miscommunications, and what better way to modernize miscommunications than through digital means of communication like texting, emails, and celebrity gossip sites.

One of my main issues with Much Ado, is that Bea and Ben's story is kind of wrapped half way through and then it jumps into Hero and Claude's story. So for SWA, I combined the two and the phone being fake lost and the subsequent spiral pulls very heavily from the Hero and Claude story (for those unfamiliar, long story short, Claude and Hero are supposed to get married and then Don Pedro lies to Claude about Hero's virginity). Obviously, that's not the vibe for the modern retelling.

What I'm about to tell you now is truly the secret to everything I write. I go into everything I write asking myself 'how can I fuck this up? A nicer way of putting that is how can I prevent my heroes from getting what they want, but I prefer my version tbh. So I just sat down and knew that at this point of the story I needed to break Lily and James up before they went on their date and I knew I needed it to be something Peter could be involved in. At one point, it was just going to be a deuxmoi post, but there were too many holes with that one (it does remain a bit with the various deuxmoi posts that track the two of them being out and messy). I also knew I had to close a lot of holes - Lily and Sirius and Remus were all becoming friendly, so I needed to cut communication of there too. And thus I came to the idea of the "stolen phone." I have a few friends that have been celebrity personal assistants and their entire lives are on their phones, and it's a HUGE thing if the phone goes missing or is stolen, so that felt big enough and also something Peter could pull off.

And then from there the story progressed. Lily would be slighted from James not showing up, but James also needed to end up mad at her, which is how she ended up on Raya. But, it couldn't just be celebrity gossip, James needed to hear it from someone he trusts. If it was Peter it'd be too much of a give away, so enter Regulus Black via Sirius.

At that point, they're perfectly mad at each other. I hope this sort of answers your question ??? But TLDR, I sat down and just logic checked everything until I was satisfied with how it all played out, but also kept them redeemable.

[isahorcrux]

some with arrows, some with traps: chapter five

jilychallenge september | @flowersgrowback vs @isahorcrux | celebrity AU - ‘we’re actors who have been quite vocal about hating each other, but the casting agent cast us as the romantic leads in the same movie and i am sooo annoyed at your perfect abs’

chapter five: dear, I fear we’re facing a problem

Texts between Operation Shakespeare, March 29, 2022, 10:51 AM

Sirius: Because she got a new phone...

Sirius: She told James it was stolen at the airport and that we should block her old number just in case we got any weird texts

read chapter 5 on ao3 || read from the beginning

[isahorcrux]

summer sunday snippets

I’m so tragically late to this it’s not even funny. Thank you @cascader for tagging me.

This is a wee snippet from not london is lonely (sorry, working out the kinks of the next chapter, lily is being very difficult), but a prequel to some with arrows, when james and lily are working on perry hewitt. I really hope I haven’t shared this bit before because i’ve literally been working on this since november of last year lol.

Lily sighed, but took a tentative sip.  And then she wished she could spit the offending liquid back into its cup, but lucky for Lily, she had at least some sense of self preservation.

“Ugh, what is that?”

“Coffee?”

“That is not coffee.  Coffee is bitter and slightly creamy.  Maybe a hint of sweet if I’m feeling naughty.  That was terrible.”

“Not a fan of hazelnuts?”

“In my nutella, sure.  In black coffee?  Absolutely not.  Also, how much syrup is even in there?  My tongue is still tingling,” Lily mimed gagging.

“What is your coffee order then,” James asked, while typing into his phone, “I’ll have Remus bring you something over.”

“Oh no, you don’t have to do that.  I’m sure he’s busy doing other things.”

“Eh, not really.  I don’t really need an assistant, to be honest,” James ran his fingers through his hair, messing up his already very messy bed head.

tagging @emeralddoeadeer @sunshinemarauder @thequibblah and anyone else who’d like to share snippets

[isahorcrux]

some with arrows, some with traps: chapter six

jilychallenge september | @flowersgrowback vs @isahorcrux | celebrity AU - ‘we’re actors who have been quite vocal about hating each other, but the casting agent cast us as the romantic leads in the same movie and i am sooo annoyed at your perfect abs’

chapter six: we didn’t know we were built to fall apart

Texts between Operation Shakespeare, March 31, 2022, 10:08 AM

Marlene: *screenshots*

Marlene: So, it appears Petunia already knew?

continue on ao3 || start from the beginning

[isahorcrux]

sorry to barrage you with asks but “ I guess I’ll just have to love her back” KILLED ME. this is the most James potter sudden declaration ever. I’m 😭😭

This moment was honestly one of the most difficult parts to update from the original text. If I remember correctly, I spent about 3 days in James Potter's head to make this work, so I'm so glad it worked for you! James Potter is truly a lover and not a fighter. And when you've harbored a crush on a girl for 10 years... well...

[isahorcrux]

Hiiiii! Leaving a ⭐️- would love to hear anything you want to say about SWA 💕

This is actually great, because I've been rereading SWA, so it's very fresh in my mind.

I think I actually want to wax poetic about Petunia for this one.

Petunia to me is such a fascinating character when we write fanfiction, especially when we write Muggle AUs. Because Petunia and Lily used to be close, but it was Lily going to Hogwarts that really drove the wedge between them. What happens when Lily doesn't go to Hogwarts and what happens to their relationship were two questions that stuck out to me as I started SWA.

Because we spend so much time with Petunia in canon where she's incredibly nasty and awful, that's usually carried through to AUs and Muggle AUs. For this one, I wanted to challenge myself to write a relationship I'd hadn't seen too often in fanfic between Lily and Petunia.

The line in HP3 (I think it's HP3), where Petunia is obsessed with some celebrity gossip lived in my head while I was writing SWA. Petunia is clearly someone who loves gossip and loves the idea of celebrity, which makes her an intriguing character to put in the world of SWA - especially with deuxmoi.

I don't think I ever considered Petunia as a culprit for deuxmoi - in fact, looking back a year, I think it was always going to be Peter. But, I did want to use her to throw everyone off the scent. And I sometimes succeeded (mostly not, I feel like you all were with me with the Peter reveal for the most part).

We only got to see a glimpse of Petunia and Lily in SWA, but what we did see I'm really happy with what came out. They clearly don't hate each other and they clearly talk often. Petunia does things that piss Lily off (because sisters often do) and vice versa for Lily. I think there is an element of Petunia being jealous of Lily's fame. But I also think when you're fame adjacent, like Petunia, you'd use that to your advantage - thus not completely cutting Lily out of her life like in canon.

When Lily went to Hogwarts, she couldn't take Petunia with her. But, in the SWA universe, Lily can take Petunia places - premieres, exclusive clubs, fancy dinners, ect. And ultimately, I think that's what separates SWA Lily & Petunia from canon Lily & Petunia and ultimately keeps their relationship much more positive.