entertainment

Thereʼs something about the Wizarding World that captured the mind, hearts, and imaginations of people all over the world in a way that we donʼt see all too often. I am old enough to have been around when the fandom really began. Grown men and women reading the versions with the ʻgrown-upʼ covers on their morning commutes, kids dressing up in robes and drawing scars on their foreheads, people of all ages (me included) queueing up at Waterstones at midnight to get our hands on the last piece of the puzzle, The Deathly Hallows. I stayed up all night reading that book. I read it cover to cover in one sitting, and though the sun had long since risen and my eyes were aching I simply couldnʼt get enough. I gasped through ʻThe Seven Pottersʼ, I seethed through ʻThe Muggle-Born Registration Committeeʼ, I cried through ʻThe Forest, Againʼ, I exalted at ʻThe Flaw in the Planʼ, I frowned disapprovingly through ʻEpilogue: Nineteen Years Laterʼ, and then when I finally closed the book I was hit with a sense of grief. It was finished. There would be no new tales of triumph, no more night time wanderings through the hallowed halls of Hogwarts. I had read all there was to be read, and there would never be more. Over the years since I have read the series again more times than I can count, I even tried the play that shall not be named, but I could never recapture the true delight of escapism that I felt the first time. I know it too well. I know all the secret passages we were shown, all the spells Harry learned. All the shocks are no longer shocking, the surprises no longer surprising. So whatʼs a girl to do? I had never really considered fanfiction. I knew it existed, knew it was popular, but I never sought it out for myself until one day when I was feeling awful and went to instinctively retreat back to the comfort of The Philosopherʼs Stone. Something stopped me. I wanted the familiarity, but I also wanted to truly escape. I needed a new adventure. I needed fanfic. Now, call me naive, but I thought this would be simple. I thought I could just google ʻHarry Potter Fanfictionʼ and Iʼd be presented with a few stories to choose from. Google seemed rather keen that I try a website called ʻArchive of Our Ownʼ and so I headed there blindly to peruse their selection, expecting maybe a hundred or so options. How wrong I was. As of the date of writing, Archive of Our Own, or AO3 as I came to know it, has no less than three hundred and forty four thousand five hundred and forty fanfictions tagged as ʻHarry Potter - J.K. Rowlingʼ. THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY FOUR THOUSAND.

The world of fanfic has pushed and prodded and stretched the boundaries and limits of the HP universe to lengths I would never have conceived possible. There are historical AU (alternate universe), Voldemort wins AU, fics set at Hogwarts, fics set at the Ministry, fics set during an extended wizarding war. There are muggle AU, marauders era stories… if you can think of it somebody has probably written it. These fics take what JK

QUIBBLER ENTERTAINMENT gave us and run with it, with new spells, potions, characters, creatures and settings right alongside the things we loved from the originals.

These stories vary in length from ʻoneshotsʼ of a few hundred words up to epics of three hundred thousand words and up. The quality of the stories varies massively, but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that there are a huge number of pieces In addition to these helpful acronyms, authors tag their own fics with a dazzling array of tags including such beauties as “Albus Dumbledore being an a*****e” and “James is scared of angry Sirius”, along with the always promising “the author regrets nothing” and the gung ho sentiment of “no beta, we die like men”. Some fics have tag lists so long theyʼre almost a novella in themselves. Mixed in amongst the

that are truly wonderfully written. Indeed, a number of well known fanfic authors have gone on to publish original works. It is clear that fanfic authors put a significant amount of time and energy and love into these projects. So, where to start? Luckily for me, AO3 helps poor, old, technologically imparied folk like me to sift through this litany of literature by providing filters. I quickly learned that you can filter and search by different categories and tags. Some of them are pretty self-explanatory and standard, but on further inspection I found that fanfic has a language all of its own, and it was a language I didnʼt speak. Acronyms and abbreviations are everywhere, be it OC (original character), OOC (out of character), IC (in character), or my personal favourite EWE (Epilogue, what epilogue?). It might be a WIP (work in progress), an acronym that I sadly didnʼt discover the meaning of until after I read nearly one hundred and fifty thousand words of one story just to find that it ended abruptly with no resolution. It had, as I found out to my sorrow, been ʻabandonedʼ prior to completion many years before.

