#Black-Eyed Leaf Frog | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

florestmoon · 2 years

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Such a strange girl. (Eddie Munson x Reader)

Summary: Two of Hawkin’s branded Freaks form a friendship. Who can say they were surprised ? Eddie finds himself drawn to your personality and falls deeper as you make a place in his life.

Warnings: Reader is plus size/chubby because I said so. Mentions of a dead frog. lots of fluff to make up for my last fic ((: kinda all over the place lol

A/N: reader is inspired by Misty Day and Luna Lovegood because they are both INFPs in my heart, and those are my favorite type of people as I am one too. Also, let’s act like that dissection of frog lesson happens in high school instead of middle school ooook? Thank you and enjoy <3

Yes the title is inspired by The Perfect Girl by Mareux despite it not going with the aesthetic

“And you sure this is 15 grams?” The blonde pothead eyes Eddie suspiciously as he shook the baggy in between his fingers. Eddie’s innocent smile meeting that suspicion as he leaned himself against the wooden picnic table.

“Yeah, man. You can measure yourself if ya want.” He states simply, leaning his chin against his palm as he watched his customer continue to inspect the weed. He let out a grunt as his patience started to wear thin, “Are you going to pay me or not? You can always find some-”

“Fine.” A few 20 dollar bills were shoved into his hands. Eddie nodding at the pothead which he scoffed in return before walked away, leaving him alone in the woods that wrapped around Hawkins high.

“sucker.” Eddie snorts, pocketing the money for the weed he overcharged for. The pothead was an old customer who has screwed him over a few times, so he didn’t feel too bad for increasing his prices. He shuts the black metal lunchbox shut and jumps off the table.

He stretches out, pulling his arms above his head. The warmth of the sun kissing his skin in return when he looks up at the sky. He had half the mind to stay in his safe spot in the trees but figured Dustin would talk his ear off for missing lunch and his ideas for the next campaign.

That kid never gave him a break.it seemed although he was latched onto his side any change he got during school hours, finding him between class period or their breaks. He would go as far to ask for a few rides. Eddie didn't actually feel too annoyed at him. His amusement and pride at being looked up too by the new freshman made his days in Hawkins a little better.

Only a little bit.

Lunchbox rattling its items as he swings it beside him, Eddie makes his way through the woods. Taking slow steps to draw out the time before he has to walk in that crowded cafeteria.

Rustling off to the side catches his attention, tearing his tired gaze from a squirrel off the distance towards another secluded area that was rid of any trees. It was adorned with bushes and another picnic bench. There was a knitted bag discarded on top.

He made way towards the table, eying the bag before looking back at the bushes that were slightly shaking just moments before. He stares, not willing to get any closer because he’s seen enough horror movies to know that is the stupidest idea one could make and Eddie was not going to be the first kill in Hawkin’s encounter with a serial killer-

He had got distracted by his inner monologue when your figure suddenly pushing the leafs apart to step out had caught him by surprise.

“Jesus Christ!!” He yells as he trips backward, catching himself before he could fall on his ass. You stood up blinking owlishly at him before dusting off your long skirt. Picking off some sticks that had gotten stuck into the threads of the fabric, and leaves off the end of your hair. The actions so eerily calm and calculated as though you didn’t notice the panic expression on eddie’s face.

“Uh..” he struggles when you busied yourself with fixing your clothes. His voice catching your attention and your eyes finally gazing up at him again questionly. “. You nearly gave me a heart attack?”

“Oh I'm sorry. I didn’t mean to.” You tilt your head at him.

“No, its ..it's um, it’s fine ?” He cleared his throat and crossed his arms across his chest and mimicked the tilt of your head with his own. Squinting his eyes at you, quickly taking in your appearance.

Black knitted cami top with a white see through bell sleeve top that showed off your soft arms. A brown long skirt with different patterns hugged your wider hips and tummy, the material becoming flowy just below your thighs and would have been touching the floor were it not for your multi colored clog low heels.

He recognized you immediately. He seen you around school between classes in the hallway. Your lockers were across from each other and he often found himself admiring the mismatched colors of your outfits. While he liked his monochrome clothes that filled his closet, he could appreciate your choice. It was cute.

You sat in the back in science class, often humming to yourself as you stared off out the windows while the teacher droned on and on about whatever lesson was placed that day. You were always scolded for your daydreaming but you never seemed bothered. Always smiling sweetly at the teacher and urging him to continue.

Everyone knew you were different. The same way many branded Eddie and his friends as freaks because of their choice of music and hobbies that surrounded a fantasy game. You were the weird girl of Hawkins.

“I just wasn’t expecting you to pop out like that on me.” he finally speaks again to snap him out of his staring. “Are you okay? Did you fall in there?”

“Nope.” You pop your lips as you move past him with a disappointed sigh. “I was looking for mushrooms.”

“Oh cool…” he pauses, “mushrooms?”

“Mhm. But it seems there aren't any in this part of the woods.” You frown as you circle slowly to look around you, focusing on some roots of the trees a bit ahead. “Little guys are hiding from me.”

Eddie followed your movements with a turn of his eyes, dropping his hands from their crossed position to lean against the table. Knocking his one of his ring knuckles on the edge. “Aren’t you suppose to not be touching random mushrooms, I ate one when I was 8 years old and was sent to the hospital.”

“You must have eaten a death cap, or a podostroma!” You beam and looks towards him in curiosity. “There are a few poisonous ones, but there are many more that are safe. Even edible.”

You walk towards him taking him in. “Those that I named can kill you, so it’s a surprise you survived that.”

“Yeah well, my dad probably would have been happier of that outcome than the hospital bill.” He chuckles before nearly grimacing at the darkness of the joke. He had a habit of using dark humor to deal with his past trauma. It helped him get better at dealing with his emotions, along with joking at his bullies to make their teasing a little easier to handle. He forgot that you may not react in a way his other friends do to his jokes, but when he looked back at you, you were surveying him amusingly.

“Oh I understand. I had my fair share of hospital visits. One time I got a broken arm from falling off a tree.” You grab your knitted bag and pull it over your shoulders. “Daddy didn't believe when I told him a fairy chased me out of it’s home.”

Eddie couldn't stop the bark of laughter that erupted from the unusual statement. Not to make fun of you or doubt you, just a little on the latter, but because how sincere you sounded. Your eyebrows furrowed as though it was vivid memory that you knew was true.

“I’m on the fairy’s side,” he grins at you after a moment. “Not cool to trespass on someone’s pad man.”

You shrug, beginning to walk away from him and forcing Eddie to hastily grab his lunchbox and catch up to walk beside you. “That’s true. I apologized by putting honey in a jar by the tree when I came back. They like sweets.”

“Is that so?” You hum as an answer him and look ahead at the many students that were playing a game of soccer out on the field that connected with the entry to the woods.

“Interesting..” he mumbles to himself, allowing to believe the fantasies you seemed to be confident in. Who was he to say anything when his own favorite game was build on it? Before he could try to keep the conversation flowing, building the courage to even ask your name despite already knowing it, you gasped and ran ahead towards a tree that was at the end of the tree line.

You bend down to look at a few white mushrooms that sprouted from the tree, tucked between the large roots surrounded by dirt. You touched the top of them gently and whispered. “Hey little guys.”

You took out a small pocket knife and carefully cut the ends of a few. Standing back up, you turned towards Eddie who was watching you with curious eyes, and grabbed his wrist to turn his hand palms up.

“Oh-”

“Nature’s candy!” You smile as you drop the mushrooms in his hands. “These you can eat. No hospital visits.”

Eddie barely glances at the mushrooms, staring at you when you close his fingers over the mushrooms carefully and look up at him. “I promise these will taste better.”

“Oh o-okay,” he gulps and breaks the eye contact to look down at your fingers over his. “Thanks.”

You nod happily and pull away, much to his dismay. He missed the touch already. The bell ringing snaps your attention back to the school building and sigh dreamily. “We missed the pudding they gave out at lunch today. Oh well.”

With a shrug, you walk away and begin making your way across the field. Eddie follows close behind, playing with the mushroom in hand as he watches the back of your head.

Eddie was not in fact happy that someone asked to meet up in the woods again the next day during lunch. He was not happy at the idea of walking the same path to find the secluded area that he met you 24 hours prior. And he definitely was not happy to see you sitting with your legs criss crossed on top of the wooden table. Hands placed beside you and holding your body as you lean backwards, head tilted up towards the sky with your eyes closed.

Your hair spread flowing down your exposed shoulders and he was not staring by a tree like a creep. You tilt your head towards him, a few strands brushing off your shoulder. Eyes staying close as you regard him. “Hi Eddie.”

Shit.

He coughs onto his hand and ignores the flush that threatens to take over the back of his neck. “Shit, ha. Yeah, how’d you even know I was there?” He laughs nervously as he placed his hands in his jackets pockets and walks towards your relaxed figure. You were wearing a white sun dress with boots.

“I saw you walking towards where you always deal.” You say nonchalantly, “did you try the mushroom?”

“Yeah,” he gotten high and shoved the full thing in his mouth, gagging at the dryness and realize he was stupid enough to not even cook it or do something different with it. “It tasted amazing. 10/10, I think i’m going to become vegan and just eat whatever I can find in these woods.”

Your relaxed lips tug at the corner into an amused smile, “don't do that. It’ll get boring.” Eyes finally opening to look at Eddie who had sat himself on the bench below you. Hands grasp together as he looks up at you.

“You always spend your lunch here alone?” Eddie asks, leaning his cheek on his palm and tapping his fingers on his cheek. “I never really seen you eat in the cafeteria.”

You leaned forward and kicked your legs out, admiring your boots. “I like being out in the sun. We only get a few days of sun this week before fall comes around.” You brush a stick off the table with the tip of your boot. “So I want to get some of its energy before it’s gone.”

“Besides, there’s not many tables left for me to sit.”

Eddie hums along to what you say, listening to the smoothness of your voice as you talk. You spoke so delicately, as though you wanted to draw out what you were saying, not caring to rush. He wants to listen to you talk all day. “You should sit with us, with Hellfire.”

“Hellfire?” You question. “What’s that?”

Eddie stands up with purpose, allowing his smile that shows his dimples to spread across his face. He kicks his leg up as he spins in a half circle and faces you. “Only one of Hawkins best club to date, where we play the fantasy game that has so many parents holding their children in fear-” he makes show of holding his arm to his chest, “- that they’ll be corrupted next by its ugly claws.”

