FicWad

Categories > Books > Harry Potter

Reviews

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) johnapple 2009-12-19

  My father was an alcoholic. God he did some cruel things. I understand you. I do not understand a person like Rowling to write a story where a boy is abused and nobody is ever held accountable.
  I wonder what massage that sends to the little children she has written for.

  Author's response

  I agree wholeheartedly.
  
  My sister claims this as 'comic abuse, but I see nothing funny about it at all.
  
  Personally, I feel that Dumbledore should be hauled up in front of the courts as well, as he was the one who instigated the abuse in the first place.
  
  I wrote a rather lengthy and somewhat rambling second part to this, that you might want to look at.
  
  Thank you for your review.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) silverdiablo 2010-06-08

  One of the saddest and most moving stories I have ever read. I love reading stories like this, that move me emotionally, even if I hate the truth behind the circumstances. Thank you for sharing.

  Author's response

  Thank you. It was very difficult to write. I'm glad to see it had the desired effect.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) vheritas 2010-06-17

  Very well written piece, and entirely likely, given just the few comments by JKR plus what was in the books. Harry should have been an amoral thief, grifter and user, if he survived, and that's a bloody big "if".
  Too many fans and fic writers gloss over his upbringing and Dumble's culpablility. I always thought he was as vile as Voldy, with his abomination of "the greater good".
  I can see this would also be cathartic for you to write. I found it to be somewhat triggering for issues from my childhood, but well worth the discomfort, as it is a quality piece of work.
  I hope you and your daughter (I have a son) continue to do well.

  Author's response

  Thank you, I appreciate that.
  
  I agree. Canon Harry is nothing like a real child would be having been abused like that. (I was and it took me many years to discover what I was doing wrong.) Like you, i detest the casual way she treats child abuse.
  
  Dumbley: As far as I'm concerned, Dumbledore is the vilest villain ever to have been invented.
  
  I'm truly sorry to have triggered bad memories. It brought back so m many of my own. Surprisingly enough, despite all the mistakes i've made, My baby is a well adjusted, almost sixteen year old, now.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) Richardc269 2010-09-05

  I've read this story more than once, and for some reason, I really like it. It is very, very moving with what happens in this story.
  
  Once you think about it, Rowling pretty much says child abuse is okay in her books (even though it might've been unintentional), Albus leaves a child on a doorstep, knowing Jame's sister-in-law hates her sister (Lilly), and magic in general. Albus seems to think that they would love their nephew, doesn't check on him, and leaves him to "10 dark years", as he admits in the books. Albus clearly doesn't care for the child, even though he makes Harry think he does, simply because Harry's a naive, trusting fool who doesn't really use his brain a lot, then makes friends with 2 other idiots and doesn't really befriend anyone else in the school.
  
  I'd really like to read what happens to Albus, and the Durseley's, but I guess you never got around to posting it. Oh well.

  Author's response

  I'm glad you liked the story. It was most difficult to write.
  To like a story the first time one reads it, is good, to like it after reading it several times, is the best.
  
  I agree with your assessment of Albus 'I'm never wrong' Dumbledore. He is is convinced of his omniscience, he is unwilling to listed to anybody else's opinions.
  
  He either didn't care n the slightest what happened to his pawns, or he was a naive fool.
  
  I did write a second part, posted on FicWad. It's called 'Discovery Revisited(the butterfly effect) and while a bit rambling, it does follow give an idea of the aftermath of little Harry's death.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) drifter 2010-09-06

  SON OF A BITCH!!!!
  
  You have written a very powerful story that has me in tears, and I am a 60 something male.
  
  I have been in and out hospitals since I was about 8 (break easy). I have this seen only two times (thank GOD). The second time I was in my thirties, and it was probably to the best I could only find out his first name. He died. The first little girl lived. I followed what was in the papers about the boy and the parents were tried and thrown in prison. The American prison inmates have the same reaction to child abusers as England. It is one of the few things that don't sicken me about the places.
  This is a story that should have been written, but GOD, I hate the memories!
  
  My the MUSE always be with you!!!
  

  Author's response

  I agree. Rowling did all abuse victims a disservice with the cavalier way she treated Harry. As I said in my notes, I grew up almost as badly abused as little Harry did. I was lucky...very.
  
  Having been a police officer, i have discovered that inmates are really no different than most. A child abuser will end up dead rather quickly if his secret is let out...and it is always discovered eventually.
  
  Justice, sez I.
  
  It's funny. I wrote it and every time read it, I cry.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) debbie37 2011-02-20

  Although no one wants this kind of thing to happen, it does. Your writing was really well done and the imagery was great. I agree with you in that your interpretation of the abuse is probable. I honestly never saw it until it was pointed out, but Harry was abused and no one did anything about it.

  Author's response

  Hello, Debbie.
  
  That story was one of the hardest I have ever written.
  
  Unfortunately having the background, I recognized the signs early on. In addition, there are at least three instances of attempted murder -in canon-.
  
  My sister used to call it 'comic abuse', but I never saw it as the slightest bit funny.
  
  ~I honestly never saw it until it was pointed out, but Harry was abused and no one did anything about it.~
  
  That's the problem with abuse. It's never splashed on the front page. Like prejudice, it's a subtle poison. Combine that with the Dursley's social status, and Dumbledore's likely interference, and it's swept under the rug.
  
