A couple of months ago, I typed up a few measly sentences and put them into this profile here because some people said that I should have a proper profile. I did the bare minimum because I wasn't really interested in writing out a super lengthy description of myself like some other authors do. But, today, September 20th, 2020, I have decided to rewrite my profile ahead of publishing chapter 70 of my story Strangers On a Train.

I'm currently eighteen years old and studying architecture as a freshman at my university in Florida. I'm originally from a suburb of Philadelphia and started writing my lone story while I was a senior in high school there. I study architecture because I hope that before my time comes, I have left a legacy in this world that is both tangible and intangible. By designing a neighborhood of quality affordable housing, or a skyscraper that is environmentally sustainable, or a monument to individuals of historical significance, I will have manifested my creative ability into something beautiful that will have an impact that outlasts me. And that's my goal.

Some minor stuff about me, my favorite movie is a film titled Casablanca, followed by a series of interchangeable favorites of mine like The Dark Knight, A Few Good Men, and Se7en. My favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, although the books I find myself rereading the most are the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. My favorite TV series is a tie between a show called The West Wing that details the lives of a group of high-ranking government officials in the White House and a show called Community that details the lives of several community-college students. The two shows honestly couldn't be more different, now that I think about it, but they're both incredible in their own ways. Schitt's Creek and Brooklyn Nine-Nine also rank near the top.

On Thursday, March 12th, 2019, it was announced that my school district would close down for two weeks and move to distance learning. It was my senior year of high school, and I had already garnered enough credits that I was only taking three classes instead of four like most students, so I had already mentally checked out of school before the Coronavirus was making headlines. When online schooling began on Friday, March 13th, I found myself becoming tremendously bored and desperately searched for something to fill my time. My boredom was only exacerbated when weekends rolled around and I could not go out and socialize like a teenager; thanks to the threat of a novel virus I was pretty much condemned to stay home with the exception of going to work at my job as a cashier at a grocery store. Thus, I was really, really bored for about a month with nothing to do. I learned how to do some basic magic tricks with playing cards, I tried and failed at learning how to juggle, and I even learned how to do that whistle thing where you stick two fingers in your mouth (my parents hated that I used my free time to practice that, but my dog thought it was the coolest thing ever) among several other temporary hobbies that didn't truly interest me. I had already committed to my university to study architecture so I began reading and practicing drawing buildings and such, but there's only so much inspiration one can get when they are surrounded by townhouses and can't leave the house to look at any different, cooler buildings.

About halfway through April, the TV channel SyFy did a Harry Potter marathon and I happened to tune in while Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was playing. Within seconds of turning the TV on, I instantly fell back in love with Harry Potter. I first read the books when I was eight and started shipping Harry and Hermione almost immediately after that. In the years since, I have reread the books several times and watched the movies who-knows how many times, but it had been a couple of years since I last read the books when April of 2019 rolled around. So, as I stated earlier, I fell back down the Harry Potter rabbit hole hard. I rewatched the movies, started rereading the books, and before long I was reading Harmony fanfiction once again. On April 26th, 2019, I discovered that there was a discord server for Harmony shippers and joined it under a username I came up with on the spot: bonded4life. The community was so welcoming and I was surrounded by so many talented authors with so many well-written fics that I felt encouraged to try my hand at writing a story. And I never half-ass anything, so I decided if I'm going to write a story, I'm going to do a canon rewrite.

That's how Strangers on a Train came about. Chapter 1 was published on April 30th, 2019. It begins on the Hogwarts Express in Harry Potter's first year, and as you can guess by the story's summary he befriends Hermione Granger before anyone else, thus changing the way the events of Harry Potter play out, primarily resulting in the pair falling in love as opposed to ending up in pathetic excuses for relationships with Weasleys.

Strangers on a Train is not for you if you are looking for character bashing. It is not for you if you are looking for soul bonds, Lord Potter, time-travel, etc. The alternate title of my story is Harry Potter But You Smile More. The divergences in my story, all brought on because Harry befriends Hermione first, are all intended for Harry to have a happier life than he had in canon. It is a tremendously fluffy story; if you are looking for a plot-heavy story that diverges from canon in a major way, this story is not for you.

At the time of writing this profile - September 20th, 2020 - Strangers on a Train is currently at the summer before the fifth year. This story is intended to go through the entirety of canon and then into a post-Hogwarts era. When I do end up finishing what is sure to be a gargantuan story, I will go back and edit certain chapters that need to be cleaned up, lengthened, shortened, etc. I will also republish the story and break it up into each year of Hogwarts to make it less daunting, to make it easier for people to read in the future. After that, I am still on the fence about writing additional stories. To be honest, I did write a few chapters of a Harmony pirate AU back when that was a writing challenge on the HMS Harmony Discord server and I might publish that along with a few other ideas I have. But that will not happen until well after I have finished Strangers, edited it, and republished it in yearly segments.

There are several Harmony stories on this website that either mean a lot to me or have inspired me to write my own story, and I feel like I ought to recommend them and thank them for giving me the extra push I needed to make Strangers on a Train happen. Flowers For Hermione by PKScholar is my all-time favorite Harmony fic, and I most certainly would not have felt compelled to write a super-fluffy Harmony story if I had not read that masterpiece. Hermione Granger and the Paradigm Shift by PetrificusSomewhatus inspired me to make small changes that have lasting effects; it is an incredibly well-written story with enthralling plot changes and realistic interpretations of Harry and Hermione, and the story itself deserves all the praise in the world. Awakening by SweetShireen is a masterfully-written story with equally brilliant corresponding art pieces that drew my attention to the HMS Harmony Discord sever, where I eventually was inspired to write. Kissing Lessons for the Beginner by Amethyst on Portkey (now on the Portkey Archive) is the first Harmony fic that I can remember reading, and I would be lying if I do not try to emulate its snogging scenes in my own story. The List by HermioneCrookshanks919 was one of the first stories that I read on this website and remains one of my all-time favorites. I Did It by Muggledad, Just One of Those Days by Darth Mittens, Bored In Binns' and He's Mine by Romantic Silence are all fantastic one-shots that are so well-written I can only hope to come close to their brilliance in my own writing.

Strangers on a Train has garnered so much more attention than I ever could have dreamed of, and I want to thank everyone involved in making that happen. Everyone who has read my story, who has followed it, who has added it to their favorites, or has left a review (even if it's a bad one), I truly cherish you all. The fact that something I started writing simply because I was bored has generated so much enthusiasm, has had such a positive impact on so many people, is almost unfathomable to me. It still doesn't feel real when I see people recommend my story to others on social media or see people discuss it outside of leaving reviews, but I am still incredibly appreciative nonetheless. Strangers on a Train means the world to me, and I am writing it because I want to write it, but the fact that so many people truly like it is an unbelievably amazing perk.

Thank you all for everything.