You giggle as he makes a face of horror before he leans forward and places both arms by your sides. Leveling his face with yours. “Played dnd before?”

You shake your head. He smiles at that, “well it’s pretty fun. At least I try to make it fun in my campaigns.” He pulls away, blushing slightly at the fact he may have invaded your space.

“I’ve heard about it before. It has dragons in it right?” You ask, voice peaking with curiosity. “And elves?”

Eddie nods, bringing his hair in front of his mouth as he smiles down at you. “Yeah, but that’s not even the best thing.” He whispers, your eyes widening comically as you nod for him to continue.

“It has fairies.” He basks in the gasp you let out as you jump off the table and clap your hands together.

“Can I be a fairy?” You wiggle in your place as you watch Eddie match your energy. He nods excitedly, “fuck yeah, I can make you the best fairy dnd will ever see.”

“Oh I never been this excited about something.” You bite your lip as you play with your hands. “This is even more exciting than that time I saw a small bald girl throw a van with her mind once.”

“Glad to hear…Wait, wha-”

“My dad says I might have imagined it. I tend to daydream a lot.” You ramble as you grab your bag and grab Eddie’s wrist to began tugging him along. “He says it may have to do with me being dropped as a baby, but I don’t think that’s what really happened..”

You ramble as your hands unknowingly slide down to intertwine with his, Eddie’s face completely flushing at your touch and trying his best to keep up with your wild story

—

After that, you sat with the Hellfire club, the rest of the group taking one look at you and deciding, yeah you definitely fit in with the freaks of Hawkins. Especially when you would go on your tangent of stories that for some reason, Dustin Mike and Lucas fully latch onto. Mumbling to each other that, yes that totally makes sense.

Eddie begin to sit with you during science class, ignoring the teacher’s protest of changing the seating chart and would let you play with his rings during class. Your soft whispers counting his rings at the start of his class, before you would focus on the different designs. He would agree with the random names you gave for each one, laughing when you tried them on yourself and they slipped off your fingers despite your efforts of trying to keep them in place.

You begun accompanying on his rides after school, or after a hellfire club campaign. Which you were slowly understanding more and more, your fairy character marking his notes in his dnd binder. You still had difficulty building their stats, always whining that if he could just draw it in cute clothes and not do the extra stuff. But you listened to him when he gave pointers on your character arch, even pitching the ideas.

“What if they had the power of resurgence ?” You asked one afternoon. Fingers braiding a section of his hair as he sat on the floor of your bedroom, back pressed against the edge of your bed.

“Power of resurgence huh?” He studied his notes. “I like the sound of that.”

You were bleeding into his life more and more.

His days in Hawkins had gotten better ever since you begin to flood every part of his mind. Your random quirks and habits occupying his mind on random parts of his day, his attention drifting whenever he did deals in the woods, eyes wandering between the trees searching for any mushrooms that could have sprouted.

Your favorite ice cream was mint. He was horrified upon discovering it when he watched you eat it from the small pint in your hands, as you happily took out a huge chunk out that barely was supported by the small spoon. He was also scared how you were able to bite instead of licking it like a normal person.

But he made sure to keep mint ice cream in his freezer from then on. Like how he kept the different plants you had grown in your garden that you gifted to him. His daily routine of making sure they got enough water was stressful, he never had that type of responsibility, but worth it when your eyes sparked in pride after noticing them decorate his room.

A few Fleetwood Mac’s records also taken place in his room, so when you would come over, he could watch you sway your body to the soft voice that was Stevie Nicks. Your knitted cardigan flowing around you as you spun happily to the beat. His heart beat skipped at the sight.

He swore you would be the cause of his death, with the way his heart was skipping beats around you constantly. Like the time you had impulsively ran out into the rain after a hellfire club campaign. Your screams of delight heard over the thunder off in the distance, tongue sticking out to taste the rain drops.

“Jesus Y/N! You're going to catch a cold!” He yells as he runs after you making sure you didn’t slip and fall. “Or be fucking cooked by lightening!” You shook your head, wet hair slapping your face when you look back at him. He wished he could have taken a picture, wondering if their new addition to their club, Will, could convince his brother to let him borrow his camera one of these days.

“Come on, you mad woman! Onward, to the van! Chop !chop !” He pretends to push you and you go relunctly, wrapping your arms around yourself as you jog towards the vehicle. Before he unlocks the door, he pulls open the side of the van and reaches in to grab his leather jacket. You wait as he slams it shut and quickly helps you inside passenger seat.

He wraps the jacket around your shoulder, clicks your seatbelt in place, looking you dead in the eyes as though scolding a child. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Make coco?” You quirp, eyes twinkling. “With extra marshmallows.”

Eddie rolls his eyes and slams the door shut, feigning annoyance but cant stop his lovesick expression as he rounds towards the driver side. Knowing that you’ll be getting your coco by the end of the night.

And you did. You sat on his couch in his trailer, warm cup of coco in your hands in a change of pajamas he gave you. You kept his jacket around you, even putting it on when you left that morning. He let you keep it.

—

When Eddie had walked into the class that you both shared, ready to show you a brand new set of rings his uncle gifted him, he noticed your unusual demeanor.

Now you were an unusual person, a fact no one could deny. But you, with a serious expression and your body rigid was something Eddie has never seen before. The pencil in your hand was tapping rapidly against your notebook as you stared off into the distance.

“You good?” He asks as he pulls his seat out, barely noticing the the weird set up on the table you shared together. You didn’t respond. “Hey, talk to me.”

Scalpels were placed carefully side by side, near a huge lump that was covered by a napkin. Eddie glanced up at the chalkboard and exhaled at the letters that read back to him.

Dissection.

Oh.

“Alright , today we are going to learn the anatomy of a frog. Exciting right?” A few ew’s echoed across the classroom alongside some of the jocks snickering, “I set a frog on each table, alongside the tools that we will be using.”

Mr. Clark rounded his own desk, picking up his tools and showing the class as demonstration. “Now, you will work with your partner to carefully dissect the frog. And we will go slowly and point out each organ. Okay?”

Your hand shot up, shaking it when he glances at you. “Yes y/n?”

“I already did my research before hand.” You quickly state, your breath shaky. “On the organs. I also have a lot of knowledge on frogs so I was thinking maybe me and Eddie wouldn't have to-”

“You will be dissecting the frog with the rest of the class.”

“But Mr.Clark-”

“No buts.” He narrows his eyes at you, shaking his head dissaprovingly. “This is part of your grade and mandatory for todays lesson.”

“Come on man,” Eddie finally speaks up, trying his best to not glare daggers at the older man. Your hands were trembling and he couldn’t stand the way your face paled. “You can’t force use to do this.”

“Unless you both want to fail my class, then yes I can.” Mr. Clark replies curtly.

“It's not right.” You frown. “The frog doesn't deserve to be cut into like this.”

“It’s already dead dumbass.” Many giggles followed as one the girls in the front of the class spoke up.

You turn towards the voice and glare at her, the first time Eddie ever seen you mad. “Would you want someone to cut your body open when you’re dead?”

“I’m not some stupid frog.”

Eddie snorts. “Yet you look like one.”

The class errupts in Ohhhh’s at Eddie’s insult before quickly being shut down by Mr. Clark’s hand slapping down onto the table. You and Eddie both turn to see him walking to your table.

“Ms. L/N, I understand this will be difficult. But I cannot allow you to skip out in this because it will lead to others wanting to do the same.” He looks down at you. “So. No more interruptions.”

You nod shakily, looking down at your hands when he walks away and returns to instructing everyone to pull the napkin to reveal their frogs that laid spread out in front of them. Eddie reaches over to place his hand on top of yours when you try to pull the napkin.

“We don’t have to.”

“I don’t want you to fail Eddie.” You sniff and pull the napkin away. The dead frog was laid on his back. Eddie watched you sit back in your seat as your lips wobbled. “Can you..can you do it?”

You whisper it, looking at him with teary eyes and Eddie decides he would do anything to wipe that sadness from your face. He nods squeezing your hand before listening to the instructions carefully, trying not to notice your flinching when he cuts into it’s tiny body.

Eddie isn’t exactly screamish to these kind of things. He watched horror movies growing up and found his fair share of dead animals in the woods. His father had made him hunt a few times and although he felt horrible, he never thought much of the deers he killed. But seeing the way tears stained your notebook pages as you wrote down the information that was being told, the guilt weighed heavy in him at what he was doing.

Class went by fast. The bell rung to signal the end of it and you grabbed your bag and was ready to run out of there, only waiting for Eddie to grab his own belongings. He wrapped his arm around you as you both followed the other students out the classroom. When you were out of the classroom, you rubbed angrily at your cheeks.

You were about to speak but Eddie had pulled his arm away, pushing himself back inside the classroom before the last student shut the door. You waited confused outside for a few moments before Eddie came back outside, hands carrying a bundle of napkins.

Mr.clark’s voice was yelling out for him.

“Let’s go.” He grabs your wrist and pulls you along with him, not answering your bewildered questions as you both leave the hallways and march towards the woods.

“What are we doing?” You frown as he drops his bag and grabs yours to set beside him. He turns toward you and shakes his head to rid of the curls from his face.

“We’re giving him a badass burial.”

He opens his hands and unravels the napkins, showing you the body of the dead frog. Your hands reaching towards it before looking up at Eddie.

He marvels at your sad smile. “Okay.”

You both make use of the whole lunch period to dig up a hole to place Mr. Jelly, your choice of name, in. You had gathered a few mushrooms and flowers, along with sticks and rocks to create a makeshift headstone on top of the dirt. Eddie helped you surround it with the mushrooms, and spread the petals of flowers in the middle.

“I wish I had my fairy’s powers..” you whispered when you both were done and Eddie had finished a reciting a shitty prayer. “To be able to bring him back. So he can find his family and they can hop on a pond.” You wipe the dirt off your hands.

“I’m sure he’s happy in heaven, sweetheart.” Eddie reassures, taking a petal that got stuck in your hair. “Bet he’s eating all the flies his small stomach can handle. All fat and happy.”

The image must have popped in your head with the way you began to giggle and grab onto his arm. Your head leaning against him as it died down and you sighed. You turn slightly to place a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you Eddie.”

“Don’t mention it.” He stares down at the small stones, ignoring the feeling of his heart nearly beating out of his chest. The kiss burning into his cheek that was flaming bright red. “You should have seen his face when I snatched it before he could start collecting the bodies.” He furrowed his eyebrows and flared his nostrils.