character name tags and the tags about the general mood of the fic (ʻfluffʼ, anyone?), are trigger warnings and key information about the themes of the fic to “The shippers help you decide if you want to read on. “Dark!”, for example, means that there will likely be a lot of unpleasantness are at WAR, occurring. Unfortunately, as quickly as you learn these things they change again (not a lemon to be found these days). The language, like the fandom and the fics and they take that they create, keeps growing and morphing and adapting and changing, and it can be hard to keep track. no prisoners.” Along with the tags, are the ʻtropesʼ. Essentially themes of the story, these vary from ʻMarriage Lawʼ, where unlikely characters are forced to get married to ensure wizarding population increases, ʻSoul bondingʼ, which is similar to marriage law, ʻEighth Yearʼ, where the characters we know return to Hogwarts post-war, various magical creature tropes such as Veela and Werewolf, where characters discover that one among them is not fully human, and hundreds of others.

The other thing you notice really, really quickly is a heavy focus on ʻshipsʼ. Never in my life have I seen so many questionable portmanteaus. Hinny (Harry and Ginny), Dramione (Draco and Hermione), Romione (Ron and Hermione), Drarry (Draco and Harry), and the unwittingly hilarious Snack (Snape and Black). Theyʼre not all portmanteaus though, oh no, there are also such treats as Wolfstar (Remus and Sirius) Harmony (Harry and Hermione) and Snufflepuff (Sirius and Cedric). It seems that the fanfic writers and readers are far more focused on romantic, and at times not so romantic, relationships than the childish larks and death defying adventures that we followed in the original series, and be warned - with ships come shippers.

Some Days

Some days my thoughts taste like iron and they weigh me down. I hold you holding me together and together we hold on as the floor gives way and drags us under. Safe here. In a place that exists in a space that befits us. Though we cannot touch the bricks and mortar belonging flows through me like water and I know that another day is coming. Another day is coming and I will wake up. My body breathes without me as I dawdle but your spectre thrusts me forward. Keeps me moving. Some days my mind sounds like cymbals and it drowns me out. Your associated noises turn me into music and you play my song as though you wrote it, as though I were a symphony. hear you hearing me cry and we are here together in a place where I can hold my hands up and say “I’m not okay”. Though we cannot change the world we see I sense that you are here with me and I know that I am not alone. I am not alone in this quest to find out where my soul is supposed to be. For your passion strides beside me, holds my hand. Some days my brain smells like sulphur and it burns me up, but you give smoke to my fire, make patterns in the air. You deflect the heat, and I know that we will be okay. Some day.

by u/neeshky

Article by iguerr Artwork by Anne_Seelmann

WizCoin!

Dear Madam Starflash, I submitted this article and all I got was this weird “WizCoin”. What is it and what can I do with it? Sincerely, A Confused Submitter

Dearest Submitter, WizCoin is The Quibbler’s own special currency! The following items can be purchased from QuibblerLunaLovegood for the low, low cost of your soul. Just kidding! Buy these with your WizCoin, which you get for submitting your artwork and articles to The Quibbler. Which is like selling your soul to us, except better, because your work gets published. These items have been created for us by our fantastic Art Director, SinsationalDoom, and are sold exclusively on /r/TheQuibbler.

Enchanted office cleaner

Forget Mrs. Skower. Use this for all your magical messes!

