Having Both is a Blessing - A Harry Potter Story - HP/AU 7th year

Author's notes - weird things about the writing of these stories

 Weird little Do-Do-Do-Dos; things that happened as I wrote these stories, way back in 2003/4/5/6.

 I had written thru “Spring Break” and posted the chapters up to Christmas ( for my 6th yr story ) before HBP came out, read HBP and scraped the after Christmas part and re-wrote to include Lucius and Draco and Cissa more than I had in the first draft.  I finished my 7th yr story before DH, so I had no idea how JKR would end it; as I didn’t kill off Dumbledore, and didn’t bother with the Horcrux part of her plot ( didn’t have a clue where she was going with that bit! ), and didn’t knock off my favorite characters, either!  ANYHOW, I am a sucker for a happy ending, so that is why my story ends how it does . . . that’s what AU is all about!

 #1

 I had to figure out where Anna would have lived with Christopher in London.  What do I know about London?  Sure, give me a map and I can get you from Point A to Point B, but not where people live, in what neighborhoods, etc. I have never been to England in my life.  Well, you know me; I thought I’d be a smart-ass and stick them on Wimpole St. where Professor Henry Higgins lived in ‘My Fair Lady’, right?  (Another WB movie)

Got on the net with MapQuest and looked up Wimpole St. and it’s near Regent’s Park and Oxford St., and not all that far from Diagon Alley and St.  Mungo’s, either. (According to HP Lexicon maps)

SO, I pulled it in closer for a look and the next street over is Harley St.  HE!HE!HE!, I couldn’t resist; seeing as how Anna arrives at Hogwarts on a Harley.  Then I noticed one of the cross streets is Queen Anne and I live in Queen Anne’s Co.  That was the clincher!

I showed this to Pam, my receptionist (who’s English and used to work – as a teenager- at the fictional address of Sherlock Holmes on Baker St., which is about 8 blocks away) and she said,  “Oh, yes, all the private physicians have their homes and offices on Harley St.; the ophthalmologists are on Wimpole St.”

Do-Do-Do-Do

All the streets in London and I get it right.

Do-Do-Do-Do

 P.S. Since I first wrote this I have used Google maps and the “street view” to “walk” up & down Harley St., checking out the houses . . . #88 is on the corner & if you go down the side street, there is a greenhouse & small walled garden behind! But I liked the front of #35 Harley as it is double wide like I imagined, so I combined them.  Incidentally, the inside of the house has been magically enlarged ( just a bit ) by Anna, to make it a more spacious . . .  she couldn’t resist . . HE!HE!HE!

Do-Do-Do-Do

 #2

I decided to put Christopher’s ancestral country house in the Lake District, overlooking the Irish Sea.  Why?  I don’t know; I’d just seen pictures and thought it was very beautiful countryside, etc.  Back to MapQuest, where I discovered only about 20 miles of the Lake District Park touches the Irish Sea, but there is a railroad track running along the coast.  Perfect; as 150 or so years ago, that’s how the ‘landed gentry’ traveled to their country houses, by train.

Pulled it up closer and there was a little town called Bootle Station, about where I wanted the house located. Perfect.  Pulled it up some more, as I could see a road heading toward the Irish Sea and when I did, guess what it is called….Dungeon Road.  And few miles to the south, there’s another road….Annaside. (found this on Google maps, where there are two names for Bootle Station – now using Google maps as they also have good, close-up satellite pictures of the various areas! I could actually see the cars on the streets in London, but not that close out in the countryside.