Democracy Soon! Perhaps...

[slowfox]

Chapter Thirty-Three: Fight and Flight (contd.)

"I don't understand," worried Harry, as he looked wildly about the Forbidden Forest. "Jo said that she'd write in some Thestrals to get us to the Ministry so that we can rescue Sirius..."

"Well where are they, then?" asked Ron, looking nervously around, not happy at the imposed requirement of trying to spot invisible objects in a dark forest.

"I can't see any, either," offered Neville, apologetically.

Luna, on the other hand, had her arms wrapped around a nearby tree as she observed, in a dream-like voice: "This place is absolutely crawling with plotbunnies..."

"With what?" asked Harry, irritated at the diversion.

"Oh no!" gasped Hermione, wringing her hands nervously. "No, no, no, no, no..."

Alarmed, Ginny asked, "What is it?"

Hermione looked at the party with eyes full of grave concern: "We're in.... we're in fanfic," she wailed in a voice full of distress.

Oddly enough, this seemed to settle Ron's nerves remarkably. "Excellent! Well," he offered hopefully, casting an appraising eye over his female companions (and possibly the male ones too), "let's just agree that what happens in the fic stays in the fic, right?" He started to loosen his robes.

"Ron!" admonished Hermione, crossly. "Not all fanfic is about... about... about 'sex'," she finished, uncomfortably.

"It isn't?" gasped Ginny, incredulously.

"What fic have you been reading?" asked Ron of Hermione, bewildered.

"We have to get to the Ministry of Magic!" Harry reminded them in tones of near frantic urgency. "They've got Sirius! We've got t..."

Neville suddenly interrupted The Boy Who Lived: "Hey! What's in this box?"

Their attention drawn, the six stalwarts of Dumebldore's Army gathered around the large crate. The words 'SLOWFOX QUALITY BALLOONS' were stencilled in large letters on the wood. Somebody had tried to cross the word 'QUALITY' out: an arrow pointed to the edit, annotated with the words 'Not Bloody Likely'.

Ginny looked at her brother slightly guiltily: "Isn't that your handwriting?" she asked.

Ron was considering the crate, brow creased deep in thought, and looking very much like he thought he knew what this all meant, but couldn't quite place the memory.

"So we're going to take a hot-air balloon to the Ministry of Magic," announced Luna, happily, as they spread the crate's contents about the clearing. "Daddy says they're perfectly safe, as long as the Damphysimbians holding you up are happy," she added, unperturbed.

Poll #866 Democracy Soon

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

View Respondents

And so, what're you thinking?

View Answers

Plausible set-up, you should run with it;
11 (84.6%)

Nah, not feeling this one, mate;
0 (0.0%)

Sod the balloon poll, NC-17 PWP Harry/Ron/Hermione/Ginny/Neville/Luna now;
2 (15.4%)

Some other option, for which I've left an exceptionally erudite comment below.
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[linaelyn]

Oh my stars and garters, I'm laughing so hard that tears are pouring down my face!!!! THIS IS AWESOME IN ITS BEAUTY.

I see that flattery will get us everywhere with you. MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE~!!!~!!111!!

[linaelyn]

pee ess: It's very tempting to click the third radio button, just to see what you'd come up with.

[slowfox]

I am curious to see if anyone does go for that option...

Post-coital balloon polls FTW! :-P

[slowfox]

Aw, you're too kind :-)

Because I don't like running polls across weekends (I suspect people tend to amble over to the polls whilst at work to give their eyes a break from the screen^*, and it's more inclusive, then, to conduct such democractic exercises during working hours), if I run with this, I'll kick it off from Monday.



* nope, no flaw in that logic there. None whatsoever

[linaelyn]

Oh, good! Because I've got concert tickets for Friday night, and coach training over the weekend, so my Sunday night through Monday and the days subsequent are much more likely to contain computer time than the days prior.

*ahem* If such is your timing, does this give you the... shall we say... opportune moment to write that NC17 hogwarts puppy-pile? I'm just sayin'...

[yvi]

/me wants tickyboxes to choose 1 and 3 :(

[slowfox]

But no-one would want to read it... Would they?

Mebbe I'd just keep it for... uh, personal use, then...

:-P

[slowfox]

Heh! Whaddya think OpenID is for?</devious>

[yvi]

Heh. I would never cheat like that!

[tefkas.livejournal.com]

Because that would be very wrong. Very wrong indeed. *ahem*

If memory serves, Balloon Polls in the past have never been quite the shining beacons of democracy that I'd envisaged...

[ryf.livejournal.com]

:)

[carolanne5]

W00t, balloon polls on the horizon. *undying gratutide*

Loved the setup, particularly ...

Oddly enough, this seemed to settle Ron's nerves remarkably. "Excellent! Well," he offered hopefully, casting an appraising eye over his female companions (and possibly the male ones too), "let's just agree that what happens in the fic stays in the fic, right?" He started to loosen his robes.

[slowfox]

How come you get an icon for your OpenID post, whereas I didn't?

tefkas has a default icon set... I was expecting it to transfer the pic across for my comment (although that account is now a free one... mebbe that's it?).

[slowfox]

Well... I'm trying to judge levels of interest - and I also wanted to see if I could vote in the poll with my LiveJournal ID (and I can).

I got a bit carried away with ideas for the setup (hence Luna talking about how the place is crawling with plotbunnies)... so many stories, so little time...

[yvi]

Once upon a time I logged in with my OpenID and uploaded a few icons. You can upload up to 6 icons for an OpenID account on DW.

[tefkas.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks for that - I hadn't realised that tefkas would have an independent account presence here on DW...

[lessthanpie]

\o/

[aome]

You get back into the groove very quickly, m'dear. :)

[ms_katonic]

YAY BALLOON POLL!!!!!

[ms-katonic.livejournal.com]

You can use OpenID accounts to vote in polls? Really?

[slowfox]

Yep, you certainly can - look at who's voted which way, above, and you'll see that tefkas put in a self-sacrificing appearance.

All in the interests of research, of course.

Dreamwidth, then, would be a great platform for balloon polls: the potential for blatant cheating is too good not to (ab)use...

[slowfox]

&hearts;

[slowfox]

Aw, thanks :-)

Sometimes, the groove finds me, I think, rather than the other way around... still, I thought I'd got a bit meta with this one, just for fun.

[slowfox]

Well... not currently feeling the balloon poll love. I know that I lurk in the uncharted backwaters of DW, rather than in the limelight over at LJ, so that's partly my fault, but I was hoping for more than nine votes (two of which were mine)...

Part of the fun with the balloon polls was not just the poll itself, but all the fannish interaction around them - the comment wars, the cross journal campaigning and stuff.

Do you still maintain a journal at The Other Place? Is it still as lively over there, HP fen-wise?

[cynthia_black]

I do love the fanfic set-up! And I do hope you go for the Balloon Poll - I'd pimp it over on LJ, as I'm sure others would too :-)

And like some others, I wouldn't have minded a ticky box so I could tick the third option too ;)