“Eddie, what oh earth are you doing with that frog??” He mimics with the deepest voice he could, which had you bursting into laughter again.

He wants to hear it over and over again.

—

“Shit. Where the fuck is it?” Eddie grumbles. The van shook as he crawled around like a maniac, shoving different things out of the way as he looked under every trash that littered the back of the van. Your body swayed from the ruckus but you stayed focused on eating the raspberries that you placed on each of your fingers.

You were two down, the other eight fingers spread out in front of you.

“Nope. Not there. Really, not here? Wait, who the fuck put this here? I do not listen to that.” He tosses a random cassette behind him, nearly hitting you which he apologizes for before returning his search. “Hm. No..gross, that brat really left his Twinkie in my van!”

You suck another raspberry off a finger. “That’s mine.”

That time, he didn’t miss when he aimed the half eaten pastry at your head.

He finally fishes out what he was looking for with an ‘aha!’ from under the driver seat, returning to his spot next to you. The slide door was opened and you sat dangling your legs off the edge of the van. By the time he sat next to you, your left hand was free of any raspberries.

You held your right hand in front of him and whined. “Eddie I can’t eat anymore or i’ll turn into a raspberry."

“No one told you to try to eat the whole container you idiot,” he grabs your wrist and carefully bites each one off, not letting his teeth or lips touch your fingers, and lets his mouth be full of them. You wiggle your fingers happily before he pushes your hand away.

“I was able to eat that container of strawberries last time.”

“Yeah and you threw up all over my kitchen and cried that you could hear the cries of the strawberries in your stomach.” He chews through his words. Hands grab your swinging legs and pulls them over his lap, forcing for you to turn slightly and lean back on the side of the van door. He couldn’t lie and say he didn’t enjoy the way the your thighs felt on top of his.

He didn’t think about the way his hands would feel squeezing your thighs. Nope nope, never crossed his mind.

“Because they were.” You huff, hands folding over your stomach as you look off towards the lake that he parked his van in front of. He hums. Fingers rubbing your ankles which you accept happily.

“What were you looking for again?” You tilt your head towards him, catching the blush that spread across his cheeks as he uses his hand that wasn’t rubbing your ankles to hand you the two tickets

“You were mentioning the other day about Fleetwood Mac holding a concert a few towns over...”

He didn’t get to finish before your excited scream blasted his eardrums and you sat up, tearing your legs away from him and grabbed the tickets.

“Oh!” You gasped as you stared at them in awe. Blinking rapidly like it would magically disappear if you looked away for took long. “Oh, oh!! Oh wow? Eddie, how did you get these? Everyone said they were sold out”

“Have a few good links. Friends who gotten me and my band gigs and all that,” he explains, cherishing the fondness that you aimed towards him. Your soft wide eyes staring at him before you lunged forward, wrapping your arms his neck tightly.

“Oh thank you thank you! Eddie you’re the best,” you gasp and pull away to stare at the tickets again.

“It’s a 7 hour drive but I'm sure my girl can get us there.” He smacks the side of his van and leans back rubbing the side of his neck , “uh, unless you’ll rather go with someone else then that-”

“No!” You place the tickets down, tugging his sleeve and shaking your head. “I want to go with you.” Eddie sighs in relief.

“Good,” He licks his lips, “because I totally wouldn't have sabotaged their car if you picked someone else.”

You shake your head amused before crossing your legs and biting your lip. You shook your knees in excitement as you continued to read over the words on the tickets over and over game. Eddie admired you as the nerves begin to eat at the bottom of his stomach.

He had planned it for a while now. Saving up the money from his drug deals, along working part time at a mechanic Wayne referenced him to, so he could afford the tickets. Although he got a good deal from his friends, the tickets were still expensive. Heck they were more than the tickets he gotten to see his own favorite band.

But it was worth with the way you trembling with happiness. It would be even more worth it when he sees you dancing freely to the music that he admits had blended in with his own tapes, and whatever outfit you throw together.

It’ll be worth it when by the end of night, he finally asks you to be his girlfriend. He’s been trying to find the perfect moment to pop the question but every time he would be distracted by your personality or beauty, enjoying every waking moment you have together. By the end of the day, he had fallen even deeper in his feelings for you and the more he was afraid of confessing.

But he was going to do it at that concert, and he’s going to make sure it goes perfect, and-

“Eddie.”

“Yeah?” You brought him out of his unraveling thoughts.

“You’re my boyfriend now.”

Eddie chokes on his spit as you watch him with a calm expression. His hand hitting his chest. He turns his head to look at you with a twisted expression. “Excuse me??”

Shoulder rising in a shrug, you respond calmly. “I said-”

“No . No, no I know what you said,” He leans forward placing his elbows on his thighs as he rubs at his eyes. “I just..let me process it. Before I pass out.”

“What? I like you a lot-” Eddie swears he nearly coughs up a lung again. “And you do really nice things for me. And I feel happy with you and I would make you mushroom soup if you asked me,” you ramble watching him finally gain his composure. “And we had a burial for Mr. Jelly, so..I want you to be my boyfriend.”

“Shit, y/n.” Eddie exhales. Your confession catching him off guard, he wasn’t sure what to say until he saw that your confidence was beginning to waver. A frown threatening to form. “I had this whole thing planned to confess my feelings for you at the concert and you go and give me a heart attack !”

Again. Not the first time.

You blink. “Oh really? Well we can wait until then. I’ll act like I don’t know anything. I’m good at pretending-”

Eddie shuts you up by pulling you forward and smashing your lips together. The raspberry taste still lingering in both your lips as you kiss, his arms wrapping around your waist when he pulls you closer to him.

Okay, maybe this was better than what he had planned. This was worth it.

#Eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson #stranger things imagine #stranger things #stranger things season 4 #stranger things 4 #eddie munson imagine #Eddie munson fic #yuh we die as simps

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weirdanimal-tournament · 1 year

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THE COMPETITORS

After hours of filtering, I have a list! From 411 submisstions to 134 competitors. Of course, that means that not all the submissions are competing. My main rule for filtering was that when many similar animals were submitted, one was selected. This means that even if your submission din't get in, there is likely somthing else similar you can vote for instead! I'm hoping to get the polls out this Saturday or Sunday, and I'll post the time once it's decided. That being said... here's the list!

Mouse deer

Blanket octopus

Twenty plume moth

Anomalocaris

Caecilian

Bagworm moth caterpillars

Balaenognathus

Banded archerfish

Barnacle

Barreleye fish

Tripod fish

Bigfin squid

Bilby

Black sea hare

Black snub nosed monkey

Blobfish

Blue sea dragon

Nano-chameleon

Bush brown caterpillar

Chinese water deer

Maned wolf

Colugo

Common spotted cuscus

Corpse Assassin Bug

Messmate pipefish

Cotylorhynchus

creatonotos gangis

Tongue eating louse

Ganges river dolphin

ghost pipefish

Giant Anteater

Giant gippsland earthworm

Giant tube worm

Giraffe Weevil

Glowworms

Goblin shark

Golden mole

Green-banded broodsac

Greenland shark

Gum leaf skeletonizer caterpillars

Hagfish

Hallucigenia

Hammer head bat

Helicoprion

Honduran white bat

Short horned lizard

Green hydra

Jerboa

Jerusalem cricket

Lamprey

Largetooth sawfish

Bulwer’s pheasant

Lowland Streaked Tenrec

Lyrebird

Marbled polecat

Mata mata

Mexican mole lizard

Ghost faced bat

Mudskipper

Muntjac

Naked bulldog bat

Naked mole rat

Phillipene tube nosed fruit bat

Oarfish

Mantis shrimp

Ogre faced spider

Okapi

platypus

Pangolin

Parrot fish

Partridge bug

Pelican eel

Asian giant softshell turtle

Pink fairy armadillo

Pipa pipa

Platybelodon

Portuguese Man O War

Potoos

Predatory tunicate

Pufferfish

Sea spider

Red lipped batfish

Bowmouth guitarfish

Roseate spoonbill

Pink iguana

Royal albatross

Sage grouse

Saiga antelope

Sailfin dragon

Volcano snail

Schaefer’s anglerfish

Sea cucumber

Sea pig

Sea sheep

Sharovipteryx

Echidna

Assassin spider

Spider tailed viper

Siphonophore

Solenodon

Spectral bat

Spix’s disc winged bat

Spotted wobbegong

Stalk-eyed fly

Stoplight loosejaw

Giant phantom jelly

Sunfish

Sword billed hummingbird

Tailless whip scorpion

Tapir

Tardigrade

Tarsier

Telescopefish

Woodcock

Aye-aye

Bobbit worm

Nautilus

Glass frog

Immortal jellyfish

Olm

Mirror spider

Trilobite Beetle

Trumpetfish

Vampire bat

Vampire squid

Velvetworm

Wonderfish

Wrinkle-faced bat

#animals #animal #weird animals #weird animal #tournament #competition #poll #polls #zoology

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is-the-snake-video-cute · 2 years

Note

What are some of the most common or most interesting snakes in Madagascar, especially around the Tsiribihina River?

Madagascar is one of the coolest places in the world for reptiles! Most reptiles native to Madagascar are only found on Madagascar. There aren't any snakes with venom that is medically significant to humans, and, in a very unique twist on the norm, Madagascar doesn't have any colubrids! Colubrids are the most populous snake family, but most snakes on Madagascar are actually pseudoxyhrhophiids, more closely related to elapids than to colubrids. It's very unique for a snake family outside of the big five (vipers, boas, pythons, elapids, and colubrids) to fill so many niches.

Malagasy cat-eyed snakes (Madagascarophis sp.) are some of the most common snakes across Madagascar! These guys are little arboreal snakes with huge eyes, and they can vary in color across species from a mottled brown to bright orange!

The Malagasy ground boa (Acrantophis madagascariensis) is the largest snake you can find on Madagascar, reaching about 10 feet long. They're native mostly to central/western Madagascar, so can definitely be found around the Tsiribihina river!

The common big-eyed snake (Mimophis mahfalensis) is one of the most common snakes you'll se in central/southern Madagascar. These little dudes almost exclusively eat amphibians and other reptiles.

Big-headed snakes (Compsophis laphystius) are tiny little frog eaters, and just as cute as little buttons!

