Hello Harry Potter fans.

Harry Potter and the Final Straw is my first attempt at fanfiction, or really writing of any kind since college, which seems like a long time ago. Given that, it might take a few chapters to get my wings, so to speak. I would appreciate all constructive comments that I can get.

I want to stress that this story is not what I think will happen in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, there will be no Princes in this story. This is merely my own alternative take on what I would like to happen. The story originally was going to have Harry moving to North America, but around writing chapter 8 I changed my mind and shifted the focus of the story. The going to America story, of course, was done in The Brave New World.

Note to people who are checking out this profile in advance of sampling Final Straw: Hermione does not come off well in Final Straw. I'm doing this for several reasons, including but not limited to: I'm tired of her character, and I just want to shake things up a little and play with some different characters. Contrary to what a few have said, I don't hate Hermione, and she will not go dark. I'm getting some flack from the Hermione lovers out there (who won't give up even after I ask them to, and it has been 5 months), but I'm happy to say I'm getting just as much praise from those who like it, and are happy at what I've done with Ron. I'm of the opinion that a fanfiction story shouldn't necessarily be what WILL happen, but more along the lines of what COULD happen. Nor does our beloved Headmaster stay as the typical hero, I've taken him in a direction that I feel is perfectly logical, particularly when the main character is an emotionally scarred 16 year old.

Another frequent complaint I get, somewhat tied to my Hermione and Dumbledore plotlines, is that I'm frequently too OOC with characters and situations. I call these complainersthe 'canon cops', and they irritate me to no end. Their frequent whine is that 'so and so would not do that'...ignoring the simple fact that fanfiction itself is mostly OOC. I swear that some people must want every single story to be the same. All I'm doing is following my muse, and going directions that I think are interesting.

Note on June 26th: Final Straw is now complete, there are parts of it I wish I had done better, but I did my best at the time of writing each chapter, and I have to be satisfied with that. There will be no sequel to Final Straw, but it is not out of the question that I might write a 7th year story...it all just depends on what HBP gives me to work with, and if there is a direction I want to take with it. I found Phoenix to be the least readable of the five books, and perversely I think that made for better fanfiction writing, since it gave a lot of possibilities. I've long talked about doing a 'Harry goes to America' story, but I don't know if that's in the cards anymore, it would just feel too dated once HBP is out. One thing I am toying with, if I don't write a 7th year story, is to expand on Final Straw and flesh it out a lot more, giving more voice to the supporting characters (and I promise I would do much more with Luna). It's still just a thought at this point, all will hinge on what happens in July (I just can't see both doing a 7th year story and expanding Straw). For those of you who started with me in December, to those of you who will find this story 6 months from now, thanks for your time...it's been an interestingtime.

December 12, 2005: The new story is now up, called The Brave New World, and it is where I was originally going to go when I started Straw. This time won't be a fake-out though, at the end of Chapter Four, Harry is on the plane waiting for take-off (and yes it will take off). Like it says in Chapter One, this is being done before I do a 7th year fic, you can assume one of those will be written and hopefully completed before Harry Potter and the Seventh Book comes out.

This story will be different from Straw in a lot of ways. I'm striving for a lighter tone in the coming chapters, and because I'm not going to totally abandon the British characters, some of them will be dealt with differently...yes Hermione fans, that means your girl. In spite of the fact that she annoyed me in HBP, I've released most of my contempt for her character by writing Straw, so she'll be a good character here, in fact I'll probably soften her a bit from canon. The body count will also be considerably smaller in this story, there won't be a ton of violence here...unlike Straw, where I had dozens of people killed, Snape tortured, and Percy almost rape someone...talk about pushing the bounds of the T rating. All of you prospective authors now know how far you can go.

How much will be similar to Straw? Well I'll use most of my OC characters from Straw, Peter Tyson and the Travis Biller Auror crew are back Shepherd will be too, though it's possible thathe will not have a lot to do. I needed a new Potions teachers for Hogwarts though, and it's going to be hard enough to come up with all the new names for Great Lakes.

Enjoy the story, I'm looking forward to the writing.

September, 2006

I recently decided that Brave New World will be a two year story, taking place over Harry's sixth and seventh years at Great Lakes. So that means no canon seventh year story by me, I just never warmed to the idea of a road story hunting horcruxes. The now expanded BNW will be completed, computer willing, before JKR has the last book out. Further updates can be gotten at my yahoo group.

Summer 2007

I recently got a review asking for a parents list, and I think its such a great idea that I'm going to do one for all the OC's in The Brave New World. And here you are, where I got their names are to the side:

Britain based OC's:

Travis Biller, Auror...a friend from high school.

Patrick Cleburne, Head Unspeakable...An American Civil War general, born in Ireland.

Rob Graham, Auror...made up name.

Edgar Stiles, Auror...character name from 24, played by Louis Lombardi.

Sanford Jenkins, Auror...made up name.

Nelson DeMille, Auror...well known author of thrillers.

Sarah Westbrook, Auror...made up name.

