I'm writing a plotline at the moment that involves Gladys Gudgeon trying to murder Harry for disgracing her number one hero, Gilderoy Lockhart, and I'm really enjoying playing with the few mentions we get of her existence and fleshing out her character.

I know there are a lot of side characters that get this treatment, like any of the kids in Harry's year (particularly the Slytherins and Susan Bones), but are there any funny little characters you'd liked to see explored further in fanfic?

Do you have any big headcanons or thought-up backstories for anyone?

 

Arkie Philpott.

We hear about him having a probe stuck up his arse, and I like to think of him as a funny little man who just has all manner of bad luck happening to him, like a character in a sit-com. Everyone likes him really, but he's the constant butt of jokes because of his endearing incompetence. He has a job in Muggle Liasion, which provides plenty of opportunity for hilarious misunderstandings, but has always wanted to be on the radio.

 

Poor Arkie Philpott. I bet he always says exactly the wrong thing to whatever goblin's serving him in Gringotts, and never has an enjoyable trip to the bank.

 

I've always thought Flitwick's backstory would be a particularly interesting read -- a half goblin with a point to prove on the dueling circle who later becomes a mild-mannered, well-loved Professor. Similarly, Hagrid's origins (half-giant) are very rarely discussed, and you could go into Grawp, Aragog and Tom Riddle's history there.

As far as a really minor character, it might be a lot of fun to read a Mundungus-centric fic, especially if he was an anti-hero capable of far more than he lets on.

 

Carlotta Pinkstone is a really intriguing character.

 

We need more stories set in 1950s and 1960s.

You can do a lot in those time periods. The First War won't happen for at least 10 years, a lot of characters are still around and younger. Just think of the possibilities!

 

Xandrel: I think we will see a lot of those stories once Fantastic Beasts come out. With them set to do a trilogy (perhaps featuring young Dumbledore/Grindelwald in the process) and opening up a new part of the magical world with New York/rest of the US, I think old Harry Potter fanfic'ers that have lost interest in recent years will be back in full effect, producing a lot of stories from that time period.

 

Interpreting minor characters is a HP fic trope unto itself with all of the Harry/Daphne fics out there. I'll mention The Strange Disappearance of Sally Anne Perks and Renegade Cause in tandem with Speak Softly Love as examples of the author taking a minor character and putting their own interesting spin on it. I liked what Silens did with Dolohov so much that I did the same thing in my own fic.

 

Why, the wandless magic guy, of course.

In all seriousness, though, I'd love to see more of Ollivander. It'd be like the young upstart scientist/businessman story: a young man grows up watching his father struggle to make good wands using traditional and outdated methods, and decides to attune his laser focus to the art. Through rigorous experimentation and research, he revolutionizes wandmaking, a thousands-year-old craft, by casting aside the superstition and tradition to document all the most effective wand cores and woods out of all those available in Britain. Over time, his methods bear fruit and his reputation grows, even with competition from rival wandmakers like Gregorovitch, until he becomes known as the premier wandmaker in the world, as close to a master as exists in the craft. Both sides of the story's wars use wands he made, Death Eaters and Order members alike utilizing the tools crafted by this one man: Voldemort was likely one of his first customers, and Harry likely one of his last.

I'd read that.

 

In AN UNFOUND DOOR, I've just introduced two chapters ago a supremely minor character:

Zoe Accrington - Slytherin

An argument can be made she's more OC than anything else, as her only appearance within the Harry Potter universe is as a student walking the halls of the PS2 version of the Prisoner of Azkaban video game.

Still, worth exploring, I thought. Someone fresh. Though if I'm being a touch honest, she's Daphne by any other name, really. None of that cold standoffishness, however. Zoe's a sex pest looking to summon minor mischief gods from Ravenclaw's lost observatory. You know, as they failed to explore in the PoA video game.

 

The Sacrifices Arc has a ton of these, but the most notable is probably Regulus Black, who we see in flashback as the only Death Eater Snape had any respect for, and in the current timeline as supportive figure in Harry's life, a not dis-similar big brother type characterisation to the one often given Sirius in fanfic. Either that or Evan Rosier, there a poetry quoting psychopath who collaborates with both Harry and Voldemort, depending on who interests him more at any given point in the story. He's such a compelling character that not only did I use it in my own AU series, I did so in part because it had overwritten my memories of canon so thoroughly that I'd forgotten he was supposed to be dead.

Speaking of my own fanfic, I resurrected Caradoc Dearborn for mine, although I never got around to doing much with him. I imagined him as a close friend of the Longbottoms, who'd been their Secret Keeper and then betrayed them to the Death Eaters - although by the time he actually appeared, at the end of the fourth book, he was known to have been framed by Sirius, who really was a Death Eater in that story. As with Joe's example above, it was a bit of a cheat: he would probably have ended up being Sirius by another name, except I had him as an old boyfriend of Peter rather than Remus.

 

That old guy at the Quiddich World Cup giving absolutely zero fucks, especially none concerning 'conventional' muggle clothes.

 

I've done something similar with my WIP. It's an OC, really, but if you squint could be a minor character. She's the 2nd year girl who asks Harry to the Yule Ball and bursts into tears when he says no.

I think this is more exciting than creating an OC from scratch. Having the fact that they're in the books or video game in the back of your mind adds a certain legitimacy to their existence.

 

I'm writing [Jubilation] Savage, one of the chumps who gets stationed in Hogsmeade during Half-Blood Prince, as an anxious depressive who feels driven by his profession to be perceived as a strong and stoic leader, a task he is singularly unsuited for. From my background notes on his character:

In truth, Jubal Savage had been better christened Agitation by his parents; they were Puritans who had lost their way and not fled to Salem* until the height of the first war. Jubilation, who shared his parents’ unease with the modern world but not their inclination for flagellation, had—according to Rita—done seven years in Ravenclaw, a ceaseless epoch he passed by exhibiting all the worst qualities of a Hufflepuff. In a bid to rid himself of recurring ennui by way of turning up dead, he had enlisted in a depleted Auror corps willing to overlook his academic negligence, and despite resounding mediocrity in the line of duty, had discovered a distressing propensity for failing to die. This stroke of misfortune gave way to a string of undeserved promotions that placed him in the precarious position of minor command, such that by early middle age, he had grown to be ever on edge, and his youthful gloom had been subsumed by a general anxiety and the niggling fear—oft-realized—that he was letting down those around him.
​

His memory lingers on the mostly unrequited thing he had for Nymphadora Tonks before she was less alive, and his feet probably suffer from chronic magical blistering.

*Damn it Pottermore, I will never accept that Wizarding America isn't a theocratic Puritan state.

 

Hestia Jones and Emmeline Vance, two witches from the Order.
They are rarely in the center of the stories, and usually when Sirius Black needs a girlfriend.

 

I've been quietly kicking around the idea of a Rosmerta-centric set of fics, partly haven't written it because it ties into a Big Epic Fic Thing I've also been kicking around.

Anyways, Rosmerta needs more attention.