Beauty and Brains

Before I reveal all the authors of this year's fest, please let me shout out a huge THANK YOU to all of you who contributed to this fest - writers, readers, watchers. It's been a real pleasure, and it was remarkably stress-free :) Everyone was great, and... yeah. I really don't have words for that!

A special big thank you goes to our two pinch-hitters, florahart and joeyjames, who offered to back up the requests which the original writers had to drop for various reasons. I don't know what I'd have done without the two of you!

And my apologies to tattooedsiren and kendas because the fic they had written for their assigned giftee had to be reassigned. Which is less than ideal. Thank you that you took it easy there!

Now, without further ado, here's the reveal:
( *drumroll* )

Authors, you can now post your work outside of this community and respond to your comments!

Now, because I have a lot of fun doing it, let's have a look at a couple of statistics:
( Stats )

And now that's it for real. The 2007 fest is officially over. Again, thank you SOOOO much, and make sure to drop by next year! :)

~ Jules (envinyatar15)

That's it.

The fest is over. All the gifts have been posted.

The reveal will go up as planned on October 15, but before that I'd like to remind you all to go back, read and enjoy and leave lots of feedback - especially the giftees, as the person assigned to you has tried very hard to meet your expectations!

( Here's the (still anonymous) masterlist: )

ETA: Please remember that you have to join the community in order to read the friends-locked entries! An age statement/DOB confirming that you are older than 18 must be available on your profile for me to let you in.

Title: Machinations
Author:
Recipient: kendas
Pairing: Blaise/Hermione
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for DH.
Word Count: 1428
Summary: Harry just knows that Zabini is planning something.
A/N: A mixture of AU and canon. It took on a different perspective than I intended, I hope it pleases you. I wrote this with speed, so it’s not as polished as would like. Many thanks to S for the beta.

( Machinations )

Title: Beginnings
Author:
Recipient: lorraineblue
Pairing: Hermione/Charlie
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Word Count: 1,056
Summary: Sometimes understanding can be found where you least expect it.
Notes: This story is quasi-DH compliant. Essentially, I ignored the parts that I did not like or felt were unnecessary to the facilitation of this fic. Thanks to D, K and J for beta reading. lorraineblue, I realize it is not smut (I did not feel confident enough to practice for the first time on you), but I hope I was able to do your request justice.

( Beginnings )

Title: Babies and Beginnings
Author:
Recipient: sweet_lemmon
Pairing: Harry/Hermione
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: DH compliant, but ignores the epilogue of crap.
Word Count: 958
Summary: Harry and Hermione care for baby Teddy Lupin and discuss their potential future as parents.
A/N: I hope this isn't too fluffy for you. Thanks to my betas; all remaining mistakes are mine.

( Babies and Beginnings )

Title: Filing
Author:
Recipient: drcjsnider
Pairing: Hermione/Draco
Rating: PG13
Warnings: none
Word Count: 1500
Summary: Draco is on probation and ends up under Hermione. He wishes.
A/N: It’s not the R rated fic you asked for, but it does have some nice jokes in it.

( Filing )

Title: The Obvious
Author:
Recipient: joeyjames
Characters/Pairing(s): Remus/Hermione
Rating: PG13/R
Warnings: None
Word Count: 2865
Summary: Remus took a small step closer, his eyes still locked on hers. They looked at each other for a moment, as if they were each giving the other one last chance to back out of what they somehow knew was going to happen. When Hermione refused to look away, Remus sunk to his knees.
A/N: The one thing you asked for was plot. To be honest, there isn’t too much plot going on. But nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this. I really like how it turned out and I hope everyone out there enjoys it. Cheers.
Mod note: This gift was reassigned due to the original giftee dropping out.

( The Obvious )

Title: Odyssey
Author:
Recipient: inell
Pairing: Hermione/Viktor
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None
Word Count: 3,687
Summary: When a man discovers the real worth of a woman, the odyssey of the conquest lasts forever…
A/N: For my dear Inell. I hope you like your fic, it was written with all the admiration I have for you… I took the liberty of using your Viktor’s spelling for Hermione’s name, I hope you don’t mind. Many thanks to my dear beta S, she’s simply the best, and to H for all her invaluable help.

( Odyssey )

Sorry for the glitch in posting, there was some unscheduled RL stuff coming up. The rest of the fest should continue as had now :)

Title: Comfortable in Her Skin
Author:
Recipient: idea_of_sarcasm
Pairing: Hermione/Charlie
Warnings: None.
Rating: PG-13, I think
Word Count: 7000. Oops.
Summary: After an incident after Fred's funeral, Hermione finds herself uncomfortable and looking for a place to fit in.
A/N: The request was for post-DH (except epilogue) with plot. I wanted to get to some real smut, but this is a pinch hit, and as a result, once I found myself writing something way longer than the rules said, I realized it was really going to get long if I added smut, too. Sorry. Thanks to I and H for the read-throughs.

( Comfortable in Her Skin )

Title: Awkward is the Surrender
Author:
Recipient: florahart
Pairing: Hermione/Dean Thomas
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None other than minor spoilers for Deathly Hallows.
Word Count: 3, 042
Summary: It’s strange how much a person can seem to change in just a week. However, Hermione thinks that it’s even odder how easily lines can be redrawn that you didn’t think would ever alter.
A.N: Set post Hogwarts. All characters are over 18.
Mod Note: This gift was reassigned due to the original giftee dropping out.

