Not a Chapter but: Afterwords

Here we are. Again.Although it’s been a while. I think… the last NaCb I wrote was for… Naruto? I don't really remember as there is a gap between when I’m done writing a fic and when I’m done posting it. For example I wrote the Epilogue on 9th of june 2025 and I’ve posted it on… the 26th of June 2026. At the time I was still posting Naruto I think.In any case… I HAD A BLAST!Writing this Harry Potter fic has been really fun. The one I had the most fun with in truth. I honestly believe it’s the best of all my fics so far. Not only writing but story wise. (Not the pacing and character dvpt though. ME still my best work in those regards)Of course for those that already know I had to rework lots (70+ chapters) with AI because I wasn’t satisfied with the way I was presenting the environment.Boy did that get old very fast. The rework was far better than for my GoT fic but damn it was… not quite what I wanted. So I gave up on it midway. Except for the sex scenes. I… don’t like writing those, imagining them on the other hand… In any case from now on I’ll try to avoid them (not counting the scenes from other fics already in the work). That’s a decision that I’ve taken before I started my new project (Resident Evil fic) but after I started my DC fic and I think I’ll stick to it.Now about the fic itself:I fucking loved writting Bella. It was… a bit of a challenge and at the same time not. When to make her crazy and when not but most of all, how to make her crazy the right way. Meaning: likable and funny. All of that without undermining how great a witch she was and a person she could be.I think I succeeded. Between the chapters where she catches Andromeda in Rick’s bed to the recent chapter with the girls talk.She wasn’t supposed to become my favorite. Far from it. It was to be Lily. Because *cough* red head *cough* green eyes *cough*. This time however I wanted to have the main LI with flaws. So I added lots of them and… in the end I could deal with Bella’s flaws better than Lily’s.So, Lily, who was supposed to be the main wife and Rick’s great love, ended up sharing the spot with Bella. That made me change lots of things regarding the last book for the Out of Karma Metaverse. (Don’t bother asking questions about it, it’s all in my head for now).What started as Rick’s harem… Became Lily’s harem and honestly? This was fine.Marlene was always supposed to be included in it. In fact the harem should only have had 4 members: Lily, Marlene, Amelia and Bella.Marlene was always supposed to have her own life before realizing that her happiness was being with Lily and Rick. Unfortunately the heart wants what the heart wants and Marlene ended temporarily with Sirius.Boy did I get lots of flak for this. Readers that didn’t accept that a Love Interest wouldn’t drop their panties on the spot for the Main Character and be utterly devoted because he dicked her down.Idiots.I set Marlene right from the beginning to not be as close to Rick as Lily was romantically speaking. The whole thing was there to not make her a note on Rick’s bedpost (or as it turned out: Lily’s) and made her more than one dimensional character. If you read it again, you’ll see that Marlene sees Rick as a fuck buddy (best friend with benefits) and nothing more and it doesn’t change during their years at Hoggwarts. Only after.The same for Amelia. In a different way. Because she’s a different person from Marlene.It takes time for a relationship to develop and mature, since the whole story panned over twenty years, I had to space events a bit.In any case joke’s on them! They abandoned the fic and missed what they wanted! Ha!Everyone else in the harem is a result of a whim. The most difficult to add was Andromeda. I thought long and hard about adding her or not. In the end I did and it made things easier regarding Narcissa. ⅔ of the Black Sisters were already in, why not the third? It wasn’t that difficult. Not gonna lie though I pull the story with Lucius outta my ass.Same for Nymphadora and Fleur.You’ll notice, if you read book 4 of OFK: Mass Effect, there are many similarities with the eldest children. Is it lazy writing on my part or I’m all setting you up for something later? You think about that. *wink* *wink*Was Voldy supposed to have its head blown up by Lily with a shotgun? Yes.Was Rick going to defeat Voldy and not kill him? Yes. And the philo has been in the work from the beginning. (Lots of research on spirit animals and animal in general)Was Rick supposed to flip the bird to Fate? Of course. Remember: There is no Fate but what we make ourselves.Right from the beginning, before even the very first word, Rick was supposed to be the Master of Death and fuck over Fate and Voldemort. The explanation about what happened and how it happened were right there from the start.I hesitated in making a chapter where Rick is in the in-between and speaking with Death but in the end I went with the tale on Christmas morning. I thought it fitted better. The characters were already there and could react to what Rick was telling them, whereas  in death I would have needed to introduce Death and I wouldn’t have been able to go with the group talk as it would have been redundant.Now the side characters… Those are in fact what I wanted to work on the most without giving them much.We have James’s utter assholery during the Hogwarts years and the war and then every time we see him afterwards or hear of him, he seems a better person. It all culminated with his talk with Harry.It may not be perfect but I’m glad of how I dealt with him.The same for Sirius and Remus.Not really a fan of the canon Maraudeurs, I’m biased towards them and yet I think I did alright in making them mature and cement the kind of good people they are (or could be). One character I’m the most proud of is Albus. I tried to keep him as the kindhearted grandpa he is but also the shrewd and cunning leader that sees people as pawns. I think I mostly succeeded without falling into the usual fic clichés: Dark Lord sociopathic Albus, Well intentioned but wrecker of things Albus and completely senile Albus.I think I did a better job than with Hiruzen in my naruto fic.I wanted him to grow and I think Rick was the perfect person for that. Albus saw in him Voldemort at first, then Gellert then… Rick himself. Perhaps the type of man that Albus could have become or wished he could have become. After all, Rick is a powerful wizard (not as much as Albus in terms of power), smart, kind hearted and a natural leader. He’s not perfect (nobody is) but he strived to do his best, accept his faults and work hard to not make them anymore.Albus was confronted with someone who could match him and didn’t revere him as a saint, the next Merlin or revile him for his ideas. He needed that to grow up and in the end, he did. Rick was giving him a new perspective that while not quite in agreement with it allowed him to find a different path. That’s why he’s so different from his Alternate’s portrait.Between him and Bella I believe I did a very good job with them which was a third, perhaps a half, of what I wanted to do with this fic. Write a good Albus and a good Bella.Are there things I’d like to change or that I’m not happy about?Yes, a few.For starters… The transition between the second year to the Summer before fifth year. I didn’t have any ideas regarding writing a school year and a half. Of course I could have written the development of the relationship between Amelia and Rick then Lily and Rick but… I was lazy. I wanted to move forward with the plot.If I ever do a rewrite will I change that? Yes. Or I’d like to say yes but as I’m sure you know by now if it’s not the first fic of me you read: I don’t do rewrites. I’m proud of what I wrote and I’m leaving things as they are because they’re proof of my current level as a writer.I’m glad of Rick’s slow progression as a character. One person said Rick was unlikable and had no character growth (pointing at him trying to murder Bulstronde during his first quidditch match). I strongly disagree but that made me realize that the changes were perhaps too slow. I’d change that.I’d like to thank you all for sticking with the fic and with me if you got that far. (Please give it a rating and/or a review. That helps a lot).Special thanks to all the readers that left comments even if it was just a TFTC or simply cookies. People commenting gives me the impression that people are interested in what I write and that makes me keep going.(Posting my Naruto fic on AO3 and there are so few comments :sob:)See you in the Omakes (There are three and I don’t know yet if I’ll post them all in one single chapter or one after the other).Or my Resident Evil fic. As I’m writing this I’m 200 chapters in and… four narrative arcs away from the ending (perhaps more I tend to… be distracted by ideas).See you in the next NaCb! Take care of yourselves!