  Thank you for your kind thoughts.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) goku90504 2012-05-04

  in response to siaru's review and your response
  you assume that in the nature v nurture argument that it's all nurture while i'm of the firm belief that its a mix of both some people just have an inherent goodness to them that prevents them from going down the dark path though there are also some who just have an inherent darkness in them that even the best childhood could not redeem but by and large most children will be lost or saved by the environment that they grow up in like talent and training some learn a skill easier than others but for most even if a skill doesn't come easy you can work hard and learn it anyways

  Author's response

  The problem with nature -v- nurture, is that it’s not cut and dried, and I agree there are aspects of both. I have to disagree. People are not tomatoes. They do not just ‘go bad. They are taught that they will never have to take responsibility of their actions, whish is what makes them ‘go bad’. It is not the environment, they grow up in, but the people they interact with. Most especially their parents or mentors. IMHO, everyone has both goodness and darkness in them. It is the parent’s responsibility to ensure the path their children follow will be as peaceful as possible by teaching their children the consequences of their actions. Love and nurture combined with discipline and responsibility.
  
  A case in point. When my daughter was a little girl, she had a friend named Charlie. Charlie’s mother Janice, refused to punish him for anything. She’d explain it away, or invent an excuse for him. She disagreed strongly with my spanking my daughter, claiming it was abuse. Fortunately for me, Child Protection disagreed. In the end, two years ago, Charlie was killed in a gang fight in San Diego. He was fourteen. He had more than a thousand dollars worth of crack on him and about three hundred dollars in cash from selling it.
  
  Janice claimed the police had planted both drug and money on him. She has a younger child, William, and she is raising him exactly the same way she raised his brother.
  
  In canon, both Dudley and Draco had been raised all their formative years to ignore any consequences of their actions. In my case, after a rather savage beating, I made a conscious decision that my children would never fear me like I feared my father. That decision, even after my wife died, led to my daughter being happy, healthy and well-rounded. She’s nearly eighteen now and is preparing for college.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) goku90504 2012-05-04

  but great story though I'd like to see a version where the burger showed up an hr or so earlier harry lives but things are bad enough that the police reaction is largely the same if not identical

  Author's response

  It’s been done before. As a matter of fact, I’m re-reading an excellent story along that general line on Ff.net, called ’30 Minutes That Changed Everything’ by Radaslab. While there are a few problems, the story is well thought out, researched, and written. I highly recommend it to anybody.
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) goku90504 2012-05-04

  i see dumbles as a more open character not open as in he shares information easily but open as in how much do we really know about him? how much do we really know that he knows?
  
  how closely does fig watch the house? how much does she really report to dumbles? how much of that report does he really comprehend? take into account how old he is both into figuring the possibility of senility and how much more common corporal punishment was when he was growing up not that it's right but he might not see anything wrong with a little corporal punishment but be aware enough that the younger generation might see what was in his day a mild spanking as abuse these days and you have a recipe for someone who just doesn't comprehend that real abuse has taken place when told in anything less than the most graphic details on the one hand dumbles could be the master manipulator who not only knows of the abuse but purposely engineered it casting spells on an other wise harmless dursley family to make them abuse harry on the other end of the spectrum as i pointed out he could be senile and the reports could have been vague enough for him to underestimate what they were really saying and both options fit cannon dumbles fairly well as far as i can tell

  Author's response

  I’ve seen Dumbledore written every way from merely dotty to outright psychotic. There is so very little known about him, that we as authors, have to write his history ourselves. That’s the thing I most love about the HP series. There are so very many loverly plotholes. She left us with two-dimensional characters, that we cam fill in nearly any way we choose.
  
  I normally write Dumbledore as the manipulative, evilly benign ‘hidden dark lord’, because there is enough to support it in canon. As a matter of fact, I have a hard time writing him as anything but. The thing is, I was abused nearly as badly as Harry, and so, I instinctively fall back on what I experienced.
  
  Figg: Either she watches and does nothing, or she watches and reports. From what little is known in canon, she is there to keep an eye on him, and does report the abuse to Dumbledore. Recall what he said at the end of Book five; “Harry, when you appeared here five years ago, safe and whole as I planned and intended…well not quite whole. I knew you had suffered. I knew when I placed you on your aunt’s doorstep, I was condemning you to ten dark and difficult years.” That tells me he knew exactly how Harry was treated, and either condoned it, or facilitated it. The abuse may not have been as severe as I’ve made out in my stories, but there are many instanced of abuse described in canon, including at least one murder attempt, in the years before he got his Hogwarts letters, and Vernon tried to strangle him, in the summer before his fifth year.
  
  Now, why would he try to do that unless he knew he wouldn’t have to deal with the fall-out?
  
  Alorkin

• A Shockng Discovery

  (#) SilverPointDespair 2013-03-12

  Thank you for this more realistic scenario of the outcome of Harry's abuse. You've hit it spot-on that these types of abusers don't stop until someone makes them stop, and they escalate as time goes on and they realize no one around them is going to stop them.
  I'm glad that you wrote this from the Muggle point of view. What would they think of the Dursley's family dynamic? What would they think of Dumbledore's insistence on placing an orphan with relatives that hated the fact that he existed? What a Sirius Black kind of thought.
  I look forward to more of your work!

  Author's response

  Thank you, Silverpoint. I’ve always despised the seeming indifference Rowling showed to Harry’s abuse. As I said in my afternotes, I lived it, and as a cop, and later when I was with the Marine Corps, I saw where this sort of abuse usually ends.
  
  The sequel, Discovery: Revisited, shows a bit of the reactions from various sources…including that of Sirius Black.
  
  I think the next full story I post will be ‘A THOUSAND YEARS’.
  
  Alorkin

Sign up to review this story.