Welcome to the seventh round of hp_beholder!

This exchange is for f/f, f/m, m/m, and poly works that focus on unconventionally attractive Harry Potter characters. This is no mere rare-pairing fest! Here you will find the very large, the very small, the well-weathered, the silver-haired, and wizards and witches with interesting faces who are under-represented in fic and art by those who do not appreciate their charms.

While you're waiting for the sign-up post, please take a moment to review the rules below.

General Information

hp_beholder was created by the incomparable bethbethbeth as a Harry Potter fanfiction and fanart exchange focusing on romantic and sexual relationships involving those characters from canon oft-overlooked because of age, size, or unconventional features. The exchange welcomes works of all ratings, provided the focus remains on a qualifying character's romantic and/or sexual life.

The exchange will take place on Insanejournal, with mirror communities on Livejournal and Dreamwidth. Non-IJ users can sign in and leave comments on the IJ community through OpenID. There is also an LJ RSS feed here: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/hpbeh, and one for DW here: http://hp-beholder-feed.dreamwidth.org/.


List of Qualifying Characters

Below is the list of characters from which at least one member of the pairing/threesome/moresome in each fanwork must be selected.

(adult) Dumbledore	Aberforth Dumbledore	Alecto Carrow
Amycus Carrow	Arthur Weasley	Molly Weasley
Dedalus Diggle	Augusta Longbottom	Professor Binns
Bloody Baron	Grey Lady	Barty Crouch, Sr
Vincent Crabbe	Gregory Goyle	Aunt Marge
Dudley Dursley	Petunia Dursley	Vernon Dursley
Eileen Prince	Elphias Doge	Tobias Snape
Fat Friar	Fenrir Greyback	Arabella. Figg
Argus Filch	Firenze	Filius Flitwick
Cornelius Fudge	Griphook	Professor Grubbly-Plank
Rubeus Hagrid	(Rolanda/Xiomara) Hooch	Igor Karkaroff
Olympe Maxime	Marcus Flint	Marietta Edgecombe
Marvolo Gaunt	Merope Gaunt	Walden Macnair
Minerva McGonagall	Millicent Bulstrode	Moaning Myrtle
Alastor Moody	Mundungus Fletcher	Mr. Ollivander
Peter Pettigrew	Irma Pince	Poppy Pomfrey
Quirinus Quirrell	Rabastan LeStrange	Madam Rosmerta
Rufus Scrimgeour	(Aurora) Sinistra	Sybill Trelawney
Rita Skeeter	Horace Slughorn	Pomona Sprout
Ernie Prang	Stan Shunpike	Tom (of the Leaky Cauldron)
Dolores Umbridge	Walburga Black	Xenophilus Lovegood
Viktor Krum	Charity Burbage	Nearly-Headless Nick
Morfin Gaunt	Abraxas Malfoy	Antonin Dolohov
Aunt Muriel	Andromeda Tonks	Amelia Bones
Griselda Marchbanks	John Dawlish	Septima Vector
Apollyon Pringle	Silvanus Kettleburn	Augustus Rookwood
Bane	Ted Tonks	Yaxley

Sign-ups will begin on January 30th, but for those early birds who like to get a head start, please see the template below.

( Sign-Up Template )


Who Can I Reject?

When you're trying to figure out who to exclude from the characters you're willing to give or receive (remember, you have a maximum of ten characters you can reject), there are three separate groups of characters you can take into consideration.

A. The first is the group made up of the characters who are the focus of this exchange—and you can certainly choose all ten of your "rejected characters" from the Beholder list.

B. Some or all of the characters to exclude might be non-Beholder characters. Below is a list of some of the most popular individual characters from other exchanges.

Bill Weasley
Draco Malfoy
Ginny Weasley
Harry Potter
Hermione Granger
Lucius Malfoy
Luna Lovegood
Narcissa Malfoy
Neville Longbottom
Regulus Black
Remus Lupin
Ron Weasley
Sirius Black
Severus Snape

C. The third group is "The Others." This group is every single HP character who isn't specifically mentioned in A and B above. Choosing "The Others" counts as one entry on your list and guarantees that you won't receive a story featuring one of your five favorites paired with an obscure non-Beholder character. However, rejecting "The Others" also ensures you won't get a story or art in which the main pairing includes characters who aren't in A or B and who you actually like, such as Kingsley Shacklebolt or Pansy Parkinson or Nymphadora Tonks.