Malagasy leaf-nosed snakes (Langaha madagascariensis) have long snouts to mimic plant life, and you can tell the sex based on the snouts! Males will have long, straight snouts, and females will have a leafy-looking snout! They'll hold their bodies straight up or down in trees to mimic sticks.

Malagasy hognose snakes (Leioheterodon sp.) include three species, and they're not related to the hognoses of North America except superficially. They have cute little upturned noses to aid with burrowing and get much bigger (4-6 feet depending on species).

There isn't a lot known about yellow and black tree snakes (Lycodryas citrinus), but gosh aren't they beautiful? These reclusive little snakes are arboreal nighttime hunters.

Madagascar is home to two different families of blindsnakes and wormsnakes, and the most common is probably the Madagascar blindsnake (Madatyphlops madagascariensis). These guys are tiny, fossorial snakes with smooth scales and vestigial eyes, and to laymen they really look just like worms.

Three-striped ground snakes (Pseudoxyrhopus tritaeniatus) are beautiful, and are one of the few snakes native to Madagascar to eat eggs, at least on an opportunistic basis!

#not a rating #snakes of the world #snake facts

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theenchantedecho · 10 months

Note

Any updates on Frank Longbottom and his harem?

Dearest Gossip-Feasters,

Once more, the scent of intrigue and the promise of scandal have directed your owls to the most dependable quill in all of wizarding Britain. Gird yourselves, my darlings, for a fresh cascade of whispers and rumours on our captivatingly complicated Auror, Frank Longbottom.

The spellbinding Belladonna Blackwood, our enchantress of the nocturnal nooks, seems to be tightening her bewitching grip on our charming Frank. From a very dependable little birdie, I've learned of a clandestine haven within the Ministry itself, shielded with a silencing charm potent enough to drown out a horde of Howlers. Could this secret sanctuary be the new trysting spot for our Auror in amour?

As for our mystery woman with the sun-kissed locks, the whispers are becoming increasingly intriguing. Word on the cobblestones is that her supposed sabbatical was merely a ruse. My loyal network of informants has spotted her in the labyrinthine depths of the Department of Mysteries, wand at the ready. Could this place of enigma be the chosen rendezvous for our tormented twosome? And dare we whisper the name of Narcissa Black, the ice-blond beauty working as an Unspeakable within the Department of Mysteries, as our mystery enchantress?

Prepare for a shock, my dears, as another name has been romantically linked to our Frank - none other than the vivacious Andromeda Tonks! While they claim to be just 'friends', I ask you, what sort of 'friends' frequent the cosy corners of The Leaky Cauldron till the witching hour? Lingering looks and whispers sweet enough to rival Honeydukes' best chocolate frogs hint at a companionship deeper than mere friendship. With her estrangement from her platinum-haired sister, Narcissa, the saga of Frank Longbottom surely has another colourful character added to its roster.

Of course, we can't ignore the indomitable Augusta Longbottom, the fierce matriarch of the Longbottom brood. The whispers of her green-eyed youthful companion have only grown louder, sparking rumours of another leaf on the Longbottom family tree. Could the Longbottom line be branching out in ways we never anticipated?

Our beloved rebel, Frank, continues to send ripples across the Ministry with his audacious acts of defiance. With every fresh escapade, the whispers grow louder, hinting at darker, more sinister alliances. Is our Auror simply bucking against the system, or is he dancing to a far more dangerous tune?

And who could ignore the murmurs of Frank's dubious past at Hogwarts? Could the once-revered Head Boy, now tangled in a scandalous web of love and deceit, be harbouring even darker secrets from his days beneath the Sorting Hat?

So, darlings, sip and savour these titbits of tantalising gossip on Frank Longbottom's convoluted love life. The wizarding world is a cauldron bubbling over with secrets and scandal, and who better than your trusty Rita Skeeter to serve them up piping hot? Stay tuned, my darlings, for there's always more scandal brewing just beneath the surface.

Tittering with titbits,

Rita Skeeter

@longbottomlad @aurcralux @medasgalaxy

#Anonymous #Frank Longbottom #Narcissa Black #Andromeda Tonks #The Daily Prophet #daily prophet

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oathkeeperoathbreaker · 2 years

Text

Wormy

Outside a holdfast called Briarwhite, some fieldhands surrounded them in a cornfield, demanding coin for the ears they’d taken. Yoren eyed their scythes and tossed them a few coppers. “Time was, a man in black was feasted from Dorne to Winterfell, and even high lords called it an honor to shelter him under their roofs,” he said bitterly. “Now cravens like you want hard coin for a bite of wormy apple.” He spat.

Arya III, A CLASH OF KINGS

No one had lived in the village for long years, Bran could see. All the houses were falling down. Even the inn. It had never been much of an inn, to look at it, but now all that remained was a stone chimney and two cracked walls, set amongst a dozen apple trees. One was growing up through the common room, where a layer of wet brown leaves and rotting apples carpeted the floor. The air was thick with the smell of them, a cloying cidery scent that was almost overwhelming. Meera stabbed a few apples with her frog spear, trying to find some still good enough to eat, but they were all too brown and wormy.

Bran III, A STORM OF SWORDS

He plays the gracious king today. Joffrey could be gallant when it suited him, Sansa knew, but it seemed to suit him less and less. Indeed, all his courtesy vanished at once when Tyrion presented him with their own gift: a huge old book called Lives of Four Kings, bound in leather and gorgeously illuminated. The king leafed through it with no interest. “And what is this, Uncle?” A book. Sansa wondered if Joffrey moved those fat wormy lips of his when he read.

Sansa IV, A STORM OF SWORDS

“There’s another apple near your foot,” Alleras called to Mollander, “and I still have two arrows in my quiver.” “Fuck your quiver.” Mollander scooped up the windfall. “This one’s wormy,” he complained, but he threw it anyway. The arrow caught the apple as it began to fall and sliced it clean in two. One half landed on a turret roof, tumbled to a lower roof, bounced, and missed Armen by a foot. “If you cut a worm in two, you make two worms,” the acolyte informed them. “If only it worked that way with apples, no one would ever need go hungry,” said Alleras with one of his soft smiles.

Prologue, A FEAST FOR CROWS

Bless me, Dany thought bitterly. Your city is gone to ash and bone, your people are dying all around you. I have no shelter for you, no medicine, no hope. Only stale bread and wormy meat, hard cheese, a little milk. Bless me, bless me.

Daenerys VI, A DANCE WITH DRAGONS

#a song of ice and fire #asoiaf #wormy is as wormy does

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animalworld · 4 years

Photo

MORELET’S TREE FROG Agalychnis moreletii ©Laura Quick

Morelet’s tree frog is a species of tree frog of family Hylidae. It belongs to the leaf frog subfamily, and is found in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. They have also been called black-eyed leaf frog and popeye hyla.

The population of Morelet’s tree frogs are also being affected due to a disease called Chytridiomycosis, which is an infectious disease that kills amphibians. Chytridiomycosis and habitat destruction are projected to cause the population to decline over 80% in the next 10 years. In some regions, the frogs have gone extinct completely. source

Further reading and sources: x, x, x

#🎲#biology #eye coloration #bird #fish #turtle #lemur #fly #gecko #snake #hedgehog

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collectiveofanimals · 6 years

Video

Morelet's Treefrog Sleeping by Kevin Wells Via Flickr: Agalychnis moreletii, southern Belize, in the Columbia River Forest Reserve

#frog #treefrog #tree #agalychnis #belize #jungle #forest #amphibian #Morelet's tree frog #Agalychnis moreletii #black eyed tree frog #black eyed leaf frog

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mayhaps-a-blog · 2 years

Text

Let’s talk about Chiss eyes!

To begin with a disclaimer, I am not a human biologist, specialist in anatomy or light physics or anything like that. My specialty is animal behavior and populations. But I can sure look up stuff!

So, let’s start with the color (glow gets its own post). Chiss eyes are red. This is notably different from human eyes, which have white sclera, colored irises, and black pupils. The iris of the human eye is colored by melanin, with different amounts creating the range of colors, and is meant to help block light from reaching the pupils, so they can dilate (open) or contract (close) to affect the amount of light reaching the eye.

This got pretty long, so I’m sticking in a Read More:

Fortunately, there are many Earth species with red eyes, such as the red-eyed vireo (bird), red-eyed tree frog (amphibian), redeye tetra (fish), common adder (snake), etc. There’re different theories on why, the main one being that red eyes reflect light waves to help the being see at night and may also enhance motion-peripheral vision. They might also be camouflage, since most mammals can’t see red, or a form of display, since most birds, reptiles, and fish can. For those that can see red, the color can act as a warning of venom or poison should the being be approached.

Red-eyed mammals are usually the result of albinism, a condition where the body produces little to no melanin. The lack of melanin makes the iris clear, so instead of appearing white the red of the blood vessels in the eye shows through. This often leads to eye issues, however, due to the iris and retina not being able to do their jobs properly, so let’s go with the above paragraph.

Basically, if we give Chiss red eyes, it may mean they were, at some point, nocturnal hunters. That’s cool!

Now, that explains the sclera and the iris, but it doesn’t explain the pupil. Pupils are black because they are basically holes for light to enter, and most of that light does not escape, so they appear dark. That’s… kind of hard to get around, biologically.

Option 1 is that the Chiss do have pupils, they’re just overshaded by the red of the eyes.

Consider, for instance, the eyes of the Satanic Leaf-tailed Gecko (hell yeah):

As you can see, in certain lightings the pupils are entirely invisible, but are definitely present. While I don’t think the Chiss would have slit pupils – that has consequences for vision and is usually seen in ambush hunters that stay close to the ground – the red of the eyes, especially with glow, may still hide the pupils under most lighting conditions.

So, the Chiss may certainly still have dark colored pupils, simply difficult to see.

Option 2 is where it gets fun! Let’s consider what it would mean if Chiss pupils ARE red: which would mean that the eye lens is reflecting red light.

Now, this would generally be… unfortunate, because it would mean that the Chiss can’t see the color red (red light would not enter their eyes). Red is kind of an important color, on Earth, being a sign of many poisonous or dangerous things. It’s also a common color in flora and fauna in Chiss space, we’re told!

That being said, as previously stated there are many mammals – in fact, most of them – that can’t see the color red either, and they do just fine! And red-green colorblind is one of the most common forms of colorblindness among humans, and that’s fine too!

So, perhaps, the Chiss are simply colorblind.

OR!

Now, human eyes, and human brains, are weird. SUPER weird! And one of the weird things they do is make up colors. For instance, magenta is a completely made-up color!

