Well, I'm going to try this tag I made, and we'll see how it goes. Here's my fan story, I guess...

*sigh*

I think it's time for me to fess up.

I wasn't a fan of Fantastic Beasts from the beginning.

I'm sorry, I know it's sacrilegious, I deserve to be kicced from the fandom, but I was too blind to see everything from the start. *gets pelted with rotten fruit* Okay! I'm sorry! I know! I know! *closes door behind me* Sorryyy-

The first time I watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was with How2BanIntrovert. It was really fun. We were planning to watch something else, but we ended up with FB instead. I vaguely remember that. They remember most of it.

That's pretty ironic. They even chewed me out when I didn't recognise the same theatre we went to (oh, the shame... ;-;). I don't remember any of it, but they tell me that when we walked out of the theatre, I said it "wasn't that good."

Now that I think about it, it seems like the kind of thing my stupid ass would say. I guess I used to be one of those haters that thought JKR had milked the idea for long enough. I was ignorant and insensitive. If only I knew that she hadn't simply come up with the idea... it was already all there in her mind. Jo is truly a magnificent woman. She has an entire universe right there- I think that even with the number of books and films that have tried to capture it, nothing would have done her justice. I had no idea that Newt's story had already put down roots in her mind right alongside Harry's. Oh, imagine if I knew what was coming for me after that...

A few years passed... cut to 15 November, 2018...

My family went and watched Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. None of us were particularly interested in FB. I still don't know why we decided to watch it.

I'm stubborn and small-minded, so I walked into the cinema with low expectations after remembering my dissatisfaction from the first movie. The film was confusing and nothing really made sense. I was convinced that there was no way there could be three more movies after that one.

Yet, I left the theatre with mixed feelings. I don't know what or why. We got into the car, and just as we were pulling out of the car park, I had that fateful awakening.

Yeah, it was a bit of a confusing movie, and I might not have paid much attention to the first one, but I think it was at that particular moment when my mind suddenly swung around and pointed in the other direction. I remember that vividly.

I remember what caused me to join, as well. Absolutely, I do.

It was the characters. I just fell in love with the characters. Particularly Newt. I really think that, after watching them all getting bent, twisted, played around with and dropped into different situations for two movies, that they had grown and been explored a lot. Seeing them onscreen was like a game- which one was that? That was the main guy in the last movie. Who's that, is she a new character? Oh, it's the girl again... she looks so different!

In all honesty, I think that Newt is a different kind of hero. I know there's a Pottermore article on this as well. Newt is different: he's quietly kind, he's quirky, he's awkward and a little uncomfortable in his own skin- and I think that I related a lot to him. (he's also incredibly attractive... heh)

Then, on the drive home, I stepped back and explored all the characters. I loved Tina. She was headstrong and confident in the second movie, but only because she was insecure and closed-off in the first. It was truly a comeback for her, and I loved her fiery spirit. There was Jacob. He was the funny guy, he was the muggle. I loved him, he was like the icebreaker in the middle of everything and we truly needed his golden moments. Then there was Queenie. Tina's younger sister... she had a horrifying turn in the second movie, and I really really regretted not paying more attention to the first movie because I never really felt it in my heart when she left.

And that was where it began, I guess.

It was as if I had a fan-dial on 0%, and somebody had accidentally knocked it all the way up to 100% in under five minutes.

On that same drive home, I immediately poofed into a magical fangirl, my camera roll went from mediocre memes to about 80 photos of Newt and counting.

I went to school after that weekend and surprised my friends with my newly-converted fangirl-ness. They were thrilled (not).

Then... the usual jazz. Merchandise, fanart, screenplays... the works.

And then... Wattpad.

See, I didn't really have anyone to fangirl with. I was closed off from the internet and didn't even know if a Fantastic Beasts fandom existed. All I could do was rewatch the movies ten billion times (which was awesome, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while). It was like this for a few months, I think.

I fangirled on my own, annoyed the hecc out of everyone... then one day, we were all catching up at a bowling alley for one of our friends' borthdae parte. I, of course, came decked out in full FB merch and only talked about it for the entire time (I must have been an abhorrent friend, looking back). How2BanIntrovert was there, and she asked if I read FB fanfiction.

At that point, I knew fanfic existed, but I had no idea how to navigate the world of it and was convinced that it was strange and unnatural. Once again, I kicked my own close-minded, hypocritical, sorry ass.

How2BanIntrovert helped me google Fantastic Beasts fanfics (I owe them so much), and I read some, then...

decided i didn't like it the end

Well, I did decide that I didn't like it.

But I had already proved myself wrong twice. Once with liking Fantastic Beasts itself, and once with being persuaded to read fanfic. What was the harm in doing it a third time? I'd already learned that I was an ignorant hypocrite, so why not suck it up and give something a go for once?