Additional Questions

Can I request Severus Snape or Pansy Parkinson, even though they're not on the Beholder List?

No. Only characters on the Beholder List above should appear on your lists of characters you would like to see featured in your gift or characters you would like to write or draw. You can mention extra characters in your optional Additional Likes and Dislikes section, but your author or artist is not required to incorporate elements from that section.

My recipient listed four characters I despise in their requests: does this mean I have to write about characters I hate?

Nope! You only have to write about one character from their request list, and since you offered at least one of the characters your recipient requested, this shouldn't be a problem.

But I thought I had to write about a romantic and/or erotic pairing. Like I said, my recipient only has one character on their request list who I'd even consider writing about.

That's okay! As long as that character is paired with somebody who isn't on your recipient's "unwilling to receive" list, that's fine.

Even if the other character in the pairing is, like, Harry Potter?

Yep.

But he's not undesirable!

Well, no, not to most people. In any case, only one character in the primary pairing has to be on the Beholder List. As noted above, the other character in the pairing can be any canon character who isn't on your reipient's "unwilling to receive" list.

So...can I write a story in which the primary pairing combines the one listed character my recipient and I have in common with Harry Potter, even though that listed character is a man and so is Harry—and my recipient doesn't want slash?

Okay, now you're just trying to be difficult, aren't you? *g*

No, you can't write a male/male pairing if your recipient wants to receive het. However, if you said you'd only write slash, you won't be asked to create a gift for a het-only recipient.

Hey, I'm the recipient. I received a story that doesn't exactly ignore any of the things I mentioned in my sign-up, but...it wasn't really my favorite pairing. Why didn't they write the pairing I wanted?

Well, first of all, sorry about that. I wish you had loved the pairing you received. But honestly, this exchange was set up so that you'd get a chance to read (and write) about your favorite mostly-unloved characters, not your favorite rare pairings. Maybe next time? As we're dealing with a large number of underrepresented characters, the numbers simply don't bear up to matching by pairing.

Can I write Non-Con or Dub-Con?

If your recipient has requested it, absolutely. However, the spirit of Beholder is one of exploring the romantic and sexual appeal of characters who are often dismissed for not fitting certain expectations of attractiveness. If the erotic charge of a work comes from the violation of a conventionally attractive character by a character whose unattractivess is presented as part of their monstrousness, that work may not be an appropriate fit here.

Can I write a story where Slughorn goes on a diet and grows a foot taller and uses a time turner so that he can be 21 years old again?

Slughorn's size (to take just one example) is one of the things that keeps him from being a popular character where most romance fics or artworks are concerned. If an HP Beholder participant asks for a Slughorn-centric story or artwork, s/he probably wants to see a rotund Slughorn. In other words, you probably shouldn't offer to write or draw characters unless you actually appreciate their less traditionally appealing qualities.

I'm so excited about this! I want to fulfill all my recipients requests and write six different stories and paint three different portraits and...seriously, can I give more than one gift?

Yes, you can (you over-enthusiastic participant, you!), but one at a time, please.

Does my pairing have to include Snape?

Only if you want to butter up the mod.


Additional points to keep in mind:

1. Please do some research before creating fic or art about places and peoples with which you're only vaguely familiar, and ensure that your work and your sign-up don't perpetuate oppressive, discriminatory tropes and attitudes. The Beholder community has been pretty good so far in these areas, and it would be great if we could keep it that way. If you have any questions about whether your work might be problematic in its conception or execution, write to the Mod.

2. This exchange is anonymous. I will be posting all completed works to the community to preserve the authors' and artists' anonymity until the end of the exchange. To that end, please make sure that your work is free of any identifying markers (such as a signature or watermark on art and the appearance of established OCs in stories) and that you remain discreet in your journals.

3. All completed work—1500-word minimum files (.txt or .rtf or .doc) with html coding on stories, please—and all questions should be sent to me at: beholder.mod [at] gmail [dot] com. Please use appropriate content notes when submitting your work. Warnings for non-consensual or dubiously consensual activity, or for sexual activity involving any character under the age of 18, are mandatory.

For the 2013 edition, the timeline is as follows:

Sign-ups begin January 30th

Sign-ups end February 6th

Assignments sent out February 9th

Submission deadline March 27th

Posting starts April 9th

Hope to see you all in two weeks!

Tags: admin, beholder 2014