Here’s what I mean: humans have three ‘cones’ to see colors – blue, green, and red. Those are the wavelengths of light we can see. Now, when we look at something, our eyes are bombarded with light particles across many, many different wavelengths, and the brain kind of… averages them together. And makes its best guess.

So, if you see something red, the majority of the light particles are coming in on the red wavelength. If you see something green, it’s coming in on the green wavelength. But if you see something yellow… they’re coming in on BOTH wavelengths, and your brain when ‘eh, somewhere around here, whatever’.

So, what about magenta? The problem with magenta is that it’s not really on the light spectrum – that’s a line from red to purple, not a circle, so there’s not purple-red color. But, if your brain gets equal amounts of red and purple, if it averages it together it’ll get the middle of the light spectrum – green. But your brain, having a cone there, KNOWS it isn’t green, and moreover, things that are NOT GREEN could be dangerous. Magenta things are very much not green things!

So, your brain cheats! It says, ‘I know this isn’t green, but it’s coming in as green, so I’ll assign it a completely new color that doesn’t actually exist’. Everything we experience is our brain just stitching the pieces of our perception together anyway, it’s not like we’ll notice!

SO, I say, what if Chiss eyes did the SAME THING?

We know Chiss can see a little way into the infrared spectrum – which is, incidentally, next to red on the electromagnetic spectrum (of which visible light – to us – is a small piece). That suggests they have some sort of infrared sensing structure (which I’ve gone into before), combined with visual light cones.

The Chiss brain could receive some infrared wavelengths, some, I don’t know, yellow or green wavelengths, and say, ‘Sure, this is kind of red’. And if it’s good enough for them, well then.

This is fun because it means they could be seeing a completely different color. And we’d never know!

#inspired by a question on discord #anyway #me and my many thoughts #chiss #chiss eyes #chiss biology #star wars #thrawn #chiss headcanons #sci fi biology #research #enjoy!

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btsinwonderland · 3 years

Text

A Drop of Poison - Ch. 13: Hogsmeade

A Loki fanfiction!

Previous Chapter --- Next Chapter

Full Chapter List

------------------------

It was a brisk fall morning where the first chill of the coming winter snuck up on you. You wrapped your scarf around your neck tighter and yawned. Another restless night passed with terrifying dreams of Fenris and the bloodbath he left behind him.

You stood in a loose huddle of several students outside the entrance doors to the school. There was the sound of chitchat in the air as you all waited for the teachers. The trees swayed in the wind and a yellowing leaf fell in a spiral and landed on your shoulder. Valkyrie walked over to you with a smile on her face as you brushed off the leaf. It faded slightly upon looking at you.

“Are you okay?” she said, watching you.

You nodded with another yawn. “Bad dreams.”

“Dreams...or something else?”

You might have answered her but were cut off when Pom and Nila came up to the both of you. They had excited smiles on their faces.

“I can’t believe we finally get to go to Hogsmeade!” Pom said with a smile.

Nila agreed exuberantly. “I’ve been itching to go to Honeydukes!”

Valkyrie raised a brow. “Don’t forget we have the ball on Wednesday night, ladies. I, for one, am planning on gettin’ some before everything goes to shit.”

Pom looked at Valkyrie wide eyed while Nila blushed. “Getting what?” Pom said.

You and Valkyrie snort-laughed and Nila started giggling. Pom continued to ask Valkyrie what she was talking about when Professor Heimdall and Professor Fandral arrived at the top of the stairs.

Professor Heimdall wore a long tan cloak over his robes and clasped his hands in front of him. “Students, you will be split off into two groups. One with me and one with Professor Fandral. We are incorporating a buddy system, so pick a partner and do not separate from them. This year we were not planning to go to Hogsmeade, but upon reviewing many requests and with careful planning, we believe it is acceptable. What is not acceptable,” he said, passing a look to each student; his eyes lingered on you briefly, “is to leave your buddy, or your group and venture off alone. The grounds are no longer as safe as they were before. Be wise.”

He said no more as Professor Fandral began to split the groups. You, Valkyrie, Nila and Pom excitedly climbed into a carriage, which eventually trailed behind Professor Heimdall’s. His warning stayed with you as you thought about long teeth and hungry eyes. Despite the fear that had permanently settled in the pit of your stomach, you enjoyed feeling the fresh air on your skin as the carriages took off. The wind was cold, but you had not realized how stifling it was in the castle until you had been outside.

You wondered what a carriage ride with Professor Laufeyson would be like. A blush creeped to your cheeks when you thought about detention with him from a couple of nights ago. The word ‘master’ rested on your lips like a secret behind everything else you said out loud. It was just for him. That night, you went back to your room in a heated daze and wondered what you had gotten yourself into. But the more you thought about it, the more your heart raced with want. You enjoyed calling him master, and you liked the way he looked at you when you did.

“What is going on in that head of yours?” Valkyrie said, elbowing you.

You jerked upright and smiled bashfully. “Nothing, I’m just thinking about what to wear.”

Just then, Pom and Nila deep dived into their clothing assessments and what was in season versus not. You absolutely had no idea how they had obtained this information, but appreciated the feedback. After a long lecture about colour coordination and matching shoes and accessories while balancing complementary colour contrast, the carriages finally arrived at Hogsmeade.

The four of you stuck together and plowed your way through Hogsmeade in a thorough fashion. First you visited Honeydukes, which was decorated completely in black for the season; it was as if the whole shop were dipped in an inkwell. Nila bought an entire bag worth of chocolate frogs, Burtie Botts, every flavour beans, blood pops (to which you wrinkled your nose), and cauldron cakes. Valkyrie bought bouncing bubbly which was a soft drink that made her bounce as if she was on the moon. The novelty wore off quickly since Valkyrie quite enjoyed bouncing above you and smacking your head. You were relieved once you entered Gladrags; there was a strict no enchantment policy and Valkyrie had to stand outside until the effects wore off. The three of you snickered and gave her a mock wave through the window. As she bounced in place, she mouthed: “I could murder you in your sleep, you know.”

You laughed and walked into the store, looking at the various fabrics and clothes they had on display. There were enchanted mannequins walking through the store and dancing every now and again for the customers. A small girl tugged at her father’s coat and pointed to a model just a few inches taller than her. Its face was a flat piece of wood and the thing danced around the girl, doing a pirouette with the bright green dress it was wearing along the way. The girl was mesmerised. You smiled and had to give credit to Gladrags; they knew how to market.

Pom and Nila immediately ran to the hats section where there were shelves upon shelves of all sorts of hats. Plumes of feathers stuck to the side of a large orange hat, while another was a green beret seemingly constructed of snakeskin. One hat seemed to have no set shape or colour, but was a fluid moving thing that sparkled when the light hit it. All the hats were magnificent, though you were never much of a hat person. You went to the back, near the sale items, to see if there was anything that you could afford. It had been quite a year gathering enough money to meet your supplies and tuition costs for the year. You hoped that once you aced all your exams, a scholarship or internship could be earned. Though once you saw Professor Laufeyson’s memories, your thoughts about joining the ministry were on pause.

As if the devil himself heard, you heard a familiar voice from your left.

“Good morning, Miss Eves,” Professor Laufeyson said.

You flinched, nearly knocking over a nearby twirling mannequin which actually hissed at you. “Professor! What are you doing here?”

His eyes narrowed, and he looked as if you had committed a grave mistake. “What was that?”

“I-” You thought about it for a moment. Ah yes….your voice got lower, “Master, what are you doing here?”

He lit up and smiled at you. You wondered if you would ever get used to that.

“I have some business to attend to,” he said.

It was hard not to roll your eyes at how insanely cryptic he was. You were about to question further, but Valkyrie came.

“Professor! Fancy seeing you here,” she said, looking between you and him. You tried to put on your most neutral expression.

“Hogsmeade used to be quite the haunt for me when I was a student here,” Professor Laufeyson said, glancing out the window. “I particularly enjoyed Zonko’s. Well, are you young ladies finding dresses for the ball?”

“Yes!” Pom said from behind a rack of clothes. “And we found the perfect one for you, Freya,” she said, bringing out a frilly dark purple dress that had a mermaid style bottom and an attached cloak that looked more like a cape.

Valkyrie gasped with laughter when you took the dress and promised Pom you would try it on. You thanked her and elbowed Valkyrie. Professor Laufeyson looked as if he was trying to conceal a small smile.

The other girls left in a mad dash when Nila spotted a row of silk scarves that were on sale. Valkyrie went with them, giving you a strange look that showed you would be interrogated very soon.

“You better go try on that aubergine of a dress,” Professor Laufeyson said with a smirk.

You laughed. “I think I’m going to go with my outfit from last year,” you said, putting the purple nightmare back on the rack. “These new fashion trends are getting out of hand, they’re not for me.”

Professor Laufeyson grabbed your hand and pulled you towards him. Your heart raced as he held your face in his hand. You prayed no one saw you. “Nothing here could do justice to the body underneath these clothes,” he said, his voice husky. Just as you leaned in towards him, he pulled away. You made the tiniest annoyed sound, and he chuckled.

He said goodbye, and you joined up with the girls to continue on their shopping spree. Nila had gotten a peach coloured dress that had a tight waist and billowing skirt. Pom got a short purple dress that was clean cut and cute. Valkyrie got a crimson dress that had a courageous slit down the side and a neckline that wound around her neck in a halter top. Your stomachs rumbled loudly, so the four of you headed into the Three Broomsticks, a pub down the road. Since Hogsmeade knew well that Hogwarts students were coming in today, they allowed minors into the pub.

You sat at a table and were surprised to see Professor Laufeyson sitting rather reluctantly with Professor Heimdall and Professor Fandral. They did not see the four of you slip into the booth just behind them, a wall between you. There was enough chatter in the pub to conceal your voices, though you kept it down just enough to hear what the teachers were saying.

Someone cleared their throat. You recognized Heimdall’s voice; it was rich and deep. “Loki, how is your semester going so far?”

Professor Laufeyson’s voice was effortless, as usual. “Teaching is such a noble profession, I ought to have tried it much earlier in life.”

“You were missing from the staff meeting last Saturday,” Heimdall said. His words asked without stating explicitly, why?

Professor Laufeyson let out a small laugh. “I had to drop everything and come here after Hubert’s passing, so when I can I must tie up some loose ends.”

