Denizen of planet Earth, specifically the Americas, more specifically the Northern America, more more specifically, America, also sometimes referred to as the "United States". Therefore, not very British. Self-proclaimed nerd, proud Slytherin. Blossoming botanist/mycologist/naturalist. Experimental cook, wannabe snobby foodie. Currently have 90% of the lyrics to Hamilton memorized.

I'm a writer at heart and have many original projects going on, but my HP fanfic has been a lovely side project. My updates are irregular and sporadic, but just like death and taxes, you can count on them eventually coming for you. Probably. Heavy emphasis on the "eventually".

If you want to get in touch, shoot me an email: mlocatis@

I am a private person and have no public social medias, such as the Facebook or the Twitter or the Instagram.

NOTE: Bien que j'écrive en anglais, je parle également français, et j'aimerai bien publier des morceaux en français de temps en temps. Comme ce n'est pas ma langue maternelle, j'aimerai bien l'aide d'une rédacteur/rédactrice de qui la langue maternelle est le français. N'hésitez pas de m'envoyer un message si çela vous intéresse.

ALSO for all the lovely writers of the anglophone world, I humbly offer this gift of knowledge (i.e. I'm a big fat snobby grammar Nazi, and these common mistakes are driving me up a wall):

accept/except: I ACCEPT that not everyone can use these homophones correctly. But everyone EXCEPT those who make no effort can learn!

affect/effect: Using these words incorrectly can really AFFECT the way people view your writing abilities. One EFFECT (n.) of improper usage, for example, is that others perceive you to be younger or uneducated. In order to EFFECT (v.) a positive change, you must be willing to approach your writing with an open mind!

amendable/ amenable: The Bill of Rights is AMENDABLE, because amendments can be made to it. A person might be AMENABLE to negotiations concerning the number of Blue Herons they are willing to house in their attic, as housing such a large number of birds is difficult, and negotiations would be welcome in order to ensure that said person is fairly compensated for taking on such a formidable responsibility. Or, put more plainly, one might be AMENABLE to using a simpler example.

bated/baited: If you're waiting with BATED breath, you're holding your breath. If you're waiting with BAITED breath, you probably have a bunch of night crawlers hanging from hooks in your mouth, which is a very disturbing image.

censor/censure: You might CENSOR a particularly vulgar movie with scenes inappropriate for children, and then CENSURE the creators of such vulgarity in a strongly-worded letter. But that would all be an infringement on the First Amendment, of course.

choose/chose: I CHOOSE you, Pikachu! Ash said, as he CHOSE Pikachu.

desert/dessert: While wandering in the DESERT, you might long for a cool, tasty DESSERT, such as gelato. But if you were only wandering in said DESERT because you stole DESSERTS from children and were driven from your homeland, one might call your predicament your JUST DESERTS. Were you not wandering in a DESERT, though, but rather celebrating over a sundae among friends at the local ice cream parlor, you and your merry band would be indulging in JUST DESSERTS.

its vs. it's: IT'S really useful to be able to differentiate between these two forms. A story's flow is never perfectly smooth until all ITS little errors are sorted out.

lead/led/lead: Reading this might LEAD you to the conclusion that I'm an obnoxious person to be around. It is my hope that nothing here has LED you astray, and that you will not ever come after me with a LEAD pipe to beat some sense into me.

libel/liable: I'm LIABLE to bash your brains in if you insinuate that I was in any way responsible for the results of the 2016 election. And if you try to tell the press otherwise, I'll sue you for LIBEL!

lose/loose: If you LOSE your dog, he's running around on the LOOSE. But if his damned collar wasn't so LOOSE in the first place, maybe you wouldn't LOSE him!

of/off: You might think OF decapitating someone, meaning that you would very much like to chop their head clean OFF.

site/sight: You are currently on this SITE. And the SITE of a battle could be a grassy knoll, a dark forest, a harrowing desert... And, my, those landscapes would make quite the SIGHT! I would want to keep them in my SIGHT for all of eternity!

there, their, and they're: THERE is no reason to deny it, these forms get confusing as well! THEY'RE all so similar, so who can possibly tell the difference? THEIR meanings and usage are vastly different, though, so pay careful attention when employing these words!

weary/wary: An overworked teacher is WEARY of screaming, snot-nosed brats. An adorable baby bunny is WARY of a hungry grizzly bear.

your vs. you're: If YOU'RE having trouble figuring out which to use, don't lose YOUR head! Just remember that an apostrophe (') indicates a missing letter and a contraction, so separate the words out and see if it sounds right.

Flash Fiction: A Meta-Dialogue

"Please don't write dialogue this way." Said Rick.

"Or like this" said Susie.

"Or most definitely not like this said Bobby knowing how annoying missing commas and quotation marks can be.

"This, however, would be more than acceptable," Nancy clarified.

"But can I still use weird punctuation?!!!?????" demanded Johnny.

"Absolutely not!" Nancy cried, horrified.

"What about slashes and/or awkward-dashes?" Johnny pressed. "And can I group someone else's dialogue in the same paragraph as another speaker?" added Rick.

"No, no, no!" shrieked Nancy, covering her ears and closing her eyes. "Absolutely not! Oh, that's just cruel! It's so much nicer when you start a new paragraph for every new speaker."

"Of course," Bobby exclaimed haughtily.

"I start a new paragraph every time I start a new statement."

"Abomination against nature!" Nancy wailed. "No, you cannot torture readers like this, you monster!"

Susie snorted derisively. "Says the girl given to stilted dialogue and over-the-top hyperbole."

Nancy stared at Susie for a moment; then sighed. "Point taken."

"Ugh, and that atrocious use of a semi-colon!" Susie hissed. "You should really read up on that before you just throw it haphazardly into your sentence, you contumelious boor!"

Rick gagged. "Did you just look up a super-snobby thesaurus word and plop it into your sentence? Can you even pronounce that word? How many syllables does it have?"

"All right, guys, this has gone on long enough," said no one in particular.

The End