Sesc: replace "Death Eaters" with "The Government" and many things that look like plot holes instead start to look like real life. If he leaves those questions unanswered then they may be plot holes, but there are (potentially) very good answers to those questions.

 

Andromeda?

 

Parents of the Creevey brothers? Their elder son is dead, and they could do completly nothing.

 

I don't want to read about people indulging in irrational emotional reactions. Not exactly helpful advice, I realize, but just putting it out there.

 

I'll answer one of the questions now, since I see that I wasn't quite clear, but will have to work through the others.

As for why the Death Eaters are going after Harry's vaults, it was a POV issue. In the background story, Dumbledore thought it was specifically going after Harry, maybe to draw out Harry's caretakers and thus find him, or maybe even out of spite. Dumbledore doesn't really know. Through the years, however, he found that it wasn't just Harry's vaults, but rather, a concentrated effort to seize vaults/money that are "dormant" (typical banking laws). When there's accounts that should be dormant (they know that it's a child that has them, or that the family is dead, etc), but there's still activity, then they become more proactive in stealing the money, whether it be through legislation, pressuring those who are handling it (say, account reps, and no, NOT the Goblins, they are JUST bankers in the story), or by other means.

So in the end, Harry's vaults are just one of dozens that they're trying to seize, but because of Dumbledore's POV and worry about Harry, he doesn't recognize it until the Goblins bring it up to him.

Like I said, I have to think through the other questions later. I appreciate it the input.

ANd that's true for the others here as well. Thanks.

---------- Post automerged at 10:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:49 PM ----------

Since you had only female characters, I stuck with that. Most of these I think lived in the canon version, but that doesn't mean you can't write an AU version:
Susan Bones would be a good possibility. (Definitely AU, however).
Demelza Robins (though she's probably as disliked as Ginny).
Padma would be an interesting choice.
Katie Bell - you could work in her torture in her seventh year from the necklace as well.

 

Demelza was actually rather pleasant from what I remember of her in HBP. Might you mean Romilda (the one who tried to daterape Harry)?

 

:facepalm

Yeah, that's exactly who I meant. Good catch.

 

Let's see if this works, and then I'll use your other questions to think back through the issue. Here's what I have so far:

1. Dumbledore becomes aware of a movement to seize any bank account that has become dormant after X number of years. He does the math and realizes that Harry's account would be included. It is brought to the wizengamot and discussed (I'm going with the Old English/Saxon idea of the wizengamot as a place of council/appointment of state heads and also trials). The rationale is (a) because money abandoned there can be ised to improve Wizarding Britain, and (b) to make sure the goblins "don't get their greedy hands on it."

2. Dumbledore becomes suspicious and looks into it to find a small number of former Death Eaters make up the ministry office that would control the taking of the vaults and making decisions on where to disperse the gain.

3. He suspects that this may be a plot to take Harry's money and use it against him as some kind of leverage in the future, whether it be for spite, or because Voldemort is alive, he doesn't know.

4. In reaction, Dumbledore meets with the Goblins to find out the specifics of what he can do in order to keep the money out of the ministry's (and thereby the "former" Death Eater's) hands if the bill passes, based on Goblin banking regulations on what is an "abandoned" account. He finds out that the Ministry gets to set the passage of time before an account is abandoned, but the rules regulating what it means are set in stone.

• A total of five percent of the money at the start of the year must be either added or withdrawn during the year.
  
• If it is suspected that money is just being taken and then put back in, the account can still be considered abandoned by the Ministry.
  
• In short, the owner has to be willing to testify under oath that the money has actually been spent, or the money added was new money.
  
• Last, these regulations fell out of favor centuries ago, but are still binding, which means many accounts could be taken, even those that are actually being used.

5. That Revelation leads him to inquire about other vaults that the Ministry has asked about, and he finds out that there is a number of vaults, that all together could be worth hundreds of thousands of galleons, or more.

6. Wizengamut meets and votes in the laws (Dumbledore just a member, 1985. He becomes head in '86 during change of govt., when Fudge becomes Minister, according to how I'm laying out the timeline).