“What might Loki Laufeyson’s loose ends be, I wonder?” Heimdall said, his voice low.

The server came by and dropped off drinks at their table. He then came to your table and took your orders. The other girls had lost interest at this point and began chatting, but you craned your neck to the edge of the wall to keep listening.

“...yes, I will be in and out after the ball. Business to attend to before we dive head first into midterms,” Professor Laufeyson said.

He was leaving? You wondered. He had told you he would not go after Fenris until the coldest night of winter, and you believed that. Your fingers tapped nervously, thinking about what else he was up to. Aside from seeing him in class and detention, you had no way of knowing where he was or what he was doing. It was not as if he was even remotely communicative about his life. The most you knew about him was from breaking into his memory bank like a thief in the night.

The conversation shifted to Professor Fandral talking about his wife and children and how difficult it was to leave them for semesters at a time. Eventually, their chairs shuffled and the four of you put your heads down and ate your meals. Your shepherd’s pie had gone cold but was still quite delicious.

About an hour later, you were back in the school, heading to your common room, evading Valkyrie so she would not ask you about Professor Laufeyson. You were just not ready to have any sort of proper conversation about it yet. You had no idea what was happening, and a part of you felt immensely guilty about the whole thing. At least if it was your personal secret, you could chalk it up to a delusion or dream and still function properly. But once you verbalized it, it was real. Far too real for anything you wanted to deal with now.

In the hall, you spotted a ghostly figure running towards you. Well, half of a ghostly figure. The legs and torso of Crazy Collin ran past you in a gust of cool air. A few minutes later, you saw the upper part floating by.

“‘Ave you seen me legs?” he said. His translucent face was even younger than you.

You pointed behind you. “They went that way.” You smiled as he waved at you and floated onwards in search of his legs. He was always found roaming the halls searching for the bottom half of his body, and it was a fun game that occupied most first years, helping Crazy Collin find his legs.

Suddenly, you thought about Pom’s brother Ken, who now had a missing arm, and your smile disappeared. Most of the time you had laughed at the ghosts of Hogwarts, but you realized they were all people once who had died an awful death. The thought both sobered and saddened you.

***

The next day you were seated in potions class with Pom next to you, taking notes on the use of a bezoar. Professor Laufeyson had put on a slideshow and you tried not to yawn, though his voice was like melted honey.

Something hit the side of your head and fell at your feet. You glanced around before picking it up.

“What is it?” Pom whispered.

It was a crumpled piece of paper and upon unrolling it, you saw an enchanted drawing of two stick figures dancing. One of them had two circles for its breasts and an arrow pointing to the figure that said “You” and the other stick figure had an arrow that said “Me”. You looked up and saw Nathan Gill, the sixth year Quidditch announcer, smiling at you. He pointed to you, then he mimed a little slow dance, and then pointed to himself, all the while mouthing the words, “Do you want to go to the ball with me?”

The paper was snatched from your hand before you could react and you were horrified to see Professor Laufeyson standing over you with a grim expression. “Passing notes in class?” He said with a touch of venom. After reading the note aloud in class for everyone to laugh at, he took five points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

“Harsh,” Pom said, and you did not reply.

At the end of class, you escaped out the door before meeting Professor Laufeyson’s eye, since you were far too embarrassed. Then Nathan found you.

“So, Eves, you want to go with me?” He said, brandishing a daring smile.

He was a year younger than you, though he was taller and his face was not all boyish. His brown eyes held an air of confidence and his dark brown skin glowed in the torchlights. He leaned against the wall next to you, casual yet focused on your face in a way that made you blush. You wished you could seriously consider him. Perhaps if he had come to you only a month earlier, you would not be in this mess at all. A boy like him was normal. A boy like him was far better suited for you. But alas, even though you thought he was invariably handsome and were somewhat attracted to his presence, your heart was doomed to stay in one place.

You smiled at him and were about to speak when Pom piped up out of nowhere, “yes she’s gonna go with you!”

Nathan smiled so brightly that you felt the words escape you. He leaned in and tucked a hair behind your ear. “See you then,” he said in a low voice and walked off with his friends.

Just then, Professor Laufeyson passed by with an icy expression. He glanced at you and Pom as if you were stones on the wall and continued on his way, not giving you another look. Your heart sank while Pom excitedly grabbed your arm. “Oh my god, Gill is so cute! Sorry I stepped in, but I had to! I thought you were going to throw up or say no, so I did what any good friend ought to do.” She smiled at you and you nodded hollowly, wondering what Professor Laufeyson had thought.

You were on your way to the Great Hall for lunch as you puzzled about Nathan. Pom had gone to the infirmary to check on her brother. The staircase you were climbing up moved and pulled you away from your path and down an empty corridor that would add another ten minutes to your walk. A sigh escaped your lips as you continued to wonder. Why would he ask you? You barely talked to him. Once you had given him ink when he ran out, and so perhaps he was just being nice -

A hand grabbed the back of your shirt and pulled you into a room you had not realized was there. The door shut and vanished, leaving only stone, and you were slammed against the wall with a hard body against yours. The familiar scent of flora and musk hit your senses, and you gazed into a pair of cold blue eyes. His hand clasped around your throat as he leaned in and spoke in your ear.

“Did you think you could get away with being such a tease?” Professor Laufeyson said, his voice was a growl.

You dropped your books and panted. “W-what do you mean sir - er, I mean - Master?”

“That boy was all over you like a dog. Did you hope to make me jealous?”

“I didn’t mean to,” you said. Fear bubbled in your stomach at his aggression, but more than that was another feeling...One that was going to get you into deep trouble. Your cheeks flushed, and you felt desire bloom within you. The feeling of his hand on your throat only made it worse - or better - and you felt your core tighten.

He laughed darkly and for a moment; you wondered if it had all been a joke. Then his eyes grew fierce, and he stopped smiling. “It worked.”

You gazed up at him and licked your lips reflexively. His pupils dilated, and he lost his composure. His lips collided with yours and you felt the heat of his breath against you. They were the softest lips you had ever felt, but they crashed onto yours with a ferocity that made your knees weak. He pushed you into the wall to deepen the kiss and you wound your hands around him, one hand reaching up to the back of his head.

He moved his free hand down and cupped your bottom. You raised your right leg around his waist, which he held in place. Your tongues clashed, and you licked his lips as if you were back in a dream. He lifted your other leg, so you were now pinned against the wall, straddling him. He pushed into you and you wrapped your arms around him tightly. There were no thoughts, only the feeling of his fingers digging into your body as his mouth invaded yours. When you felt his erection against your core, a cry escaped your lips. He rubbed it against you once more and you bit his lip, hard.

He chuckled and gently pulled away from you, easing you down. You gazed at each other as if your eyes were magnetically locked. Both of you panted and wiped the corners of your mouth. “You’ve grown quite...assertive, Miss Eves,” he said in a rough voice. He tried to put on a candid act, but you saw through it. He was trying to suppress his desire.

You stepped towards him and put a hand on his chest. “I don’t want to go to the ball with anybody else,” you said.

His face froze, not knowing what to show you. So he chuckled and spun you around, putting a hand on your collarbone. His thumb grazed your throat, and you wondered if flames would erupt across your skin. “You will go to the ball with this boy,” he said. And he licked your ear and bit the lobe. You closed your eyes and nearly moaned. “You will dance with him, have a drink, and do what young women do at balls,” he said as he moved his other hand to your waist, squeezing it. “And at the end of the night, you will come to my room, and I will punish you for all of it. Do we have an understanding?”

Breathlessly, you said, “yes Master.”

He let go of you and bowed slightly, as if you were a proper lady and not the girl he just ravished against the wall. “Good girl,” he said with a wink.

You were thrown so back and forth with his words that your lust had slowly transformed into a deep hunger...and your stomach growled unceremoniously, loudly. He chuckled at the sound as you crossed your arms around yourself, trying to block out the noise.

“Perhaps we should return to the Great Hall and get you well fed. You need to keep up your energy for the ball,” he said.

You looked around at your surroundings. It was an empty stone room with no doors and a large chandelier in the ceiling. “Where are we?”

He waved his hand at the wall closest to you and a wooden door appeared. “This is the room of requirement,” he said. “It is a room that only appears when you are in great need of it, and it also becomes the room that you need.”

You raised your brows as you passed through the door with him into the empty hall. The door disappeared as if the room was not there. You touched the stone and knocked on it, but it was just a continuous wall. “Just when I thought this place had finished amazing me,” you said.

“Hogwarts will never cease to amaze, love,” Professor Laufeyson said. He stopped when you got to the stairs. “Now, I bid you farewell until the ball. Be sure to get into heaps of trouble,” he said, smirking.

“Oh, I will,” you said with a wide smile. The butterflies flowed freely through your body and you felt electrified. Suddenly, the ball had gotten much more exciting and you could not wait for Wednesday night.

You ran down the corridor, back to the main level, where several students ran past you. The smell of food wafted through the halls and your stomach grumbled more, so you picked up the pace. Another scent caught your nose, and you wondered what it was, since it definitely was not food. As you walked, you realized that the floor was covered in water. Puzzled, you entered the main corridor which led to the Great Hall and found a large crowd of students standing there.

You spotted Valkyrie ahead of you, so you pushed your way through several students, mumbling an apology, and tapped her shoulder. She looked at you grimly and gestured to the wall with her eyes. When your gaze followed, you stepped back with a hand to your chest. There was a message on the wall, written in blood. The nauseating scent of iron was thick in the air. The message wrote:

The beast has awakened...Enemies of the heir, beware...

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mommagranate · 2 years

Text

Alphabetized lists of ACNH Bugs and Fish, with no extra text or photos, for model collectors making checklists! Just paste the lists into your notes or word app and convert to checklist style.

