AU After the End

[romaine]

Major discussions are happening on what will now be considered canon and what will be AU for the HP archived sites and LJ.

Currently the consensus is canon is Books 1-7 + the 2 charity books. As to the epilogue of Book 7, if you do not include it, put the warning EWE (Epilogue What Epilogue).

JKR’s website, interviews, etc… can be considered as Secondary Canon but needn’t be abided by.

With her new interviews and HPDH more diversions from what she has said before are arising, so claiming canon from these can be a problem.

Examples:
1. Previously she said wizards could not fly.
2. She said Luna and Neville would not be a couple and now she says she kind of likes the idea.
3. Grindelwald is dead. Well now he is as of Book 7, but this was asked of her quite awhile ago and she said yes he was (he wasn’t).
4. The Fidelius Charm goes away when the Secret Keeper dies. Book 7 disagrees with this previous statement.

Each of the Archived sites seems to have differing guidelines on what is AU. I was thinking that maybe Cipher should revisit the definition or give further explanation. Just an idea.

[Morrighan]

This is partly the same discussion we have after every new book comes out--what's canon-compliant pre-HBP isn't anymore after. So my stance has always been that the old fics get grandfathered, to include in-progress fics. I agree with the EWE warning. And I'm out of time, so I'll come back for more later.

I open this up to our authors, as well.

[_Ky_]

I'm still on first cup of coffee, so I don't know if I would be logical. I will ponder this.

Do agree on EWE, though.

I also think that for the time being we should begin a DH+ Recs section. I would start it with Bemused's epi, so that we on Cipher could secretly use the anocronym EBE.

[Bemused]

*blushes*

So that those who don't read my lj have an idea what Ky is talking about:

Spoiler

Title: Dreams of Peace.
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville.
Rating: G
Warning:may sort of contain spoilers for DH, no 'ships (or all ships left open ).
Word count: not very long.
Disclaimer: I am not JKR.
Author's note: Based on the last paragraph of DH before the epilogue in which Harry has not slept at all, is pining for peace, and is headed up to take a nap in Griffyndor tower.

She supposed that the Great Hall must have been too noisy. Hermione didn't know, of course, because she and Ron had come back to Gryffindor with Harry and stayed down in the common room when he went up to have a rest, but Neville had looked a bit harried when he snuck furtively into the room and sank into one of the club chairs.

"All right, Neville?" Ron's question was so characteristic that Hermione smiled to herself as she paged through "Hogwarts: A History". Just reading it was a comfort.

"Bit too much. I wanted a spot of quiet."

"Game of chess?" Ron had been quietly moving the pieces around the board while Hermione read. Thank goodness it was the muggle set she'd put in the common room last year, not the Wizard's Chess set.

"Sure." Neville's chair made a scraping sound as he pulled it across the floor nearer Ron and the chess board, making Hermione wince. "Sorry, Hermione."

"S'OK." Hermione watched the boys play over the edge of her book, then looked up when she heard a scratching on the other side of the painting.

"Open up, please." Luna's voice came from the hall outside and Hermione went to let her in.

"Hey."

"Hey." Luna gave Hermione a quick squeeze as she slid by into the room. "Worse than a colony of firebreathing bee-nants that's found a patch of sulflowers out there."

Hermione thought about explaining that bee-nants didn't really exist outside of Merlinian legends, but was too tired. She went back to her chair while Luna went to watch the chess game. She wasn't sure how comfortable Luna was leaning over with one arm along the back of each chair, but it seemed to work for her.

"How long do you think we have before they notice we're gone?"

"Dunno, Hermione. A while." Ron was concentrating hard on the chess game. Neville must be giving him a good run.

Neville looked over at her. "I should think we have some time. Everyone was milling about a great deal when I left."

Soothed by the soft click of wood on wood and the murmur of voices from the other three, Hermione fell into a light doze, waking every so often to watch the game. During one of the times when she was awake, there was a rustle on the staircase to the boy'd dorm. She looked up and saw Harry standing on the landing, watching over the back of Ron and Neville's heads, and Luna, as the boys played chess. She smiled up at him and he smiled back.

Ron noticed her looking up and turned, giving a welcoming grin. "All right, Harry? Had a good sleep?"

"Yeah. Dreamed about the future and all our kids going off to Hogwarts. It was nice. Peaceful." Harry finished coming down the stairs and into the room. He flopped down on the couch next to Hermione's chair.

"Yeah? All our kids, eh? Whose was whose?"

"Dunno, really. Don't really remember. I think I named one of mine after Snape, though."

"Snape? Really?" Hermione was surprised.

"Snape Potter? What, you want both your dad and the git to be turning windmills in their graves?" Ron was clearly trying to supress his giggles.

Harry grinned back at him and lobbed a pillow in Ron's direction. "I dunno. It was a dream. Just a dream."

Luna's face took on serious cast. "You know, Harry, it could be a prophetic dream. You may want to read your tea leaves. There could be a Delphonic Quartsphere in your future." She paused and her voice changed, taking on a high-pitched dramatic tone. "Or an Endless Tragedy and Dire Event. Like Muggle Orthodontia."

They all looked at eachother and burst out laughing


End Author's note: As I consider the epilogue a dream Harry had while catching up on his rest after the battle, I wouldn't call the information in it Canon or stories that disregard it AU (well, or stories that have a good explaination as to why whoever it was really survived, either) but that is just me.