misanthrope: n. a person who dislikes or distrusts other people or mankind in general

While I am certainly fond of individuals, humans in large groups become positively loathsome. The current US election cycle provides ample proof of this. Hence, my penname- Ms. Anthrop.

I fell down the rabbit hole of fanfiction purely by chance and now find myself furiously typing away in hopes of completing several epically long WIPs. While I've always written drabbles here and there, my background is in academia and education. Primarily, I research areas of public and reproductive health; I specialize in the Middle East and Africa. I currently work in education. Should you be writing on any of those topics and have questions, feel free to PM me.

Music has always been my muse, and the main story I'm currently working on came to me whilst listening to Jeff Buckley's wonderful version of "Hallelujah". Leonard Cohen once said of the song, “this world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled, but there are moments when we can reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that's what I mean by 'Hallelujah'. That struggle for reconciliation—for love amidst pain and chaos—is a common thread in all of my writing, and I enjoy exploring how people deal with trauma, loss and the variegated shades of intimacy that colour our lives.

My chosen fandom is Harry Potter, and the ending of the ‘Deathly Hallows’ still makes me angry all these years later. And, oh, that horrid epilogue- there is no chance having experienced that much suffering that our erstwhile friends would simply fall in line, end up with their school-yard loves, and live happily ever after. My story ‘Hallelujah’ is an attempt to correct that monumental error in my own head canon.

Severus Snape is my favourite character in the entire series, and I find that the moral greyscapes and complexities of his life lend itself to all sorts of wonderful philosophical meanderings. I can’t believe after creating such a brilliant character that JKR would simply kill him off; what a beastly, cheap way to end the books!

For now, I primarily ship SSHG, can tolerate HPHG, but find the thought of Hermione and Ron ending up together in anything other than divorce court to be completely ridiculous. I also find Dumbledore to be a Machiavellian and unredeemable arse, so don’t expect my treatment of him to be anything but.

I write the types of stories that I like to read: that is to say, something with quite a bit of UST, angst, humour, and the thorough fleshing out of characters and emotion. A bit of smut, fluff and lemons usually sneak in as well although not as quickly as some might prefer ;)

'Bubble Gum and Broken Heels', 'Of Mice and Men', and 'The Spanish Inquisition' are all prequels to 'Hallelujah', but can be easily read as one-shots. 'Mistress of the Stacks' and ‘A Derailed Train of Thought’ are stand-alone tales.

And speaking of 'Mistress of the Stacks'- there is fan art! Thanks to StormDragonfly for creating this brilliant cover for the story.

I welcome and appreciate all feedback to my stories.