Agrias Butterfly

Ant

Atlas Moth

Bagworm

Banded Dragonfly

Bell Cricket

Blue Weevil Beetle

Brown Cicada

Centipede

Cicada Shell

Citrus Long-horned Beetle

Common Bluebottle

Common Butterfly

Cricket

Cyclommatus Stag

Damselfly

Darner Dragonfly

Diving Beetle

Drone Beetle

Dung Beetle

Earth-boring Dung Beetle

Emperor Butterfly

Evening Cicada

Firefly

Flea

Fly

Giant Cicada

Giant Stag

Giant Water Bug

Giraffe Stag

Golden Stag

Goliath Beetle

Grasshopper

Great Purple Emperor

Hermit Crab

Honeybee

Horned Atlas

Horned Dynastid

Horned Elephant

Horned Herucles

Jewel Beetle

Ladybug

Long Locust

Madagascan Sunset Moth

Man-faced Stink Bug

Mantis

Migratory Locust

Miyama Stag

Mole Cricket

Monach Butterfly

Mosquito

Moth

Orchid Mantis

Paper Kite Butterfly

Peacock Butterfly

Pill Bug

Pondskater

Queen Alexandra's Birdwing

Rainbow Stag

Raja Brooke's Birdwing

Red Dragonfly

Rice Grasshopper

Robust Cicada

Rosalia Batesi Beetle

Saw Stag

Scarab Beetle

Scorpion

Snail

Spider

Stinkbug

Tarantula

Tiger Beetle

Tiger Butterfly

Violin Beetle

Walker Cicada

Walking Leaf

Walking Stick

Wasp

Wharf Roach

Yellow Butterfly

--------------------

Anchovy

Angelfish

Arapaima

Arowana

Barred Knifejaw

Barreleye

Betta

Bitterling

Black Bass

Blowfish

Blue Marlin

Bluegill

Butterfly Fish

Carp

Catfish

Char

Cherry Salmon

Clown Fish

Coelacanth

Crawfish

Crucian Carp

Dab

Dace

Dorado

Football Fish

Freshwater Goby

Frog

Gar

Giant Snakehead

Giant Trevally

Golden Trout

Goldfish

Great White Shark

Guppy

Hammerhead Shark

Horse Mackerel

Killifish

King Salmon

Koi

Loach

Mahi-mahi

Mitten Crab

Moray Eel

Napoleonfish

Neon Tetra

Nibble Fish

Oarfish

Ocean Sunfish

Olive Flounder

Pale Chub

Pike

Piranha

Pond Smelt

Pop-eyed Goldfish

Puffer Fish

Rainbowfish

Ranchu Goldfish

Ray

Red Snapper

Ribbon Eel

Saddled Bichir

Salmon

Saw Shark

Sea Bass

Sea Butterfly

Sea Horse

Snapping Turtle

Soft-shelled Turtle

Squid

Stringfish

Sturgeon

Suckerfish

Surgeonfish

Sweetfish

Tadpole

Tilapia

Tuna

Whale Shark

Yellow Perch

Zebra Turkeyfish

#acnh #acnh collector #acnh models #maybe im the only audience for this but i couldnt find an easy one online so here :)#completionist

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fatehbaz · 4 years

Text

Had a conversation about spiders today. Triggered some memories.

At the time, hadn’t really ever known what it was like to live in one place for longer than a year or two. People came and went. You lived somewhere, and then you were lost. Everything was transient and passing. Slowly I attracted friends while trying to show them the colorful millipedes that lived along the edges of the “empty” lot, where native grasses extended beyond the lawns and playground architecture. I was 9-and-a-half years old. I don’t know if I was ready to watch things die.

“Weird Girl Bug Club” is not a make-believe internet joke. Some of the soil was sandy, some black and wet, and some rich with decaying leaf litter and mycorrhizal fungi. It was an amalgamation. Was this the remnant of the shortgrass prairie? Was it influenced by naturally-occurring sagebrush steppe in the area? Instead, was it actually full of non-native pasture plants, left over from cattle ranges or farms, which only appeared to be “native” in comparison to the obviously non-native green crab grasses of the adjacent school lawn? Unclear. Maybe all of the partially damaged environments were blending together. The empty lot was Frankenstein’s monster. (At the time, I was already in love with both Gothic monsters and unnecessary over-the-top accessorizing, so I had a keychain, hitched to a belt loop, from which dangled a cheap plastic model of Frankenstein’s mosnter and the Hollywood version of the Wolfman.) Along the edges of that grassy expanse? Oak, alder, maple, even aspen. I knew bugs but didn’t know trees, so which of those were native? I didn’t know.

The crew: Like 9 girls and a boy, I guess. During recess: Bug Time. Late March: Leopard frogs in the flooded lawn. April: Toads along the base of the oak. May: Three species of gartersnake, attracted to tiny little patches of differing microhabitat. Wandering gartersnakes preferred the leaf litter at dry spots beneath the trees. Red-sided gartersnakes preferred the vernal pools, always half-submerged in water. Plains gartersnakes seemed better able to tolerate the concrete-lined irrigation canal and the fertilizer-poisoned soils of the flooded lawns. I saw a bullsnake in the lot once. A schoolteacher was watching me, she yelled at me, told me to get away immediately, speaking bullshit about bullsnakes “are dangerous.” I picked up the snake, brought it to the edge of the woodland, skipped the beginning of after-lunch classes.

And everywhere in this lot, a multitude of spiders. A lot of jumping spiders, some massive, some very colorful. I folded some pages of blank white “printer paper” in half and drew my own “Jumping Spider field guide” and made photocopies. I used colored pencils, tried to draw each kind of jumping spiders. I had no idea which species most of them were. I think it was my second stupid homemade field guide after a “snakes of the Rocky Mountains” booklet.

Why jumping spiders? That year, settling into a residential neighborhood nearby, I went into the shed for the first time, off in a shaded corner of the shared yard. No one ever went in there. For any reason. Don’t know why. I opened the door:

Scene from a nightmare. Indeed, in years since, I did have dreams about that shed. (Not really nightmares, but more like auspicious and ominous dreams, you know?) It was late summer, but the shed was dark, almost unbelievably shaded from the sun. Like it was enchanted, meant to be dark. I of course loved spiders but I wasn’t prepared for this.

It was like a curiosity cabinet, like a museum. Like some animate sentient curator had purposefully decided to showcase as many different kinds of spiders as possible, to showcase the largest spiders possible. There were black widows, but I loved them, and understood them to be pleasant and unthreatening. But the size of these wolf spiders? Intimidating. There were orb-weavers, too. Big brown spiders retreated from the light, across the floorboards, they were physically reminiscent of tarantulas. (Maybe they were related to tarantulas, which were not unknown in the region.) But what shocked me most were the jumping spiders. The jumping spiders drew your attention most. I didn’t know they could be that large. And their dazzling colors? Bright red juxtaposed with black banding. Bright orange with black spots. Bright blues, glittering purples. Your eye was drawn simultaneously in every direction. Spiders in every corner.

It was a treasure chest. This is going to sound silly but: It was a treasure chest of spiders, some literally sparkling with iridescence.

Later. I was about 11 years old, different region, different landscape, and the city was gentrifying my neighborhood. There was an “empty lot” that was actually more like remnant prairie. Prickly-pear, rattlesnakes, toads, meadowlarks. It was being turned into cookie-cutter prefashioned homes.

The most ubiquitous species? Ground squirrels. “Whistle-pigs.” People would bludgeon them, fire BB guns from lawn chairs, laughing as they dropped explosive fireworks into the burrows. Casual violence. Like a sport. Adults encouraged children to take lives as if it were akin to skipping stones or playing board games.

The whistle-pigs slowly dwindled. The local human residents, and their children, were slowly doing the work of the developers: Killing. Paving the way.

As the rodents died, every single abandoned ground squirrel burrow had a web stretched across the entrance. All of them: Black widows.

My impression of black widows had always been: Graceful. Dignified.

When the bulldozers came, I tried to save them. A parental figure was passively supportive. My bedroom was adorned with 25 or so glass jars. Black widows in each. A terrarium: a small toad, rescued from the manicured lawns and developers. (I don’t like moving or keeping wild amphibians, but the toad had nowhere to go and was being eyed threateningly by neighborhood boys who “toyed” with animals.)

One day, dozens of tiny pale black widow babies were pouring out of the lid of one of the jars, a mass of fragile spider bodies pulsating on the desk. And I realized the spiders should probably be set loose. And they were, in the backyard. I don’t know how many of them lived, or for how long. The toad was released back into the neighborhood. (No fertilizers, not an entirely inhospitable habitat.) I saw her again only once.

I don’t know what happened to any of them.

----

The next spring, a community center a couple of blocks away, on the edge of town, was trying to drain a “bog” next to their building. The last place in the neighborhood where you heard the frogs and toads singing. It was a vernal pool that regularly collected water in the spring. Reliably, every year. Gartersnakes used the pool. But the real star, the real center of attention: the chorus frogs. I spoke with the people who owned the building. Later, I tried arguing with one of the owners or managers or whatever, the week that the contractors and the heavy equipment showed up. They laughed at me and threatened to call the cops. I kicked a rock at their building and took a cattail as a keepsake.

On one of the last days that the vernal pool existed, I was riding my bike over there. I found a gartersnake, dead, flattened on the road. One of my parents died later that year.

Before the apocalypse at the vernal pool, when I felt empty, in the evening, I would get on a bike, and go there. I’d sit in the mud in the reeds on the edge of the pool and watch the chorus frog tadpoles swimming. Dragonflies disappeared as the evening darkened. On some very special days, late in the spring, when the water was almost gone and the days were longer, you might be lucky enough to see a spadefoot toad. The insects and frogs and snakes were fleeting, they had habits and picky preferences. But there was one constant presence, always there, until the redevelopment, even after the frogs sang for the last time.

Fisher spiders, everywhere, navigating through the reeds, walking on the water. Always the spiders, until the end.

#navel gazing #overwrought nonsense

283 notes · View notes

sxvxrxssnape · 3 years

Text

minerva mcgonagall’s personal mission to make severus love christmas part 4

aka snolidays/snapemas day 5 and 6 (lights festival, food, memories, stockings) // pre-PS/the years between. minerva and severus friendship // ft. the hogwarts staff gently bullying sev and getting wine drunk together. mentions of sev’s plum blancmange @deepperplexity @blog4snape

The rest of the week passed by in a blur of teaching, brewing, and general sulking.

The term wouldn’t end until late January, but final exams were scheduled for the week before winter break and Severus had a thousand other things to finalize before the break started. There was a stack of assignments he needed to grade before everyone parted, the annual inventory that needed to be done, and he had about half a dozen cauldrons slowly simmering away with potions for the infirmary, not to mention he was creating both a study guide for the upcoming exam and an assignment that could be turned in for extra credit.

If even one student dared to fail his class after all the effort he put into making sure they passed, he was going to turn them all into frogs.

He almost felt bad that he hadn’t made much time for Minerva, and aside from seeing each other at meals - and even then, Severus wasn’t quite known for his perfect attendance in the Great Hall - he hadn’t spoken more than eight words to her since their trip to Diagon Alley.

