A reviewer of Harry Potter recommends wrote something which confused me a little bit: That Midas "should fell on his own sword" like his namesake did. Since the King Midas my Midas is named after never fell on his sword, neither real nor figurative, I thought I should explain where the names of my OCs are coming from.

Midas is naturally named after King Midas who wished from the god Dionysos to be able to turn everything to gold he touched. But when he realized that also the food turned to gold he begged to the god to be saved from starvation. The god consented and told him to wash himself in the river Pactolus, which was rich on gold from this day onward. There are other myth about King Midas (none about his death), but this is the one who compelled me to name my OC after him: My Midas is also able to do turn everything in gold (figuratively).

The source of the surname should be obvious: In the Fable, the fox is allways the clever one, and Midas is very clever (I also considered to call him Reynard, but the combination would have been too obvious).

For Clarence Oldridge I needed a surname of an old wizard family since he is a pureblood, preferable one which is neither connected with Voldmort not adamant against him. According to the HP-Lexicon, Oldridge was the name of the first Dragonpox victim (if you want you can look the picture up, it is not very flattering). His first name came from Clarence, the cross-eyed Lion from the TV-Show Daktari (which I never really watched, it is the "cross-eyed" which let me chose the name). Yeah, I know, it is obviously that I like Midas as character much more than Clarence.

And here my thoughts some other names which are mentioned in passing in the "newspaper"-chapters:

1. Molly W., Gesine A., Palmona P., Leonora N.: Molly W. with her seven children should be obvious, but just in case: This is Molly Weasley. Gesine A. is in my mind simply someone from a "light" family, the A. may stand for Abott, but it isn't a must. Palmona P. could be the mother from Padma and Parvarti, but first of all it is simply a "fan-witch" who believes everything the newspapers are writing. And Leonora N. my be Leonora Nott, but she is mostly the voice of the death-eater-fraction.

2. Morgan A. Vatha: I know that Rita Skeeter was already a reporter when Harry was a child, but I thought her a little too young to be already the star reporter of the Daily Prophet. Morgan A. Vatha may be male or female, I actually don't care. The name is a pun on the word Fata Morgana. It is a little bit more obvious in German, because we are speaking the V often like a F and don't have a "th".

3. Thekla Kah: I am actually not sure where the Thekla came from...somehow I associate the name with something mysterious, but I can't actually explain why. Kah comes from Kaa the snake of the Dschunglebook.

4. Nohid Para: Is a pun on the word "paranoid". I thought this quite fitting for a conspiracy theorist.

5. Ernie Belivall: Since this is a reporter of the Quibbler, the surname mixed out of "believe" and "all" is not an accident. But does he really believe everything? The first name hints that he may be more sceptical than he shows, because "Ernie" can be split in "er nie" which is German for "he never". So perhaps he is simply interested in reading his name in the newspaper.

In the second newspaper-chapter I went with known name...Lovegood was the logical choice to write an article about wrackspurts and Rita should be the star reporter by now, although for one she more or less reported the truth. This is one of the cases, where the truth is sensational enough. Although there is one mistake in the articles, which will be revealed in the sequel. But if you really need to know: The Dursleys are not in Azkaban, they are in a holding cell in the ministry until the trial.

I also mention a lot of magical plants and spells. Most of them are actually mentioned somewhere in the books, but one or two are conjunctures of myself. Like the Midnight juniper which plays a big role from chapter 20 onward. I am not sure how the name sound in English, but the German name sounded quite good. This is a problem I (and DracaDelirus) had more then once by translating the story. "Walsh miracle diapers" sounds good, but "Walshs wundervolle Wunderwindeln" even better. I really like to play with words, but most of this was simply not translatable.

Here are some thoughts on the HP-Fandome, so that you will know what you can expect in future of me:

1. I am not a big fan of OC's. I know, this sounds strange, because Midas has a very important function in "Harry Potter recommends", but this is exactly the point. There wasn't a canon character who could do what Midas did, I really needed him. There will be other OC's in the future, but I can guarantee you that each and everyone of them will be there because they are needed for the story. There won't be suddenly a Chantal, Alex or similar in Harry's Year, there won't be strange in-laws popping up, and as soon as a OC is not needed any longer it will be kicked out of the story immediately (and believe me, I had a really hard time doing it to Midas, but he was not needed any longer and there was no reason for him to stick around).

2. I absolutely hate bashing fics. Each canon character has something on him, which I do not like: Hermione is too pushy, Ron too brash, Harry too moody, Ginny too temperamental, The twins too brutal (sticking someone in a vanishing cabinet?? That is attempted murder!), Dumbledore too manipulative, Molly too overbearing, Arthur too childish, Sirius too immature (and a hypocrite), Remus a whiner and don't let me begin with Snape. But I like each and everyone of them, because all their faults are making them human. They will sometimes fail and make mistakes, but they are not the devil because of that. So you will never seen a fic in my account where Harry Stu is fighting against the issues I may have with the characters or the the plot in the book.

3. I think that "What ifs" are a very interesting concept, but only when the author takes the butterfly-effect in account. I don't see really the point to write a "what if" when in the end everything stays the same, never mind what has changed beforehand. If you are writing an AU beginning with the first year or earlier, it is highly unlikely that the important points of the fifth book will happen exactly the same way as before. But what is even worse are "What ifs" where the author is rewriting the book the way he or she would have liked it and changing everything in the process. "What if Harry spoke with Sirius before boarding the Knight Bus?" is interesting. "What if Harry spoke with Sirius, discovered a new talent, chose different electives and ditched his friends?" isn't. If you want to change Hogwarts in a big way, you have to use ONE "what if" which may be able to explain the changes. "Prince of the Dark Kingdom" is an good example how you can manage this: Everything is different, but the difference is based on "What if the Potters had fled England?" and nothing else. In my fic, the absence of Harry in the first year did change some things, like the relationship between Ron and Hermione and Gryffindor's success (or lack of it) in Quidditch. In future years there will be more changes, but each and everyone of them will be based on the very first meeting in the toy shop. Harry won't suddenly be a genius, empath or whatever, there won't be new electives in the curriculum and there won't be a cure for bad eyesight.

