«деконструкция»

Четвёртый курс. Гермиона Грейнджер обнаруживает, что их жизнь — это нарратив. Не метафора, не теория. Буквально: кто-то пишет их историю, и она подчиняется сюжетным законам. Система защиты камня состоит ровно из тех испытаний, которые под силу именно им троим. Волдеморт терпит поражение ровно к июню. Каждый год. Дальше Гермиона делает единственное, что умеет: начинает его читать. Деконструкция четвёртого курса как мета-фикшн. Гермиона, Гарри, нарратив — и вопрос, на который нет ответа: можно ли выйти за пределы сюжета, или это тоже часть текста?

What if the world of Harry Potter were nothing but a game? A hyper-realistic MMORPG in closed alpha testing. And you're one of its developers, accidentally stranded inside it. At first it seems like paradise: cheat codes, boundless power, the freedom to reshape the world however you please. But every game has an owner. And when you get too caught up in editing someone else's code, be ready for the day ROOT_ADMIN comes looking for you. And he'll have his own plans for your account.

The war is over, the Dark Lord has fallen, and the Ministry's coffers are empty. As part of a «budget optimisation» programme, Kingsley Shacklebolt makes an executive decision: scrap the single cells in Azkaban. Draco Malfoy, who had been dreaming of a beautiful, tragic solitude, ends up in cell No. 394-B. His neighbours are the elite of the Death Eaters: a perpetually sleeping Lestrange, Rookwood who counts the cracks in the wall, and Antonin Dolokhov, who out of sheer boredom has founded an «Intellectual Club». Now, to earn a piece of bread or the right to sleep, Draco will have to play their games. Here the currency is a well-aimed joke, and survival depends on the ability to solve a riddle about guts, conscience and Dementors.