My name is Darren, I'm 19, and live in Sydney, Australia. I attend Macquarie University and am studying a Bachelor of Environmental Management.

Sixth Year: The Steps Toward The End

I came up with the name the night I posted the story, hence its lack of splendor. It may change, but only after I finish writing, if that does happen.

Currently the progressive title of the sequel is "Seventh Year: The Days Before Dawn" but that's as like to change as the weather.

The fic is going to be quite long, as, probably, will be its sequel. I am a supporter of character based stories, because without well written characters, there is just a plot, and that does not suffice for me - I need a character to sympathise or relate to to really enjoy a story. Because of that, there will be many periods without action, as the characters are still at Hogwarts, and not too much can happen there. I would apologize, but each character is different and deserves their own personality, history, dreams and air time. Some will get far more than others, though.

I seem to lack the ability to write concisely, so most scenes are longer than they otherwise could be. I've enjoyed writing deeply into the scenes thus far and will continue to do so as long as it works for me.

The first term of SY focused on the introductions of characters and the end of some relationships. It is too long and, trust me, I know that. The second term will be focused on the background of characters, all the while the time during nearer when the move will be made. The Easter break has the plot and the story pick up immensely and, with I think two down-ish chapters of mostly character interaction, rides to the end in a, hopefully, exciting and somewhat original climax.

I've learnt a lot during my period of writing and hope to continue to do so.

Hope you enjoy my probably overly long tale.

Darren (scaryisntit)

23/5: Well, here we are again. I've started writing again having finally finished exams (though Uni returns in 5 weeks). Presently I am working through the early chapters to fix them up a bit - a line here or there, change a few things, shorten a few scenes that were unnecessarily long, fix an explanation or three, and add one new scene. I hope to have the next chapter out before I return, but, again, no promises. Life has a habit of interfering with promises I make on here. At the moment, I'm working on chapter 3 (formerly 4 & 5). So, if you noticed the chapter and word count reduce, this'd be why.

24/5: Chapters 4 & 5 (formerly known as "Trust" and "Friday Night") are now chapter 3 "The DA". I lost 12,038 words in that edit. Wow. I really do go overboard sometimes. At any rate, I'm going to take a few hours off and I'll start chapter 6 (now 4). Expect that done in maybe two days. Depends on how much I need to edit. There won't be a chapter title change for all of them, but I will change a number of them to work better. The song title thing was fun while it lasted, but it limits me too much. I should also mention these edits are unbetad. This means there'll be some mistakes that I, somehow, don't notice in my two rereads. Don't know how I miss some of the most obvious ones, but I do.

25/5: Well, that's chapter 4 done. "Something Worth Knowing" is now 1500 words shorter and now known as "Strange Behavior". The next chapter probably will take awhile, being 15k and all. I'm a little worried. I don't remember what happens in this one except for one scene. Like I said, this one will probably take awhile. I'll start on it later tonight, probably. But most work will be done tomorrow and Saturday.

Also, I just ducked under 300,000 words. Oh yeah. Bet that's a rare sight.

2/6: Well, not even a week after I say 'no promises', real life gets in the way. Got a cold. Have you ever tried to write when you can't focus on anything? Not an easy task, I'll tell you. Then I had a couple of outings with friends. In the end I didn't edit as much in this chapter as I thought I would. I still lost around 4000 words but I left two scenes almost entirely untouched. Chapter title is now "Steps Forward and Backward" instead of "Bigger, Stronger". Probably won't make much progress on the next chapter until Sunday. Got things to do, and this one I know needs at least a few things changed.

10/6: Ugh. That was painful. Lost around 1000 words in that edit. No chapter title change. Left one scene almost entirely untouched. However, I removed all traces of Ron setting out to force himself on Hermione, except for those that Harry thought to himself - thinking that Ron was trying to force a kiss, or more, out of her. I'd intended everyone to believe it but have Ron not actually intend to. He didn't answer McGonagall and she assumed the worst.

I regret kicking out Ron the way I did, but at the time it was the only way I could think of. Ron's attitude simply has no place in the fic until much later. He either had to change drastically or go. A drastic change would be unlike Ron - he didn't change all that much in canon. Nevertheless, I fell into the same trap that is oh-so-overdone. I contemplated changing it completely (a minor part of why this took so long) but chose not to. This'll still be the same story in the sense that you'll only need to read one new scene once I'm done. At any rate, I'll begin working on the Gringotts chapter soon. I'm glad I'll barely have to touch the chapters with the Ginny confrontation and the fight scene in the forest around Hogsmeade, as editing your early work can be a painful process. Those two I was always pleased with. Finally, I reread a bit of what I'd written for a later on chapter (formerly chapter 30) and loved it. I hope I can write the way I used to after all this time. Anyway, time to fix some God awful mistakes in this chapter - it isn't that hard to avoid the main cliche's at Gringotts. I didn't even bother trying when I originally wrote it. Oh well. Until next time.

19/6: Ugh (version 2.0). Got an infection last week and am only now just getting over it. It's been one huge pain in the... head and chest, mainly. I'm about 3/4 done the chapter. It'll keep the same name, but I've still got to redo the fight scene. I considered rewriting the entire chapter but mainly removed some of the more cringe worthy aspects. I should finish this by the end of Wednesday if I'm better tomorrow.

2/7: So, Uni is back tomorrow. I've nearly completed the edits for the for the next chapter - the first in France (the Gringotts chapter has been edited; same name, 3000 words less, and bits and pieces altered to work better, but nothing drastic). It's taken some time due to other commitments and some extensive fixing of descriptions of Veela. Work will no doubt grind to a dissatisfying halt in a week, if not less - my work load appears to be the heaviest yet. I've already found I have a couple of hundred or so page reports to read in the first month, and a pair of 2000 word essays in the first six weeks. Fun! I'll work through the remaining chapters I'm going to edit (up to the former #19) in some slow patches at Uni, but a full, new chapter likely won't arrive until late December (a few weeks after Uni ends for the year). I'd hoped to finish all of the edits before Uni returns. Didn't happen. Such is life. I'll update this when I have news to speak of. Until then.