4. Parings: I am not really stuck on a special pairing, although there are some which I like more than others. I have no problem with slash (Lynn Flewellings nightrunner series is one of my favourite), but since "Harry Potter recommends" and its sequels are based on the books, and in them nobody is gay...I don't see how becoming gay could figure into the butterfly effect, so there is not reason to add slash into the story. When I am searching for stories, I normally request canon-pairings...but that is not because I am obsessed with the idea that nobody else than Ginny can be the right one for Harry, but because writers who are choosing a different Pairing are wasting too much time to explain why this girl is the right one for Harry (and I really hate romances, they are boring for me). I will simply go with the flow of the story. Harry may or may not have different relationships over the years, and it is highly unlikely that his first girlfriend will be the one for life (yes, I also have some romantic notion about him having the perfect partner for the yule ball, but this is simply not realistic). There is only one thing I can guarantee: He will never ever be with Hermione. Sorry, but I think that Hermione's pushiness makes her highly unsuitable for him. And taking her pushiness away would make her a Mary Sue. My story is simply not AU enough to tweak the characters of them in a way that they may be good match.

5. Cutting/Suicide and similar: Most people who are writing this have no idea what they are talking about. If you have never cut or at last had contact to someone with depressions and mental problems, you should not write about it. You can usually pick out the writers who have dealt with (not necessarily by being ill themselves) it quite easily, because they have a really unique insight and don't romanticising mental instabilities. One plot I especially hate is this one: Someone is depressed, nobody helps him until he is on the end of the rope, than someone takes care of him, they becoming a pair and living happily ever after. This one is especially bad when the victim has been raped at some point, but even without this tibit it is the greatest bs. A romantic partnership (I am talking about new ones, not those which where already there before the breakdown) where one has mental problems is always quite strenuous. It is not healthy for the one with the problems because he is defining his new life over the new partner instead of building up a stable life on his own merits. And it is not healthy for the partner, because the wish to help can easily change in some kind af emotional blackmail. Nevertheless you can find this plot in every fandome out there. But never in one of my stories. I had my share of problems growing up and I had friends with problems even more dire, but I was never abused and had never any mental disorders. I hope, I managed the abuse and neglect in "Harry Potter recommends" halfway realistically, but I would have never wrote it into the story if it had not been based on the canon. Harry will have his issues in the future, but he will never a cutter or being suicidal.

6. In my opinion a fic should never be repetive. This was very difficult to do in "Harry Potter recommends" because Snape was so dammned stubborn. Everytime he had a near brash with the truth, I have groaned inside. But I hope, this will be the outermost grade on repetiveness I will have in my story (otherwise, please warn me). My dislike for repetition is by the way also my main reason for disliking AUs which are too Canon-like (hey, I know what is written in the books) and bashing fics (it is always the same: The "bashing/Character" acts like an idiot and then Harry Stu comes to punish him).

7. A big no-no is for me to write a story based on the HP-movies instead of the books. There are some big differences between those two and since the movies are based on the books, for me the books has the final say. (And a writer who can't be bothered to read will never be a really good one in my opinion). A pet peeve is for me the description of the locks and bolts on Harry's door, presumably there since the chamber of secrets. They are simply not there. They worked nice in the movie, but in the book Fred and George are able to pick the lock of the door to retrieve Harry's trunk and since they did it very fast and without magic, there surely weren't any bolts. Likewise the bars where ripped out of the wall by them, so there shouldn't be on the window later on. So if you want to have bolts and bars, you have to install them yourself.
This does not mean that you can't add anything from the movie at all, but I will only do it if it either adds to the story (Kateydidn't used the moving stairs in "betrayal" in such a way that I could easily ignore that in the books the stairs are "changing" not "moving" (small difference, I know, but important in this case) or does not contradict canon (James Potter can easily have been a Seeker for a year, as long as he was regularly a chaser).

8. Something I don't get are the stories which are dealing with "dark" and "light" wizards. For one, I don't think that this is canon. Yes, Voldemort is called a dark wizard, but I can't remember a single occurrence where Dumbldeore is hailed the defender of the light (feel free to correct me). But even if there is something like "dark" and "light", all through the book it is make clear that not the magic but our decisions and intentions are making us good or bad. The unforgivables are not unforgivables because someone labeled them so, but because you must really mean them. Every time Harry uses one of them he strays a little bit from the right path, even if his intentions are good. Nothing puts me off a ff faster than the label "dark but not evil". There is even an example in the books what happens to someone who justifies his actions with his good intentions: Bartemius Crouch (sr). So while I can life with Harry straying from the right path from time to time (he is only human after all), I very much prefer him firmly on the right track.

9. And here is a small list of things I will never read (if the author is not really convincing) or write, but not because I have something against the plot itself but because it is not my preference at all: Werewolf!Harry, PermanentDisabled!Harry (I really think that he has it difficult enough in life), Harry/OC (potential Mary Sue) and Severitus (it is overdone and I have yet to read a scenario which I thought believable).