So I gave it another go.

From here, it's history. I'm sure I have said this before.

Safe in Your Arms by EbonySolcum was the first thing that came up on google. I read it, and was almost instantaneously hooked. Aaand that's how I discovered Wattpad! I'm pretty sure I blazed through the whole fic in about a day. I remember getting through the end, crying, then smiling though my tears and thinking, I want to be like this author someday.

I can't believe I've gotten this far into my fan journey without mentioning my sister. Honestly, she's my closest companion in this world. She puts up with my fangirling, supports me, helps me... I can't thank her enough. Especially since this next part was almost entirely her.

My little sister and I have a bunk bed. She sleeps on the top and I sleep on the bottom. At night, when we can't sleep, we talk. Usually, the conversation turns towards Fantastic Beasts.

Over time, we had some pretty funny thoughts. Like, little headcanons or ideas. At one point, I thought, damn, these are pretty good. I'm gonna write them down!

But when I wrote it down, something was missing. See, I used to love writing years and years ago. I wrote a lot of little stories and poems and songs. I even self-published a book (which I then gifted to our school library but please don't read it because it's cringy and I hate it now ahaha).

So... I fleshed it out a little. Okay, a lot. Okay, I got back into writing. But this time, I was writing fanfiction without even knowing it.

Over the weeks, we settled into a pretty neat rhythm. I sneaked my phone off to bed (sorry, mum and dad D:). We chatted for a while about Fantastic Beasts, and whenever we had a funky idea, I said "hold up I need to write this."

And- yes, it's a little JKR-esque- but I locked myself in the bathroom and wrote stories on the sly. Sometimes I got carried away and stayed in there until far past midnight (or mdinging, as TheSaladmanderSquad would call it). This is probably one of the things I'm most proud of in my fan story. Writing on the sly... hehe

Sometimes, I'd return back to bed and read aloud whatever I had written to my sister so we could both hear it. Sometimes, I returned and she had fallen asleep, so I tucked her under the blanket and kissed her goodnight.

After about a month, I had a full-blow novel sitting in the notes app on my phone. Yep... this became Those Days, my first ever piece on this website. I still remember some of the ideas we had that inspired the chapters...

"We know Newt's boggart, but what about Tina's? wHAT IF IT WAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH NEWT-" became Chapter 4: Riddikulus

"Ooh, we should have Tina go all predator on Newt because she's psycho or something" became Chapter 21: Avada Kedavra

"Lololol let's get him to awkwardly confess" became Chapter 26: Confundus

About now in my lit journey, I was in full-fangirl-swing, I'd found AO3 and Wattpad (but preferred the latter) and had begun writing my own fanfic. I started reading Ebony's other works, beginning with Return to New York.

(I found a mistake in that which I was itching to correct but I didn't have an account lmao) And then... on 2 February, 2019... I got a Wattpad account!

Admittedly, the first thing I ever commented was a correction on Ebony's fanfic (sorry Ebony XP), but that's when I found... other messages in the comment section.

There were amazing fanfic writers! FB was recognised! There was a full-blown Fantastic Beasts fandom! And I had found them!

I used to hang around and talk a lot to EbonySolcum, lilpickett, Basiquee and Fangurl_700. All brilliant authors. I am honoured to be friends with them.

I should mention, I wasted no time at all in getting all thirty-nine of my chapters up and published. Those Days was originally meant to be much shorter, but I got drunk on the idea and couldn't stop scribbling up chapters until I promised myself that I would make a oneshot book.

Anyway, my writing started attracting readers (still not sure how, but). I made great friends with a lot of them, and I only got more and more invested in Fantastic Beasts. I had no idea that there would be so many people who liked FB as well! I made lots of new friends, and by about now, a lot of my irl friends had taken an interest in FB as well.

Well... what can I say? The ideas kept coming to me, I kept writing, Skip a Beat was born, I collected merchandise, I watched interviews, I read more fics, I got inspired, I kept rewatching the films, I started a collab, I got friends roped in, I got 100 followers, Hold Your Breath spunked into existence, I met Alison Sudol, I created a fangirl discord...

I had found my fandom, I guess.

As of today, it's been 1 year, 6 months and 12 days since my fan story began.

I started out as a hater, then fell in love.

With the second film, moreover. The one everyone seemed to hate. How ironic, that The Crimes of Grindelwald repelled plenty of people from the fandom, but drew me in?

Well, I think this is long enough. Thanks for reading down to here, it means a lot. And thanks for letting me share my story!

I have to tag someone to share their own fan story, so I'm tagging Donutmuffin323. Copy and paste the prompt at the top, mate. I look forward to reading yours!!!

Thanks again, guys. You're a pretty big chunk of my journey, and I don't think I'd be here today if I hadn't found you <33

Let's keep #Fanstory alive!!