The Albus Potter series is complete!!

UPDATE AS OF 7/31/2018

First off... Happy birthday, JKR.

Okay. I think I'm ready to come back. I know I've disappeared in the past, and I know I've given quite the array of reasons for disappearing. It's complicated. I'll update you all on my 2017 shitshow when I'm emotionally ready to talk at length about it. Once I've done that, I'll start to upload on The Dark Revival again, and Andy has expressed interest in continuing the Lily series.

Just wanted people to know I'm okay, that I'm still interested in continuing my work here, and that I haven't forgotten the love, approval, acceptance, and all the rest of the positive things I've experienced through the journey with all of you.

I'll go into more detail soon. See you then.

-Cody

8/4/2018

This is also the Author's Note posted at the end of Abyssal Vortex

From the desk of Cody

Hi everyone. It's been a while. I'm ready to come back.

I want to share what's been happening in my life, for a few reasons. Firstly, I want to put it out there, but I don't really have a lot of people in my life right now to discuss this with. I have friends, and some close members of my family, but there's a sort of comfort in screaming it into the void here where there (mostly) aren't any people who I'm going to see in my day to day life. Secondly, I've discussed difficult times in my life with members of this community before, and I always leave those times feeling affirmed and validated. Thirdly, although I know there are many people here who feel I don't have any obligation to anyone for providing my work free of charge, I do feel the need to explain myself to those people who have connected strongly and formed varying degrees of relationships with me over this site, to whom I provided no explanation when I disappeared. You deserved to hear from me and I let you down so I hope to make up for that. And lastly, there may be people going through similar situations who may know they're not alone. So I'm just going to be up front about it.

I've been completely absent from this site because I spent some time in jail. My arrest wasn't my first abuse of drugs, but I have vowed to make it my last. My family life isn't exactly ideal, as some of you know, and I have struggled a lot lately with depression. These aren't excuses for my actions, but they absolutely are contributing causes to what led me down that path. I didn't have a lot of positive relationships. One of the only positive relationships I did have came crashing to a halt when I realized my boyfriend was abusive. He pretty much hooked me badly on some substances I'd experimented with occasionally. Don't worry about my safety though... I escaped him, he got arrested too, and he's locked up for much, much longer. Unfortunately, he did his damage while he could. He didn't directly attempt to cut me off from my friends like the textbook abuser, but he led me down dark paths where I ended up cutting ties with my other friends by myself, which is essentially the same thing except he got me to blame myself for it. And I didn't really have any other option after this started happening... I worked minimum wage and don't have any savings, so I lived in his apartment, without a car or phone of my own. He had me under his thumb until my mom pried the truth out of me and promised I could live with her again until I was on stable ground again. By the time I had to contact Andy to come literally rescue me from him, Andy was pretty much the only friend I had left. Shortly after that, I pretty much became an alcoholic, swapping an illegal drug for a legal one to make myself feel better about it, and I slept over with strangers I found on hookup apps to avoid coming back drunk to my mother's horror.

The only truly positive relationships left in my life after I left prison were with Andy and my mom, but I'd started to shatter those relationship as well. But both have been letting me win their trust back, bit by bit, which is far more than I deserve by any means. However, I am improving myself every day, and I'm dedicated to turning myself into a person who does deserve what they've done for me. I truly believe I'm getting there.

Step one is staying sober. Step two is opening up about this instead of holding it in. I'm on step three now, which is restoring the things that gave me joy. I need to remind myself what made me happy and put it back into my life. This site has been such a source of joy for me over the years, and letting myself drift away from it has been directly related to the worst times in my life, during which I had the habit of removing all the happy things from my life so I could sulk in peace. I would sink into depression and drug use, then I would feel guilty about having not contacted my friends in a while, or updated a new chapter in a while, and the guilt would keep me from coming back because I didn't want to have to explain myself and I was afraid to face the people I'd let down and subject myself to judgment over it. I often lied about my prior absences because I was too embarrassed about the truth.

