Elizabeth ColtonFollow

Date Collected

Winter 12-6-2018

Place item was collected

Online

Informant

Arianna Waters, Sara Diaz, and Myself

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Ariana Waters (Ari) is a twenty-year-old from India, where she has lived all of her life. She has always been a fan of reading, one of her favorite series’ being Harry Potter, and began writing fanfiction when she was seventeen. Since becoming a part of the online fanfiction community, she has entered in numerous competitions, one of which being the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition (QLFC). She is on her third season of the QLFC and is a Beater for the Falmouth Falcons (which has made it into the ‘finals’). Out of everyone on the team, she is the most likely to make jokes/puns and share memes, which the entire team appreciates. Sara Diaz is an eighteen-year-old who lives in the United States and has just recently joined the fanfiction community. It’s been one year since she started writing fanfiction, and she has taken the time to join two Harry Potter fanfiction writing competitions, one of which is the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition (QLFC). She is on her first season as one of the Falmouth Falcons’ Chasers. She is the youngest member of the Falmouth Falcons, so she is considered the baby of the group. My name is Elizabeth Colton. I am nineteen years old, and I am an undergraduate student in my senior year at Utah State University, where I will graduate with a B.S. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. I was born and raised in Park City, Utah, where I still visit for holidays. I have also lived in Fremont, California. Like a lot of young adult residents of Utah who aren’t Mormon, I am spiritual, but not religious. I was homeschooled (just like my four siblings) for the entirety of my childhood, until enrolling Salt Lake Community College at fifteen. I joined the Harry Potter fanfiction writing community almost two years ago, but only recently have entered into any competitions. At the beginning of the previous summer, I signed up for my first season of the QLFC, where I became the Seeker, and have only become a bigger part of the community since then.

Context

The QLFC started in 2013 and is now in its sixth season of competition. It is on the Fanfiction.net forum. The creators of the QLFC try and keep the rules as similar to the rules of the British and Irish Quidditch League from the Harry Potter books; the QLFC even uses the same team names as those that participate in the fictional Harry Potter books, which are: Appleby Arrows, Ballycastle Bats, Banchory Bangers (in the Potter canon, this team disbanded in 1814, so the QLFC doesn’t use this team), Caerphilly Catapults, Chudley Cannons, Falmouth Falcons, Holyhead Harpies, Kenmare Kestrels, Montrose Magpies, Pride of Portree, Puddlemere United, Tutshill Tornados, Wigtown Wanderers, Wimbourne Wasps. There are eight players on each team, unlike in the original Potterverse. In the Harry Potter canon, there is a Keeper (protects the goal posts so the other team doesn’t hit a ball through), two Beaters (armed with bats to try and hit specific balls to knock players off their brooms), three Chasers (who work to get the ball through the opposite team’s goal posts), and the Seeker (who searches for a tiny, golden, winged ball called the Snitch. When the Seeker catches the ball, the game is over and the team the Seeker plays for is awarded 120 points). Usually, one of the team members is also the Captain. In the QLFC, the Captain is a different player, so instead of seven, there are eight members of each team. Every round of the QLFC, each team member is given specific writing prompts, and two weeks to complete their fics. Arianna, Sara, and I are a part of the Falmouth Falcons (nicknamed the Foulmouth Falcons by me). Arianna is a Beater, Sara is a chaser, and I am the Seeker. We have a group chat for the whole team, where we discus current rounds or just joke around. We have become a tight-knit group of friends, and it’s common to have one of us sending memes or jokes, and we sometimes get on off-topic rants about anything and everything. We haven’t gone a single day in the last three or four months where our chat hasn’t been active. A common thing for us to share is other people’s fanfiction stories, some of which are really well known in the community, and some of which are not. When Ari shared the fanfic, Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles, she sent it knowing that both Sara and I didn’t have the proper time to read the fic, but also knowing we would love just talking about the fic. This is a common occurrence in our chat, particularly for Ari to send the fics. With something as beautifully bad as Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles, it’s quite common for us to get into heated rants and discussions, and messages are sent in a very face paced, quick way. I had started the conversation by mentioning My Immortal, which is a legendary fanfic that is famous for being so bad that it’s good. I collected it and have entered it into these archives, and it can be found by searching the keywords My Immortal and Legendary Fanfiction.

Text

Me: Who here has read My Immortal?

Ari: A few snippets

Me: What were your thoughts?

Me: What even is it?

Ari: It was so bad it became hilarious

Ari: Like the three-headed Whale movie

Ari: Also that Harry Potter and the Christianity something

Ari: It was too hilarious

Ari: Like, I don't hate on a religion but it was ridiculous

Me: The what and the what??