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ERICA’S CORNER

My First Article

a.k.a The Downfall Of My Mental Stability Hello! It’s a new year, and with that comes a new start for everyone! You might not have seen me before, so let me introduce myself. I’m Erica, and I’m a half-blood who lives on the more modern side! I decided to write here because I’m bored, and I also need some more pocket money. I really want a certain purple-haired character before the 2.5 update is over, and I lost my half-tohalf ratioed chance with scrapes to spare. I guess this article will just be me introducing myself then. I like writing, reading, drawing, video editing, singing and listening to music, so I might share some of my stuff produced from my hobbies. I actually have submitted an independent artwork onto The Quibbler before, it’s in the Summer 2021 edition! Keep an eye out for the rainbow bean while rereading it! I really really really like purple too, and at the time of writing the Apple event has just come out of the oven a few hours ago, and the purple iPad Air looks really nice! I swear the colour purple is going to be the death of me- *cries* I’ll be bouncing off now, see you next issue! I hope that my mental health doesn’t spiral down again! -Erica, still upset about losing 50/50 to the ripoff Liyue Raiden (Postnote: My friends keep rubbing their winning-Raiden-made salt into my wounds. I am seriously considering sending a surprise to them..)

Image from Freepik

By Bee !! SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE ENCANTO BELOW !!

It’s New Year's day - 11:27 pm to be exact - and I have just finished watching Disney’s Encanto. AND HOT DAMN DO I LOVE THIS MOVIE! Goodness gracious me-oh-my is this movie good! There are so many good points, ideas, and themes swirling around all at once that they all have to be named! Listed! What have you! Though, I know you’re wondering just how exactly my brain began whirling with these absolute nuggets of truth, huh? Well, don’t just stand there! Sit down, kick up your heels, and let’s dive right into it! The conversaUon began when my friend responded to my earlier message about Abuela and their reply was: ‘Grandma was the worst.’ By the Ume my friend replied, I was near the end of the movie, so I had witnessed all the upturned tables, ruffled feathers, and the mashed bananas! It was then that I menUoned that I understood Abuela. They agreed, but said it didn’t excuse her behavior or how she treated her family. And that was when the pin dropped. (Lookin’ out for you Dolores Madrigal.) I, of course, agreed, because they were right. How Abuela treated her family and their gi[s brought more stress and pain that she either didn’t realize or refused to see. But what I did appreciate is, unlike most toxic parental figures, Abeula understood her errors, acknowledged them, and learned from them. Which in all honesty I like, because it isn't too o[en that toxic parental figures acknowledge what they have done wrong to their children and family generaUon. I believe that lesson - Abeula's lesson - is very important in both black and PoCs' (people of color) communiUes. My friend agreed, but to them there was a problem in the movie’s plot that bugged them. They believed that Abuela got off far too easily. They liked that she acknowledged the wrongs she had done, but her years of accidental abuse seemed instantly forgo`en. Truthfully speaking, I do see where they are coming from and it does make sense. For the last twenty or thirty minutes or so, the Madrigal family seemed to be a family again. Do I believe more could have been done during Mirabel and Abuela’s climacUc arc? Do I feel a li`le bit more could have been done where the family disregarded Bruno’s existence and acknowledged that? Yes, absolutely. So much more could have been given; but for a movie that was an hour and a li`le over forty-five minutes, they have done enough. In this movie - although people of all ages and all walks of life can enjoy it - the main demographic in mind was children and young adolescents. Taking that into consideraUon, the team had to put all they could into the Umeframe given for this movie. Not only that, but when one receives a chance to get through to an abusive parental figure - intended or not - it's going to feel.. anU-climaUc. There's the heart to heart (or maybe mulUple), a[er that, the parental figure and ones involved in the abuse will then start working towards be`ering the relaUonship and healing. It's not known how long it will take, but agreeably so it's not going to happen as quickly as Hollywood movie portrayal. Stories like that usually tend to work in that formula - it all depends on whether or not the consumer feels it has been done well or not if the amount of Ume given Ued up all the loose ends, etc. That being said, there is a lot le[ unsaid about the family Madrigal a[er that. I know healing doesn't happen that quickly and obviously, older audiences know healing doesn't happen that quickly, though, to a child or young adolescent, they may not know that right now. I do believe that children should be aware that healing takes Ume, though a movie that is an hour and forty-five minutes will not do that. These movies are made to take us to point A, to B, to C, and someUmes D. Which isn't necessarily a problem to me, because even though the movies are for all, I know the movie's intended audience. These movies are made so they can be easily digested, but not in a way to give the child the answer or make the child feel unintelligent. I do believe that there are and will be other media - some even made from Disney - that will help fill in the gaps to help them understand and realize that healing is a lot longer than a mere twenty or thirty minutes.