I'm not embarrassed now. I regret some of my decisions, but I understand what caused them and I'm no longer held down by the feelings these diseases want me to feel. Addiction, alcoholism, depression... they got to me when I was vulnerable and they did what diseases do. These diseases are far more sinister than most, though. They infect the logical part of your brain that would tell you to treat the disease. They tell you that it's better not to bother anyone else over your problems, so that they can continue to control you. Kind of like my abusive ex. Kind of like a real-world Chaos Contagion. But I know now that embarrassment, and refusing to talk about it, and lying to your friends and family, and not seeking treatment, are exactly what these diseases want me to do, to keep me sick. And I'm done with that.

Maybe I'll be sick for a long time. I still have urges and I doubt they'll go away anytime soon. But I'm not going to die from these diseases, I'm going to live with them. I'm going to share my experiences, so that my strategies can be shared and I can hear the strategies of others who have gone through similar times. Maybe I'll be sick forever, but I'll spend forever fighting my diseases so I can live my life to the fullest. I'm not going to make excuses for myself anymore and I'm going to be completely honest. I made some bad choices, so I'm going to do my best to make up for it now, and I had some bad circumstances, so I'm going to surround myself with the people and things that bring me positivity. And the important people in my life have noticed my commitment to these things. When I was finally honest, the friends I'd driven away were still there when I came back to them. I did my best to drive them out and they just stayed waiting for me to open the doors again. So I'll close with this: Dumbledore was right when he said love was the strongest magic of all. I wouldn't be where I am today if my loved ones weren't there. I was worried about burdening them with my issues, but it turns out they were hoping I would do exactly that, so they could share some of the weight.

When I'm ready, I'm going to start uploading again. I understand if some of you aren't around these parts anymore... things happen, people move on, and the latest endless wait with no timeline may have finally done it for some of you. I don't blame you for that. But if some of you are still around, and are willing to restart our adventures... you all were many reasons I've been able to find joy even in my worst of times, and I hope to return the favor. See you soon.

-Cody

About me? I'm just looking to make the best out of situations. I'm generally handed a lot of crap, so I'm trying to turn it into fertilizer. Don't blame me if it smells at the moment. Just wait and see what I can grow out of it.

Now in progress:

Lily Potter and the Third Realm by Andy, who wrote the plot to the Albus series and helped edit it. Now I'M helping HIM edit! Sequel to Albus series. Finishing the Albus series before reading Lily Potter is not totally essential, but is highly recommended because of massive immediate spoilers that will take the punch out of the last chapters of the last book (the punch that we spent seven books building up to, so it's kind of an important part of the experience!).

The Dark Revival (prequel to Albus series, reading Albus series is not necessary)

Because There Isn't Enough Albus/Scorpius Out There Already (series of Albus/Scorpius drabbles, some cute, some mature)

My old bio from when I first made the profile

Current works beside the Albus series include a completed ten episodes of Danny Phantom, with which I am beyond happy, and five chapters of a Ben 10/Danny Phantom crossover, which I may or may not continue. (Feedback will have an effect on this.) I also have several one-shots on my series and more will be coming.

Future projects may include a situation in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe where Aang is actually killed in Ba Sing Se in the end of the second season, and his friends must carry on without him. I've had a fair few ideas for that, so it may happen sometime soon (but it will not interrupt my current project, it would come between books if at all.) I also love the Legend of Korra, as you may or may not have gathered from my profile picture, so there may be some stuff about that soon. Other things that might start appearing when I'm done with the Albus Potter series, or may become one-shots in my free time: Naruto, Fullmetal Alchemist, Percy Jackson, Wheel of Time.

I named my profile after an original character I introduced into the Danny Phantom world, with "Phantom" after it, but my actual name isn't Noah. It's Cody.

Also, I read everything that anyone writes in the comments, at least three times each, and I take it all to heart. I really appreciate the constructive criticism. That's why I'm here--to practice my writing while I have a little fun and share it. So if you have anything you think I could improve on, please speak up! Don't let any advice go unsaid. It can only help.

I've had some questions regarding my beliefs, so here are my personal "higher power" beliefs: I don't care what anyone else believes, as long as those beliefs aren't harmful to others.

When I first wrote this profile, I said that I'd be happy to receive ideas or suggestions on collaborations. I still would, but I probably won't be able to budget much time, considering my Albus project. You can still PM me though and I'd see what I could do!

