The Biter Bit
(and its missing moment one-shot
Inner Demons and Icicles) is an in-progress
Harry Potter fanfic by
AHighAndLonesomeSound. Set in
Harry's sixth year, it deviates from canon the morning after Harry and Ron walk in on Ginny and Dean snogging and Ron and Ginny fight.
The Biter Bit begins the next day, the premise being that an upset Ginny is inattentive in DADA class and Snape gets angry with her. Luna calls Snape out for bullying and her actions bring her closer to the Trio. Hilarity, romance and a butterfly-effect journey into AU territory ensue. The story stays close to
Original Flavor, although with more overt fluff.
This fanfic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Su Li gets a mild version of this, from having no canon personality to being one of Luna's bullies.
- A Day in the Limelight: Luna gets a lot more focus than in the books, while Snape, Neville, Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore all get sections narrated from their perspectives.
- Adults Are Useless: Played with. Luna certainly feels that Dumbledore is too incapable/unwilling to discipline Snape. However, when we see things from Dumbledore's (and Snape's) perspectives, it becomes clear that although Dumbledore knows he needs to keep Snape on the staff, he's not averse to calling him out on unprofessional behaviour.
- Alliterative Title:
- All of the chapter titles are alliterative, as are the titles of the fic and its companion piece.
- Chapter 13 has the most egregiously-alliterative title ('A Ravenclaw Reads the Riot Act, or, The Patil Prefect's Plan Prevails') and in the author's notes the writer acknowledges that "These chapter titles are getting a little out-of-hand, but I enjoy coming up with them, and they do have added alliterative appeal..."
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Luna complains that Harry and Hermione suffer from this, pointing out that as they were raised by Muggles they wouldn't have believed in magic or Werewolves, but now know they exist, so dismissing Nargles because they haven't seen evidence for their existence is illogical. She manages to convince Harry of her case.
- Author Appeal: Luna saying something perceptive/disconcerting while exiting the scene through a door becomes something of a Running Gag.
- Padma Patil as a Badass Bookworm crops up in a couple of fics by the author.
- Badass Adorable: Luna
- Badass Boast: From Luna, of all people:
"Umbridge never did work out how the DA members were communicating, did she? Nobody did, not even Professor Dumbledore. The thing was, nobody knew how they got messages to each other, but somehow they always knew when one of the group was in trouble, and they always stayed two steps ahead of the Ministry. So I don't think it would be a very good idea to try to stop me from going to visit Professor Dumbledore, do you?"
- Badass Bookworm: Hermione, Luna, Padma Patil, Snape.
- Berserk Button: Don't pick on Harry's friends. It doesn't end well.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Luna.
- Neville reflects that years of being the quiet one have made him incredibly observant.
- Big Damn Heroes: Tonks pulls off an understated one for Luna in Chapter 7.
- Blatant Lies: Ginny's insistence that she's perfectly OK with Harry and Luna's obvious feelings for one another.
- Brutal Honesty: Luna turning the brutal honesty she usually reserves for the Trio, Neville and Ginny on Snape is what kicks off the events of the fic.
- Bully Hunter: Harry and Padma for Luna.
- Christmas Episode: There's a multi-chapter arc set around Christmas Eve
- Cloudcuckoolander: Luna, obviously.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Luna, as per canon. She even tries to explain the Rotfang Conspiracy to Tonks.
- Creepy Good: How several of the characters view Luna.
- Cultured Badass: Snape can quote Shakespeare.
- Cute Witch: Luna. Ginny to an extent.
- Deadpan Snarker: Snape, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Padma.
- Even Luna gets a go: "You're about to be scathing, aren't you, Professor?"
- Demoted to Extra: Draco, at least for the first half of the story. He's presumably off plotting in a corner somewhere, but Harry's too distracted by Luna to obsess over Draco's schemes the way he did in canon.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?:
- Played for Laughs in this exchange in the first chapter:
"Miss Lovegood-" snapped Snape, but she interrupted him.
"Oh and he did that rather excellent interview with Rita Skeeter that Daddy published. That relaunched Rita's career, you know." She smiled serenely, "I suspect she owes Daddy a favour, and she is such a nosy woman. She was always trying to find juicy new stories about what goes on in Hogwarts..."
Ginny gaped, thinking did Luna seriously just threaten Snape? If she felt confused, Snape looked even worse.
- Played for Laughs again in Chapter 13, when Padma Patil threatens Luna's Ravenclaw bullies with the wrath of Harry.
- Dissonant Serenity: Luna.
- Ditzy Genius: Luna.
- Everyone Can See It: Ron and Hermione, to the point where Harry outright tells Hermione he knows she took Cormac to the Slug Club Christmas party to make Ron jealous.
- Harry and Luna, too. Even Ron can see they have a thing for each other before they admit it to themselves.
- Family of Choice: The Weasleys, Hermione and Lupin for Harry.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The DA.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Harry (melancholic), Ron (choleric), Hermione (phlegmatic), Luna (sanguine).
- Friendless Background: Luna. It reminds Harry of his own experiences.
- Genius Bruiser: Implied with both Luna and Padma.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Luna.
