Chapter 1: 

“Read Harry Potter fan fiction, Michael Zang! You’ll love Dramione!” 

I had no idea what Katherine was talking about. She was my new close friend from summer camp. We were opposites: I was down-to-earth, spending my time reading history tomes on De Gaulle, working in laboratories to fight aging, and figuring out how to protect children at the UN; Katherine was poetically whimsical, seeming to live in her own fantasy world. She loved to reference ancient philosophers, like Protagerus, and dressed eccentrically; the isolation from the pandemic had made her an expert in the most exotic of internet subcultures. Despite our differences, a friendship had blossomed, and I decided to give “fanfiction” a shot.

Chapter 2

Reading my first fanfictions was like being hit by a meteor. I could see how fanfiction fired Kaherine’s imagination. I began to wonder… Could I write my own fanfiction someday?

I particularly loved a writer named Lomonaaeren. Her story detailed a desperate Cho Chang, lost in a sea of cultural alienation. I saw myself in Cho: I’m a Chinese immigrant floating between  two worlds: I’m losing my ability to read my native koi tongue, yet I’m slightly detached from the English words I read every day. Inspired, I scribbled away on a tale of my own late into the night…

Chapter 3

…a few feverish weeks later, I finished my story. It was in the voice of Cho’s younger brother. I channeled my cultural frustration into his character, and also, uniquely, explored his PTSD from the events of the series. After all, weren’t the HP characters essentially child soldiers?

I was also reading more fanfiction genres, and discovered “Dramione,” which takes its cues from romances and imagines relationships between Draco and Hermione. It seemed to me less like an attempt at literature and more like pornographic wish-fulfillment for the fandom. I channeled my frustration into a humorous “Anti-Dramione” manifesto. When I was done, I sent both pieces to Katherine.

Seeing her red face, I suddenly remembered that Dramiione was her favorite genre. Oops. 

“Michael, I really like your story, it's so sensitive and rich. But I think in your manifesto you’re being unfair…there’s something powerful about opposites falling in love. Also, I don’t think it’s right to completely dispense with Romance, which has often been unfairly dismissed by misogynists.” 

Feeling ashamed, I returned to the Dramione stories.

Chapter 4

As everyone knows, Draco and Hermione are diametric opposites: in fact, they are sworn enemies. But, reading more, I saw that Katherine was right… opposites falling in love allowed for the creation of complex, rich characters. 

I began work on…you guessed it, a Dramione story! For inspiration, I drew on our friendship, with Draco and Hermione becoming avatars for Katherine and me. Interestingly, I saw myself as Hermione: I, too, was a bookworm who loved to dig up lost narratives and piquant facts, before leaping enthusiastically into other pursuits, whether it was whistling as I ran the cross country trails or playing my clarinet along to Phoebe Bridgers songs. Whereas, Katherine, with her dark and stormy nature, her love of high fantasy, resembled Draco, with his obsessions with the past and antiquarian things (minus all the racism). I tried to combine our tastes, making sure to narrativize the romantic bond Draco and Hermione develop as they’re shunned by the communities that have nurtured them, and how they find common ground in dealing with trauma. 

Finished, I emailed it to Katherine. What do you think she thought?

Epilogue

My writing journey continues. Katherine has stopped writing Harry Potter fanfiction because of J.K. Rowling’s transphobic comments; now, she writes Percy Jackson fanfiction. While I deplore Rowling’s stances, following advice from trans HP fanfiction fans, I’m still writing my tales of outsiders. And, of course, Katherine still reads every first draft. I hope she always does.