While I am on the topic of healing, I’d like to touch on the scene between Mirabel and Abeula as well. My friend also voiced their dislike on how Mirabel was the first to apologize to Abuela, despite the treatment she dealt with throughout the movie, which I agree with, though I also feel there was a reason for that as well. I believe it was written that Mirabel apologized first because she felt it was her fault - which I disagree, this happening was unavoidable, but at that time and moment, she felt that because she pried and because she was 'trying to be someone she is not,' the house fell apart. We (the audience) did not know at that moment that Abuela felt remorse. We did not know at that moment that what Mirabel said hit home to her and she gave it genuine thought. It is true that the point still could have been made clear if she apologized first, though, at that moment, we were experiencing Mirabel’s remorse. It made sense that the focus was on her. From how the events unfolded and the 'consequences' that followed, she genuinely felt she was the one at fault - she was in Bruno's vision after all. In the end, it’s understandable how Mirabel felt she should have apologized the moment she knew Abuela was near. It’s a very real situation that I’m certain many young adolescents and teens (and maybe young adults) alike can understand. I do wish that Abuela was the one to apologize first though. It’s redundant in the media that we see children apologizing for mistakes that originally had nothing to do with them. The adults should be the ones apologizing first because they were in the wrong in the first place. In Encanto, the themes are multidimensional, and I believe that was the story’s purpose. So anyone from any age group has something to learn from it. For the younger audience, its focus is being okay with who you are and not what you provide for your family and if I may even go as far to say - to society. That children and young adolescents are enough by just being. They don't have to be perfect or have to have great gifts (or talents), because that does not make them who they are. They are who they are because they simply are. That your worth isn’t anything less if you are a little quirky and weird. For older audiences who may have children, it shows that we shouldn't push children so hard. We should be proud of them because they are doing their best. To bear in mind the consequences of pushing our young ones too hard and the possibility of succumbing to societal pressure of ‘not being good enough.’ And an overall theme, regardless of who we are: You're never truly ever alone. Somewhere out there, someone is on your side, whether we realize it or not. The movie portrays this beautifully when the townspeople come to help the Madrigal family repair their home. They had no expectations for the town to help rebuild their home, but they did it because they wanted to, and to show the Madrigal family they were not alone. I absolutely loved that. I also loved that there was a small period when the Madrigal family didn't know what was going to happen in the future. But what they did know is that they understood each other better, and, through that, they grew closer and stronger as a family. Sure, one may argue that it happened a little too quickly, but I whole-heartedly believe if these messages can reach people when they need it most, then steps needed - or rather the courage to move forward can and will happen. Regardless of how long it will take.

Now, wherever you are Be in the present Don't let the ghost of the past Or the memories of your past mistakes Haunt you And spoil the moments you have yet to live

Now, wherever you are

Be present

With yourself Don't let your mind wander unaccompanied Our minds are like our inner child They can easily get lost if left alone Take its hand Keep it in a safe place

Now, wherever you are

Mourn the lost ones Feel the grief, feel the pain Feel the sadness Feel the longing For it is in those moments Feeling those feelings That we cherish their stay in our life

It is unfortunate that their stay Was so brief and is already over But for as long as we remember them And hold them dearly next to our hearts They'll live

Now, wherever you are I hope you are not feeling alone Or maybe feeling alone is part of the longing, the sadness, the pain and the grief In that case, feel it, for as long as you don't believe it

Whenever you are Be it in a good place, or in a bad place Or in an uncertain place, when you don't know yourself where you are and what's going on When your mind is playing tricks on you Know that I'm with you, and I'll always be with you

Your pain will be my pain, your sadness will be my sadness I'll help you carry it So the weight won't be too heavy Because no matter what, I'll always be with you Now, wherever you are