Anyone recognise this line?

[snorkackcatcher]

The omniocular mods have very kindly given everyone a second chance at their previous challenges -- which has got me looking at the fic I started for the first character roulette again, to see what can be done with it. (I drew Rita Skeeter and Merope Gaunt -- I have about 3,000 words of Rita investigating, but that's probably only about a quarter done.)

Anyway, onto the main thing I wanted to ask. The first line of the fic as it stands reads:

Bernard Lovegood was no-one’s idea of a stormy petrel, except possibly his own.

Trouble is, that phrasing sounds naggingly familiar, and makes me think I've read something like it before and plugged it in unconsciously. Can anyone think of a fic (or published story, for that matter) which has that sort of opening, or similar character description? I don't really want to start with something that sounds ripped off!

Comments

[hibernater.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Googling it? Because I can't think of anything that sounds like this. Stormy petrel . . I've never heard that. I mean that in the best sense.

[snorkackcatcher]

Good idea. The trouble is, it's not the exact phrase, more the general rhythm that sounds familiar "X was no-one's idea of Y except possibly his/her own". When I tried it just now, mind you, all I could find was a Business Week article about a bio of the boxer Jack Johnson, of all things: "Johnson bowed to no one's idea of proper conduct in a segregated society -- except his own". Ah well. Maybe it's a common idiom?

"Stormy petrel" meaning a portent of disaster is just one of those phrases that stuck in my mind -- I must admit I had to look it up originally to make sure I had it right and what it derived from!

[hibernater.livejournal.com]

I think it's used here and there, but I don't think it's a cliche or plagarism by a long shot. Writers pick up turns of phrase unconsciously, that's how cliches come to be, after all. And it sounds nice. I'd say keep it.

'Stormy petrel' has the potential of starting a cliche/tradition. It's lovely.

[snorkackcatcher]

Thanks. :) Yeah, unless anyone points out a well-known story that starts that way, I'll leave it, or maybe just tweak it a bit.

[eccentricpirate.livejournal.com]

It sounds Douglas Adams-esque. But if we, the well-read readers of your journal, cannot tag it as belonging to someone, I somehow doubt that anyone else can. :P

[snorkackcatcher]

That's a relief. :)