13/May/2018:
Hi, I'm Pat. I used to write Harry Potter fanfiction, mostly single-point-of-departure; my interest is/was very much in the "what if" scenarios, especially where the difference comes from a single moment going differently.

I'm now taking an indefinite mostly-break from writing fanfic, and from writing fic in general. Not burned out or anything, but my priorities have shifted - these days I'm mostly putting time and energy into dancing (Modern Jive if you were wondering). Plus, y'know, career and married life and friends and so on. I may still post the occasional one-shot here, but I'm not committing to it anymore. My apologies to the people whose reviews (and even PMs) I didn't answer like I promised I would.

A big thank-you to everyone who's read my stories, a bigger thank-you to those who've taken the time to write reviews and PMs about my work, and the biggest thank-you to my tireless beta Animekitty47. I am profoundly grateful for everything that this community has given me.

Reviews and PMs do still reach me, and I do still read them all, but I can't promise anything about replying.

Oh, and at this point all of my stories are up for adoption (even including the COMPLETE ones if you really want). Let me know if you want to pick one up, and I'll send you whatever notes I have for it. I will say, I have quite a lot of notes for a sequel to Harry's Loophole.

Stories:

-A Different Journey
Luna meets Neville on the Hogwarts Express at the start of her first year. Things go rather differently from there, as they both get what they needed a whole lot earlier than in canon. This is on hiatus while I'm elsewhere, but if I do pick up a long-form story again then this'll probably be the one.

-Harry's Loophole
After Harry is chosen against his will to compete in the Triwizard Tournament, his shouting match with Ron goes rather differently. Harry realises he doesn't actually have to risk life and limb - all he really has to do is show up to each task. Things develop and escalate from there, though this is not a crackfic. This story is complete, and is my most popular story by far.

-Exceeding Expectations
An exploration of what Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Neville could achieve if they banded together right from the start and tried to make something of themselves. This is introduced and justified by Ron's canon mini-rant to Harry about how much he (Ron) has to live up to. Currently on indefinite hiatus - I would like to come back to this one, but I have no specific plans to do so.

-Depart Azkaban
Departure from LessWrong's excellent "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality", diverging partway through chapter 81. If this seems interesting to you, I recommend reading hezzel's "Following the Phoenix" instead - similar premise, better-written, and actually finished. DA was the first fanfiction I ever wrote, and the first fiction that didn't completely suck. I'm fond of it for that, but it's deeply flawed and I have no plans to continue it.

(in general)

Across all my stories, a few things are constant. No character will hold the Idiot Ball unless it actually makes sense for them to do so (eg. Snape interacting with Harry). No character will be bashed by the story, and no character will be unrelatably evil - every single character has internally consistent motivations, including the bad guys (though "bad guy" won't always be clear). Plot is generally character-driven - I'll have plans for where I want the story to go, but that's always subject to what does and doesn't make sense for the characters to do in a given situation.