Ari: Hang on, I'll find it for ya

Sara: groans because everyone kills Christianity. And Harry Potter

Sara: And now Harry Potter*

Ari: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10644439/1/Hogwarts-School-of-Prayer-and-Miracles

It's a copy cuz the original one was taken down

Ari: No it's original

Ari: Here’s the AN:

Hello, friends! My name is Grace Ann. I'm new to this whole fanfiction thing; but recently, I've encountered a problem that I believe this is the solution to. My little ones have been asking to read the Harry Potter books; and of course I'm happy for them to be reading; but I don't want them turning into witches! So I thought….. why not make some slight changes so these books are family friendly? And then I thought, why not share this with all the other mommies who are facing the same problem? So-Ta da! Here it is! I am SO excited to share this with all of you! So, without further ado-

Me: What. The fuck.

Me: I dont have time to read. BUT I WANT TO

Ari: It's so ridiculous I couldn't stop laughing

Ari: I made thru a few chapters

Sara: That was painful

Sara: can I just negate everything she just said

Me: yes

Ari: The sorting is really insane

Me: wtf is the sorting?

Ari: Gryffindor hats believe bible

Sara: Oh no

Ari: Hufflepuff hats believe in bible but some of it

Ari: Slytherin hats pray to statues

Me: oh my god just what?

Sara: All her bible references tho. I understand them, but I swear she didn’t

Me: I feel this

Ari: Ravenclaw hats believe Women are beneath Men

Me: EW EW EW EW EW EW EW

Sara: LEAVES

Ari: And... Ron's a Slytherin, Draco a Ravenclaw, Luna a 'puff

Me: I actually said each EW as I typed them out loud

Me: what the fuck

Sara: Leaving, leaving, gone

Ari: Hermione's Dumble's and Minerva's (I think) daughter and guides Harry to the best house aka Gryffindor

Me: what

Ari: I wish I could say EW out loud

Sara: I would, but I’m in class... so scream them out for me

Me: EEEEWWWWWW

Ari: For me too

Me: EEEEEWWWWWWWW

Sara: Honey, Dumbles is gay. Hate to break it to you, but that is not against the religion

Me: I love you Sara

Sara: 😘

Ari: "Ravenclaw Hats, please gather around Mr. Moody. Hufflepuff Hats, please gather around Mr. Sprout. Slytherin Hats, please gather around Mr. Finnegan. And Gryffindor Hats, please gather around Mr. Snape."

Ari: Did she even read the books?

Me: Snape is... a Gryffindor?

Ari: Also. Mr. Sprout

Me: MR. SPROUT?????

Sara: Seriously tho. Homosexuality is not against the religion. I could go off on a tangent and defend that, but

Ari: 🤣 according to her maybe it js

Me: I think you might be preaching to the choir on that one..

Sara: I can’t even

Ari: Even if Snape was undark and his hair smelled like roses, he would have been a Slytherin

Sara: ^^^^

Me: hahahaha yes

Ari: Snape's description:

“a tall, mysterious-looking man with long dark hair and gaunt, enigmatic features. He was dressed stylishly in a crisp, black suit; and his tie made a shock of red in the otherwise totally black outfit. The dark hair on his pale chest was neatly trimmed but still noticeably thick; and he wore elegant, black leather shoes on both of his feet.”

Me: what

Sara: 🤦‍♀

Me: the

Me: fuck

Sara: ^^^

Me: heeeeyyy. Sara. No swearing

Sara: Awwwwww

Sara: It wasn’t technically swearing though

Sara: I used your words

Me: haha. fiine

Ari: 🤣 smartass

Ari: Also

“It was then that a bunch of beautiful people with wings wearing glowing white robes swooped in through the Great Hall's huge windows. Yellow halos hovered over their heads; and they wore brown leather satchels around their shoulders. They gracefully reached into their satchels and gloriously flung envelopes down to the students below.”

"The mail's here,"

Ari: guess owls are evil too?

Me: the.... owls.... are.... omg.. help

Sara: Angels. I just. No.

Amber: It's back omg

Amber: I love this fic almost as much as My Immortal

Ari: 🤣 in the satirical sense, right?

Amber: Nah. It's a literary masterpiece 🤣🤣 (yes. It's atrocious but it is fun to read, laugh at, do dramatic readings of)

Me: you and your dramatic readings

Me: I'm like... so jealous of those who have heard them

Texture

This fanfic was sent in a joking way, not meant to be taken seriously, and the three of us were able to sit there and make fun of it, whilst seeing just how bad (yet also strangely good) the fic was. Our messages came in rapidly, and while I was typing, there were multiple times I made noises and said the words I was typing out loud because I was so into the conversation, which happens just about every time the three of us talk about a fic like Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles.

Course

Folklore 2210

Instructor

Dr. Lynne McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2018

Theme

G9: E-mail, including instant messaging

EAD Number

7.1.1

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