Mike Peplowski, Auror, Marauder roommate...former Michigan State basketball star.

Robert Marr, Unspeakable...two people: a former owner of the New England Patriots, and an historical figure from 9/11.

Lucy Deakins, Ministry worker...actress from The Boy Who Could Fly, played Milly Michaelson.

Peter Tyson, Solicitor...friend from university.

Jennifer Tyson, Ministry Record Keeper, wife of Peter...his real life wife.

Charles Shepherd, Potions Professor...a family member

Jeffrey Hill, Muggle Studies Professor...former Professor of mine at Michigan State

Non-Great Lakes OC's:

Beau Shupe, Salem Headmaster...my boss.

Cathy Corey, Deputy Headmistress, Salem...my former boss.

Raymond Parker, Defense teacher Salem...made up name, but was also a singer from the 80's.

Jessica Murray, student at Salem...JK Rowling's daughter, but her legal name probably is not Murray.

James Morrsion, Pathfinder Headmaster...actor who plays Bill Buchanan on 24.

Robert Clary, Headmaster, Tecumseh...actor who played Louis LeBeau on Hogan's Heroes.

Henry Hill and James Burke, Defense teachers at Tecumseh...real life mobsters, seen in GoodFellas.

Mike Jacobson, Head Auror...my youth pastor as a teenager, the greatest man I've ever known.

Brian McCann, Auror Pod leader, Milwaukee...catcher for the Atlanta Braves.

Michael Chabon, President of Magical United States...well known Pulitzer Prize winning author.

Family:

Nick and Karen Forrester, Warrick's parents, Indianapolis...made up names.

Marty Coyle and Keisha Peterson, Warrick's cousins, Bloomington, Indiana...made up names.

Michael and Barbara Steele, Jonas' parents, Chicago...Michael is made up, Barbara produced The Winds of War.

Karl and Lisa Aylesworth, Reiko's parents, Tecumseh...made up first names, see below for last name.

Peter and Wendy Weir, Sophie's parents, Springfield, Illinois...Peter is a famous film director, married to Wendy Stites.

Ned and Jason Weir, Sophie's brothers, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois...made up first names.

Mitchell and Hollie Baylor, Drew's parents, Milwaukee...the parents of the Orlando Bloom character in Elizabethtown.

Hannah and Heather Baylor, Drew's sisters, Boston...Hannah is made up, Heather is Orlando's sister in said film.

Jed and Abby Ford, Marie's parents, Cincinnati...made up last names, first names are the First Couple from The West Wing.

Great Lakes:

Joanne Murray, Headmistress...JK Rowling.

Dr. Neil Murray, hubby of Joanne, father of Jessica...hubby of JK Rowling.

David Heyman, Deputy Headmaster...producer of the Harry Potter film series.

Josh Lyman, History...character name from The West Wing, played by Bradley Whitford

Toby Ziegler, Muggle Studies...character name from The West Wing, played by Richard Schiff.

Janel Maloney, Charms...actress who played Donna Moss on The West Wing.

Tom Ripley, Defense...character from Patricia Highsmith's book series, played on screen by Matt Damon, Alain Delon, John Malkovich, and Barry Pepper.

Dick Greenleaf, Defense...character from The Talnted Mr. Ripley, played by Jude Law.

David Palmer, Transfiguration...character from 24, played by Dennis Haysbert.

Hoban Washburne, Transfiguration...character from Firefly/Serenity, played by Alan Tudyk.

Riley Poole, Caretaker...character from National Treasure, played by Justin Bartha.

Joe Clancy, Cortez in Harry's year...made up name.

Ed Lattimore, Cortez, GL class of 97...made up name.

Jennifer Keller, Jefferson, GL class of 97...friend from university, she and I were part of the Tyson wedding party.

Ray Elwood, Proctor in Harry's year...character from Buffalo Soldiers, played by Joaquin Phoenix.

Jack Straw, Proctor in Harry's year...former British Foreign Secretary.

The gang, all in Harry's year:

Sophie Weir...made up name.

Reiko Aylesworth...actress who played Michelle Dessler on 24.

Claudia Cregg...character from The West Wing, played by Allison Janney.

Marie Ford...made up name.

Warrick Forrester...made up name.

Jonas Steele...character from The Blue and the Gray, played by Stacy Keach.

Drew Baylor...character from Elizabethtown, played by Orlando Bloom.

Those are the major ones, usually with either a big scene in there somewhere, or they pop up a lot. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, so feel free to remind me if you want.

Spring 2008: The new story is up, and the title is what it is, it's not leading up to something. It'll be canon based and Harry will not be the Jack Bauer/West Wing character that I've built him into in Straw and World, but more 'realistic', if you will. There'll be no major OC's, probably, though some will pop in peripheral roles.

An important note: AYU will not be nearly as long as Brave New World, though I'm still not sure how long it'll be. The 20K chapters won't be here either, figure on a 5 or 6K chapter each week. That's the plan anyway. Wish me luck.