7. Dumbledore frets about what to do with the money, and decides to pull some of it out and using it to pay Harry's education in advance at Hogwarts. There is another vault that was surreptitiously used for the Order (not a Potter vault), and for ongoing things concerning the Order/keeping tabs on things after the war. Dumbledore uses money from Harry's vault as well as this one to pay for such activities to make sure that his account is being used, and is accounting for it as Protection money, such as paying Mrs. Figg's mortgage, etc. However, by the time of Harry's fourth year, the money spent was enough so that Dumbledore could start paying Harry's vault back from the vault being used to pay for the ongoing Order/keeping tabs/security work. All of this works out to Harry's vaults being kept above the level at which the Ministry can seize it.

8. The money brought in to the ministry isn't being distributed, and Dumbledore tries to find out why. As a result, the legislation is abandoned, but Dumbledore is fearful that it will be used again since it wasn't voted out.

9. With all the stuff happening at the Ministry with Sirius Black escaping in Harry's third year, it provided a good cover for the former Death Eaters to start taking vaults again without it making much noise.

10. Dumbledore is alerted by the Goblins because of his position but also because of the earlier conversations. He looks into it and finds out that the money taken is being sent to Albania. Bertha Jorkins finds out about it (she's described by Sirius in GoF as very nosy and not too bright) and believes the money should go to help put on the worldcup/triwizard tournament. She takes a "holiday" to see exactly what's going on, but never returns.

11. Dumbledore guessed as why she went, and it raised his suspicions. After asking a few trusted associates of the ICW, he comes to believe that Voldemort is active, and that the money is being sent to him.

So:

wouldn't keep Harry's money from being taken.

Being done legally through the Ministry, and by the time they start up again during Prisoner of Azkaban, Malfoy owns fudge too much and can run interference.

A magical adult must be the trustor of Harry's vaults until he's of age. When Sirius went to jail, that fell to Dumbledore, as planned in the will of Harry's parents (no "will-reading" in the story. Hell no).

One part seeing whats being done in the wizengamat, one part paranoid suspicion after years of war.

This all sets up a weary Dumbledore at the beginning of the Fourth year, even more suspicious after Harry's name is put in the Goblet. BTW, in this story, Peter Pettigrew doesn't escape, so Sirius is free, and comes back as the Defense Against Dark Arts teacher during the GoF year, which throws a spin on how Harry's name gets put in the Goblet, among some other issues.

Does that cover the plot holes, or does it just open up more?

EDIT: thought of another plot hole. Why not just start moving money if the seizures begin again? I'm thinking maybe because it would just take another law in the Ministry to adjust what is meant by "Abandoned," and Dumbledore decides it's not worth the risk. So he sets about doing it the way described above.

 

And later once Harry and other notice problem - blame goblins.

 

I really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks. Now to find out how and when to work the streamlined stuff into my story.

(Doesn't help that I'm working on four stories at the same time).

 

I'm wondering, is there any decent Steampunk Harry out there? isaw some DC/Marvel fanart and read about noir, so I thought hard, and couldn't remember any mention to one.

 

This question isn't so much about my fanfic, as it is a specific question about setting a scene in my fanfic. Setting scenes and working the use of proper conjunctions at the proper time for good narrative flow are my two foci right now.

So, with that said, here's my question. In the paragraph below, is this scene set to your liking? why or why not? Note, it's in chapter 23 of my fic, so the reason for Harry being there, etc., are all taken care of already. I'm not looking for commentary on the story, or other parts of writing here (or I wouldn've put it in the WbA subforum), just on setting the scene.

 

Great advice. Would you believe I've never even thought about that?


Jon - AMA? American Medical Association style guide?

 

A question for my own fanfic writing: Dagger and Rose--sequel (a different path from the one I started and abandoned in a swath of flames), rewrite, scrap/delete, or ignore and write something else?

My rookie novel, written ages ago, it's flawed as hell yet pretty much the only thing I've written that anyone reads. Potentially salvagable? Harry/Fleur is still lacking in terms of decent stuff. I'm trying to talk myself into considering a light rewrite and a less objectionable follow-on... It's not like my original fiction is selling (novel and novella languishing in slushpiles about the globe...)