( Awkward is the Surrender )

Title: False Hope
Author:
Recipient: silvernatasha
Characters/Pairing: Hermione/Cedric; Amos Diggory
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 5900 and change. I had that 'plot bunny' that wouldn't let me go – and if not for word count restraints, I would have taken it further.
Summary: The Room of Requirement is limited by the exceptions to the laws of transfiguration – though sometimes it seems otherwise.
A/N: silvernatasha, I hope I fulfilled your request satisfactorily – and that you weren't set on that 500-2000 word limit. I *really* wanted to give you your Blaise request, but the muse wouldn't cooperate.

( False Hope )

Title: Salt
Author:
Recipient: marie_j_granger
Pairing: Harry/Hermione
Rating: G
Word Count: 782
Warnings: Quite honestly, it's just a little 'could have been' scene. No plot, no violence. The only thing harmed were the squirrels.
Summary: Hermione teaches Harry something about laundry.
Author's notes: This fic interprets 'of age' to mean 'of age in the wizarding world. This fic takes place during DH when Harry and Hermione are alone in the tent.

( Salt )

Happy birthday, Hermione!

The first exchange submission will go up within the next couple of hours. I'm super-excited about this year's fest - I hope you're all with me on that!

A reminder: please have an age statement available on your profile if you want to join, which you need to do if you want to be able to view adult-rated material. Otherwise, I'm forced to reject your application.

And now... let the fest begin!

Some of you need to check-in with me regarding your extensions - I'm sure you know who you are. I will be sending out emails as soon as I'm home from work, in three hours - if at all possible, let me know about the status of your submissions before then!

It's me again - just a friendly reminder to all of you who got an extension to please get your fics in until tomorrow or nicely ask about another extension with back-up through a part of your submission!

This year's fest will be held on LJ, for all of you who are curious as to the decision.

And another reminder to the watchers and participants: all adult-rated material will be posted under lock. If you want to be able to read/look at it, please join the community. Your birth year or an age statement must be easily spottable on your profile.

For me, it already is midnight, but I'll give you a few more hours until the day is over in other parts of the world as well :)

As of yet, I have received almost half of all the submissions, and I must say - it looks like it's going to be a fabulous year! :)

I haven't heard from four people yet. Please contact me over the course of the next seven hours or some such, with your submission or information about whether you need an extension or have to drop out. If I don't hear from you - the grace period is rather slim this time around.

A word to the posting timeline: I aim to post once a day, from September 19 until October 8, if I'm not mistaken. The masterlist/reveal would go up October 15.

IMPORTANT:
I'm thinking about mirroring on InsaneJournal - what do you all think? This is not a decision I will make all by myself. If you all cry "yay", I will post to InsaneJournal and post links in this community. If you cry "nay"... well, that's self-explanatory. This question is mainly for the participants, considering its their work this is about, but any watchers' opinions are more than welcome, as well - you and your feedback are what the community lives from, after all.

The main reason for this thought is the fact that every day, another community seems to announce its permanent move to IJ, and I personally am in favour of that, too. Many exchanges/fests are currently posting links only (hpfamilyfuncest, percy_ficathon...), and although LJ/6A have said that no, linking won't protect anyone, I think it's the best solution for those who remain on LJ and wish to participate/read and those who have moved to IJ (or plan to).

If I'm going to do this again next year, posting will be on IJ or whatever other solution has been developed until then.

A small update on things:

So far, we've received 3 submissions and granted 6 extensions; one person has had to drop out.

If you are interested in writing a pinch-hit, please let us know. The drop-out's gift will be reassigned, possibly to you.

Email us at sexy.brilliance@gmail.com or reply here. We will bestow our worship upon you :)

If you need an extension, please let us know as soon as possible (meaning, until tomorrow!) so that we won't have to chase you down. You'll be granted one until September 9; if you need one after that, please back up your request by at least 300 words of fic, so that we can see you're trying.

Also, the upper word limit is now raised to 2,000 words; we looked around and have seen quite a few of you participants will come in at something that's higher than 1,500. Of course it isn't too bad if your muse demands to still go higher, but please by not too much, yes? :)

Questions, concerns, anything at all - email us or comment.

Hey guys! How's it going? I hope your creative juices are flowing, as it's...

Halftime!

Two weeks until your fics are due! We already received one fabulous submission and hope to see many more! :)

On another note - a reminder about membership application. If you want to read adult-rated material, please join the community. In order for us to approve your request, you have to have either your DOB displayed on your profile, or a clearly visible age statement. Otherwise we cannot allow you into the community.

... to hear from a few participants!

- adelaides_muse
- athiela
- heather11483
- idea_of_sarcasm
- marie_j_granger
- scifichick774
- shiv5468

Please respond to your assignment emails as soon as possible, or, if you didn't get them, please reply here and we will resend your assignment.

Thanks!

We're currently in the process of sending out the assignments, so expect them soon :)

If you do not receive your assignment, please respond to this post and we will email it again as soon as possible. Please also remember to respond to your assignment so we know you got it.

We had a few problems placing a couple of requests because we're only 20 participants, but we hope everyone will be able to work with what they received! If, however, you don't think you can, please email us and we'll try to work something out.

We'll check in with you in two weeks' time, to hear how everybody is faring. Until then, we hope you'll have fun writing or drawing! We're very excited to see what you will produce :)