So... Hope everyone enjoys my stuff!

-Cody

KINESIS

In Andy's and my Albus Potter universe, we decided to introduce the concepts of two wands (Diwandology). We also decided to further the concepts of wandless magic that JK sometimes hinted at. There were inherent problems in this, though. The first was that if using two wands made you a more powerful duelist, why doesn't everyone learn to use two wands? That could possibly be explained by "it's hard to concentrate on two wands at once," but no matter how difficult it was, you still would see it more often, because there are a lot of people willing to try difficult things and there are a lot of people who SUCCEED at difficult things. The next problem was that if there was someone who mastered two wands, they would appear to be unbeatable. How could we give a weakness to the use of two wands? And the last problem was that wandless magic appears to be possible, but it's extremely difficult and thus not usually taught. Why?

Andy came up with something he had always imagined was in the works of the original series, but never explicitly explained--just accepted that, like physical combat, magical combat could tire you out. This concept was given the name "Kinesis," meaning in a sense "energy."

Kinesis is, in the dictionary definition we constructed, "the potency factor of the manifestation of a spell." What this means is that Kinesis is the name given to the energy jets you see blasting out of people's wands when they use Expelliarmus or Stupefy or Avada Kedavra. It is the energy of the spell made physical. You have in your body a natural "Kinesis level," which is the source of the magical energy--AND the normal energy--in your body. You can use this energy to use magic, just like you can use it to exercise or think or fight off sickness. But if you do too much magic, your Kinesis level decreases. You get tired. Just like you can't run too much without getting tired. And if you ran too much, you would probably also be too tired to use magic a bunch. However, it is a different muscle, so you may still be able to do some magic: like doing a bunch of push-ups may tire you out of being able to do too many push-ups, but you might still be able to do some sit-ups because it uses different muscles. This is also why the seventh years' Wizarding Tests are "Nastily Exhausting." Practicing magic increases your Kinesis level, though, just like you can run a little farther every day.

Wands come in because it is extremely difficult to channel your Kinesis outside of your body without help from some sort of magical instrument. There is a factor called Resistance. Just like going through water will slow you down, you can't send the magic outside of your body so easily. Wands are used because they provide a channel through which we can more easily send our magic; it's like how wearing fins in water eases your movement more. It decreases Resistance, because the wand chooses a wizard and they share an emotional bond. Without that bond, it will be much harder to perform simple spells, which is why Harry's usage of the blackthorn wand was less than successful. Sharing two wands means you share the bond, so it is actually more difficult to perform spells when you are using two wands, but these effects usually do not occur unless you are using them concurrently--holding both and using both, as you might do during a duel. Now, wands are matured--that is, put through a final stage of development which has been proven to decrease Resistance even further--making modern wandlore better. The extra decrease of Resistance has become extraordinarily important, because it is all that was needed to give double wands a more widespread usage. Before this point, it was difficult to use two wands because Resistance actually increases when you own two wands. Now, though, that increase in Resistance has been somewhat diminished because wands are better, and so owning two wands has become more commonplace.

Wandless magic, on the other hand, does not have the benefit of decreased Resistance, and so it takes a lot more energy to manifest the spell, which drains your Kinesis level faster. That is why wandless magic is so difficult. The way to minimize Resistance to its lowest possible effects is to use a single wand, and that is why the most common method of using magic is by only using one wand and people don't just always go around using multiple wands.

Hope that cleared up the ambiguous concept of Kinesis. It took a while to develop this concept fully, and so I doubt it will automatically click for every reader. But if anything else becomes important, or something I've already said becomes crucial, I will restate it in a chapter and try to make it as clear as possible so that you don't miss any important details. Thanks for reading!

-Cody

Q&A: The Dark Revival

Ask a question in your review on The Dark Revival and here is where I'll put the questions and their answers from the most recent few chapters. If it's too much of a spoiler, I won't answer it, of course. If you think I've missed your question, PM me and I'll post it (if I can answer it). If a question is asked and I take down the response before you get a chance to see it, PM me and I'll tell you what the answer was!