A.J. Hall: About the LoPiverse

About the LoPiverse

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The LoPiverse is a short-hand definition for the series of fanfic ebooks by A.J.Hall, based (loosely) upon J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, with occasional diversions into other literary environments.  Its name is derived from Lust Over Pendle, the first book in the series, referred to as 'LoP' for short.

The LoPiverse story arc is a futurefic in that it takes place after the timeline set out in the books. 

It is also a divergent universe from canon, in that it was largely written after the publication of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and before the publication of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and was canon-compliant as at that time.  Since that date the LoPiverse and canon diverged. For LoPiverse purposes a number of people are alive who in canon are dead and vice versa, various people didn't marry the people the epilogue to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows suggested they should have married andso on.

One of the biggest changes between the LoPiverse and canon is that the LoPiverse postulates the war against Voldemort as, in its latter stages, an organised military and strategic conflict, requiring tactical organisation, military discipline and various alliances between interest groups.  Largely this took the form of a guerrilla conflict rather than one involving pitched battles. Although its climax was a personal confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, it took a very serious concerted effort involving most of the wizarding world to place the principals in a position where that confrontation could take place.

In the LoPiverse the Ministry of Magic did not fall to the Death Eaters, and continued in notional charge of the fight against Voldemort (though infiltrated up to the hilt).  It the course of the struggle it assumed a large raft of emergency powers, many of which it has refused to relinquish up to seven years after the conclusion of the conflict.

For LoPiverse purposes Narcissa, Draco's mother, was the daughter of philanderer and (acquitted) fraud defendent Patrice deVries, formerly Patrick Device, who married (possibly bigamously) a Miss Black, Sirius Black's aunt. Following Patrice's death, their mother entered the three girls Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa at Hogwarts under their maiden name of "Black". When, following her own husband's death, Narcissa decided to change her name she reverted to deVries, as the least of three evils.

Narcissa Black and Lily Evans were close friends when at Hogwarts. Owing to an incident occurring in their final year, Narcissa detested James Potter until his death.

Until the final severance between Wizard and Muggle worlds owing to the Statute of Secrecy 1692 there was considerable interchange between the two, albeit in a fairly strained form. As a result the Malfoys (for example) were both a pureblood wizard family and one whose original landholding of a hunting lodge and demesne in Wiltshire was a direct gift from William Rufus, for services rendered. Unlike in Potter canon, the LoPiverse postulates the existence of "soft" places in England where there are long-standing traditions of interaction between the Wizard and Muggle communities. Both Pendle and the Wiltshire/Dorset border have historically been "soft" places. The traditional attitude of Muggles living in such places is "don't ask, don't tell" in respect of magical activities they witness or suspect.

And, finally, people can and do change very dramatically during their late teen years, especially if the kick applied to the seat of their pants is sufficiently forceful.