- Hurricane of Puns: Sirius, according to Remus:
As far as Remus was concerned, this attitude was really rather old-fashioned, not to mention the fact that it suggested countless 'mollycoddling' puns to his mischievous side. If Sirius had still been alive, he would have already made them all.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The chapter titles are all Alliterative Title.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: In a meta example, the author acknowledges that calling the first chapter from Snape's perspective 'The Bitter Bit' was both inevitable and silly.
- There are also a couple when Remus is the perspective character:
Molly seemed to be considering it a point of passive-aggressive pride to outdo her own high standards and show the poor girl the kind of treatment Weasley men were used to. As far as Remus was concerned, this attitude was really rather old-fashioned, not to mention the fact that it suggested countless 'mollycoddling' puns to his mischievous side.
- And later:
He could practically hear Padfoot explaining mock-earnestly "But you're too serious, Moony! I mean, I'm Sirius, but you… you are really serious."
- Inner Monologue: An entire chapter ('The Bitter Bit') from Snape's perspective, in which he internal-monologues deeply snarkily about giving Luna detention, even quoting Shakespeare.
- Lighter and Softer: Despite its Original Flavor tendencies, The Biter Bit strays into Lighter and Softer territory, largely because there are huge chunks of the 1996 Autumn term that Rowling skips over because nothing happens during that time in canon, and the author fills in those gaps with Harry and Luna's budding romance.
- Moe Couplet: Harry and Luna. Luna is a Cloudcuckoolander who hardly seems troubled by anything and helps her father run the magical equivalent of a tabloid magazine, whereas Harry becomes more traumatized as increasing numbers of his friends and loved ones die. Some of them right in front of him. Yet, Luna understands what losing a loved one feels like, enabling her to empathise with his grief over Sirius — and Harry knows what being picked on feels like, so he naturally wants to help her out when people hide Luna's things and mock her behind her back. They serve as two sides of the same coin, with Harry becoming Luna's Bully Hunter and Luna becoming The Heart for Harry. Subsequently played with in that their Moe Couplet characteristics lead to them developing romantic feelings for each other.
- Mythology Gag: Luna's love of snow, but concern that it attracts Venomous Snowbats, is a recurring gag throughout several of the author's fics.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: There's a chapter narrated from Dumbledore's perspective. It turns out that he makes those sudden conversational tangents about sweets because he enjoys disconcerting people.
- Oblivious to Love: Ron and Hermione
- Oh, Crap!: Snape's reaction when he discovers that Harry was given to "that embittered cow" Petunia to raise.
- Original Flavor
- Parental Substitute: Remus Lupin and Mr & Mrs Weasley for Harry.
- Putting the Band Back Together: Luna convinces the Trio to reform the DA to help Harry keep an eye on Draco.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: According to the author's notes, The Biter Bit began life as a forum conversation about the ways in which different victims of bullying in the books deal with being bullied. Someone brought up the idea of Luna standing up to Snape, and AHighAndLonesomeSound wrote a one-shot. The one-shot got out of hand, and became a much longer fic.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Harry is Red, Luna is Blue. Equally, Luna is Red to Hermione's Blue.
- Running Gag: Luna's habit of delivering slightly-disconcerting Quips To Black (which also doubles as a Mythology Gag to the author's other fics), the alliterative chapter titles, Harry spacing out around Luna because he's developing a crush on her and Luna blaming Wrackspurts for his behaviour, people asking Ginny how she feels about Harry and Luna becoming a couple, Harry blaming Malfoy whenever anything goes wrong...
- Scrapbook Story: A sizable chunk of the narrative in the early chapters takes the form of letters between Luna, her father, and Mrs Weasley.
- Shipper on Deck: Molly for Remus and Tonks. It makes Remus somewhat uncomfortable.
- Ship Tease: In the author's notes for Chapter 18, AHighAndLonesomeSound remarks "So there you go. I made y'all wait eighteen chapters for a peck on the cheek. I admit it, I'm a bastard."
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Luna and Snape. Harry, Ginny and Hermione are a friendly example.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Snape.
- Teen Genius: Luna and Hermione. The latter's academic abilities remind Snape of his younger self.
- Town Girls: Ginny (Butch), Hermione (Femme) and Luna (Neither)
- True Companions: The DA.
- And more specifically Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna.
- The Rashomon: Played with. Inner Demons and Icicles is 'Learning to Listen' from Snape's perspective, and the 'A Couple of Christmas Conundrums' arc is the events of the Weasley family Christmas Eve narrated from different perspectives.
- The Stoic: Snape wonders whether Luna is this, or just too spaced-out to find detention unpleasant. He settles on the latter in the end.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Harry and Hermione.
- Wham Line: For Snape, the following probably counts:
Luna: "Your aunt and uncle are very mean. Saying her own sister had died in a car crash!"
- What the Hell, Hero?: Snape's reaction to Dumbledore giving Harry to the Dursleys as a baby.
- World of Snark
- Would Hit a Girl: Luna has to stop Harry from picking a fight with Millicent Bulstrode after he finds out that Millicent tried to attack Luna.
