Compliance in HP

When someone says a story is "Book 6 Compliant", what does that make you think? And if someone says it is "Set after book six", does that invoke a different image in your head?

The good thing is, there is no set standard. Which is also a bad thing, but mostly it's good.

Compliance, to me at least, indicates that the key events in a book took place, but not necessarily exactly as they happened. And also that the key events of all the books previous to it took place, but again, they might have happened differently.

So - for example - a story that is Compliant to Book 5 would indicate that Voldemort is back, there is a prophecy about how to defeat him, and that The Order exists.

A story Compliant to Book 3 would indicate that the traitor was revealed (though not necessarily that it is Peter), and Book 2 would indicate that the Basilisk was freed, that someone was tricked in to doing it and that the diary was used to do it.

However, a story set after Book 3 would require it to be Peter, that Black was vindicated (though not publicly), and a story set after Book 2 would mean it would have to be Ginny.

This has apparently caused confusion, because I said a story was Book 5 compliant, and yet had some changes (albeit minor) in history that people felt were bad, evil and wrong in light of my "B5C" statement.

Book 1 : The Stone, A Possessed Teacher, Harry doing the hero bit.
Book 2 : Basilisk, Diary, Possession, Harry killing snake, Harry talking to snakes.
Book 3 : Traitor unmasked.
Book 4 : Tournament, Voldemort Returns.
Book 5 : Order, Prophecy.
Book 6 : Horcruxes.
Book 7 : Voldemort Dead, Deathly Hallows exist.

Those are what I consider to be compliances. Now - there might be more (for example there is no reason the prophecy can't be The Prophecy), but this is what I define as a minimum.

A somewhat typical first post

So, my name is Angelholme, and I write fanfiction (and sometimes original fiction, but that is less common).

At the moment, I am heavily buried in the world of Harry Potter, because it is just such a fun place to write stories about. However I also have a somewhat vague plan to continue a story I stared a while back - the eighth series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, set in a town called Covenston. I abandoned it a while back because I was having characterisation troubles, but recently, and after writing a lot for HP, I think I might be able to pull it off.

I write mainly at three sites - fanfiction.net (under the name Angelholme), hpfandom.net (under the name SammyWrae) and my own site (http://angelholme.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/), although this needs updating pretty badly.

I tend to write three types of stories.

The first is "arc" stories, or sagas. They generally have one or two major plot arcs, and a number of minor ones. Examples of these are "The Silent Trio" series and "The Western Sky".

The second is single arc stories. They have either one or two parts (generally one), and are based around a single idea. Examples of these are "Project Darkling", "Nineteen Years Later" and "Return To Grace".

The third is parodies/comedies. These I mostly write when the mood strikes me, or when I have an idea that just won't go away. Examples of these are "Lost in Middle Earth", "The Smartest Witch" and "Harry Potter and The Deathly Silence".

There are also one-shots, but these generally come from the first or second type of stories, and I just run out of ideas as to how to write them the way I want them.


Mostly I am going to use this for news about story updates - what chapters are up, what stories are close to completion, and ideas for new stories.

Currently, Nineteen Years Later is up to chapter 4 (and is no where near finished), and I am writing Episode 1x04 of The Western Sky (the first series has fourteen episodes, so it is about a third of the way through).

And honestly, that is about all I have to say for now. I could tell you all about me, but since I am not one for publishing personal information on the web, that seems unlikely. I could tell you all about my fanfic history, and I might do that in the future. I could tell you all about my sweetheart, but again - personal information and so forth.

I will update this as often as is necessary, or as often as I feel like. So, until then, have a nice day.

"Nothing crushes us"