It wasn’t as if he were avoiding her.

Much.

He just needed a few days to himself - as much as he could get when he taught two classes a day (three on Wednesdays and Thursdays) anyway. He knew the only reason they hadn’t talked about his miniscule breakdown was because they had been in public and maybe he was a little afraid of being cornered by her in private.

It was Friday now, his afternoon class had just ended, he had already checked on the status of his cauldrons, so all that was left on his to-do list was to hide himself away inside of his quarters and sulk.

Except he was all out of sugar.

Alright, not the worst problem to have and yes, he could call up a house elf and simply ask for the container to be refilled, but maybe a small part of him wanted to run into Minerva on neutral ground, so he wouldn’t have to knock on her door and risk coming off as lonely and needy. So rather than being a normal-functioning adult about this, he took his coffee ground-filled french press and flooed directly into the staff lounge.

He didn’t spend very much time in this particular room - large, brightly lit, and nestled between two towers somewhere on the fourth floor with large windows that overlooked the quidditch pitch - but it wasn’t for lack of trying. He found the lounge to be rather appealing, with its burning fireplace, sitting area, stacks of abandoned books, journals, and magazines, abundance of cabinets he liked to rifle through, and best of all, the fully stocked coffee bar off to the left of the round table.

The room wasn’t empty, and unfortunately, devoid of the person whom he was seeking. Pomona was sitting at the table with a cup of tea, poring over a stack of papers with a furrowed brow and a bit of ink smeared over her cheek. Aurora was sitting on the lone couch, momentarily distracted from the magazine she had been leafing through to look up at him as he entered, eyebrow raised at the contraption he cradled.

“What brings you here?” she asked, flicking her wand towards the record player and lowering the music that had been softly playing.

The action caused the herbology professor to look up and she frowned. “Oh, Severus.” she greeted, barely giving him more than a cursory glance. “I haven’t seen you here in a bit; thought you might have forgotten where it was.”

“Well, he did floo.” Professor Sinistra returned, her lips curling into a grin. “It’s quite possible he forgot where to find the door.”

“I didn’t forget.” Severus scowled, making his way towards the bar.

“You tell yourself that.”

“There’s tea if you want some.” Pomona called out, raising her own teacup. “Mint.”

He ignored the steaming teapot in favor of the kettle, flicking his wand to heat up the water before pouring a little over the grounds in the press. He missed the simple pleasures of having an electric coffee maker - perhaps the only positive that came from summers at Spinner's End - but he would be lying if he said he didn’t prefer the taste of the pretentious, one-cup-at-a-time brew.

While the grounds took the time to presoak, he wandered over to the pink pastry box and eyed its contents. The house elves always made sure to stock the staff room with snacks - biscuits, fruit, packages of crisps - but pastries from the local bakery were the most sought out after.

“The blueberry strudel belongs to Filius,” Pomona suddenly mentioned, not looking up from her task, “he’s already claimed it.”

Severus scowled at the remaining treat. “He’s not here, is he?” he mumbled, opening the box. He yelped as something sharp pierced his hand and drew back immediately, his face coloring slightly as Aurora started laughing.

“Like she said,” Aurora chuckled. “Filius already claimed it.”

Severus cursed under his breath and returned to his coffee, pulling down a clean mug and the sugar jar on the way. He was pouring the rest of the hot water when the door opened.

“French press again?” Minerva’s voice asked.

“Like he makes it any other way.” Aurora returned. “Professor I-Brew-Potions-For-A-Living is, unsurprisingly, the coffee snob among us.”

“I am not.” Severus frowned, placing the plunger over the glass and giving it a slight swirl before setting it aside. “It’s not my fault the rest of you don’t have any taste.”

“Oh, the baby thinks he has taste.”

Severus blinked. “Perhaps I’ll refrain from giving you a gift this year after all.” he muttered, glaring at her. “Also, you’re the second youngest professor here.”

“But not the youngest.” Aurora grinned. “That pleasure is all yours, I’m afraid.”

Before Severus could form a rebuttal, Pomona stood up and gathered her papers, rushing towards the door with an annoyed, “I can’t get any work done with you two around.” Aurora followed suit, magazine under her arm, a cheeky, “baby” escaping her lips as she closed the door behind her.

Severus sat down in Pomona’s abandoned chair, hands in his hair, as he groaned out a, “I’m most definitely not giving her a gift now.”

Minerva laughed and sat down across from him, a cup of mint tea in her hands.

“Are we still on for tomorrow?”

“The lights?”

Minerva nodded and he considered her question as he got up to finish making his coffee. He grabbed milk from the cold cupboard and then stopped to look at her. “What if we went tonight, instead?”

“Tonight?”

Severus shrugged, sitting down with his cup and a package of biscuits. “We can grab dinner beforehand, I’m thinking Italian.”

“Really?”

“Invite some of the others.”

Minerva eyed him carefully. “Do my ears deceive me, Severus Snape, or are you suggesting a staff outing to see the lights? You?”

“Don’t push it.”

“I’ll let everybody know.”

“I think we should hang the stockings in the staff room.”

“What?”

“The stockings.” Minerva emphasized, buttoning her capelet. She was standing in front of her dressing mirror, adjusting the green tartan fabric over her shoulders. She was wearing a long sleeved dress under it and, no doubt, a warming charm had already been cast over the black fabric. Her hair was free of its usual pins, the soft curls seemingly trying their best to retain their accustomed shape.

They were both in her private quarters, Severus sprawled on her couch with a book, as she finished getting ready for their outing. He had opted for his usual black on black on black, but had foregone his cloak for the grey wool coat he rarely wore.

So rarely, that when he put his hands in his pockets, he came across the crumpled ticket of a play he had seen two winters ago.

He couldn’t remember much about the show itself, but it had been the first time he had been invited to go out by his fellow colleagues and he had jumped at the chance. Of course, he had first pretended to consider it for half a day before telling Albus that he had nothing better to do that day and that he might as well tag along.

“Are you listening?”

“No.” Severus admitted, returning to the present.

Minerva scowled. “I said, we should hang the stockings we bought in the staff room. It’s got a fireplace and the room is awfully drab, don’t you think? Plus, it's neutral ground so both our stockings can be up together.”

“Well, alright.”

“Excellent, let’s go then.”

“Now?”

“We have dinner reservations at seven - which is in twenty minutes, I might add - so yes, right now. Before we’re late.”

They flooed into the staff lounge, finding Aurora leafing through a book and listening to music once again. She raised an eyebrow at the paper shopping bag they were carrying.

“What’s this?”

“Christmas.” Minerva replied simply, pulling out a stocking and handing it over. His name was now stitched along the edge in black thread and he frowned.

“When did-?”

“I asked the house elves when we first got back.”

They hung their stockings on the mantle with a temporary sticking charm and surveyed their work.

“I expect the rest of you to have a stocking on here by next week.” Minerva insisted, taking Severus’ hand and leading him out the door. “Come now, or we’ll be late.”

“Aren’t you coming?” Severus asked Aurora, pretending to eye her teaching robes in confusion. “We’re going out to dinner and then the lights festival.”

Aurora scowled at him, eyeing him carefully. “I would, but I have a class tonight.” she muttered, glancing out the window at the darkened sky. It was cloudless and few stars could be seen from her vantage point; there was no reason to cancel Astronomy tonight.

“Oh, that’s a shame.” Severus shrugged, turning around quickly to hide his smirk. “I wouldn’t have chosen tonight if I knew.”

“Liar.”

The door closed behind them.

“You know I don’t approve of this.” Minerva told him, as they made their way down the stairs and out of the castle.

“Don’t approve of what?”

Minerva shook her head at him, but didn’t answer.

They met Filius at the front door, his too-long blue scarf trailing behind him as they made their way towards the apparition point. They met Pomona on the way and once they cleared the wards, apparated into an alley close to the restaurant.

Albus was already waiting inside, looking perfectly at ease in his three-piece suit, sipping on a glass of white wine.

“Ah, there you all are.” he greeted them, as they took their seats. “This wine is absolutely wonderful, by the way - do order a glass.”

“Someone dressed up for the occasion.” Minerva eyed the headmaster.

“I wear it quite well, don’t I?”

They were brought water glasses and bread, offered three types of wine - “I really must insist on the pinot gris.” Albus interrupted - and given a set of menus.

“It’s been a while since we’ve all gone out.” Filius mentioned, taking a slice of baguette and dipping it in olive oil and balsamic. “It’s quite nice.”

“We have Severus to thank for the idea,” Albus grinned, clasping a hand on his shoulder. He flinched slightly, but he didn’t think anyone noticed.

Except for Albus, who immediately dropped his hand and offered an apologetic look.

They ordered - and unsurprisingly, Minerva ordered herself the special - and fell into easy conversation as they waited for their meal. When the food arrived, it was met with excited sounds from the (perhaps a little wine-tispy) table and plates were quickly passed around with insistent, “You need to try this fried stracchino!” and “I swear, you will never taste a better beef stracotto pasta than this one.” and even a, “Listen, I know it sounds weird, but I’m telling you - you have to try the baccala! I don’t care if you don’t like fish!”

The dessert menu left him a little discombobulated and he ordered himself coffee while the others shared rum babas and marzipan balls. One of the rum soaked sponge cakes was pushed towards him, split down the middle and filled with cream and sour cherries. He glanced up from his bicerin to find Minerva watching him.

“Try it, before these vultures get to it.”

He obliged, cutting a piece off with his fork.

“Why are you frowning?” Minerva asked, leaning closer. The others were a little pink-faced, laughing, as they played a game of rock-parchment-diffundo for the last chocolate and marzipan ball. “We are eating delicious food and drinking delicious wine - two things I know you like - and then we’re going to see the lights with all our friends. You shouldn’t be frowning.”

“I think you’ve had enough wine.”

She made a face at him. “Oh, let me guess.” she pursed her lips. “You have some sort of traumatic childhood memory involving all of this and you are currently reliving it in your head.”

Severus scowled. “I don’t have a traumatic memory for everything.”

“Could have fooled me.” Pomona spoke up, inserting herself into their conversation. The others stopped and turned to look at him. “You’re so grumpy all the time, I just figured your whole life was simply continuous trauma.”

“I’ll revoke your christmas gift too, don’t test me.”

Pomona straightened up. “Oh, you got me a gift?”

“No.”

“Don’t lie!” Pomona grinned, pointing at him. “You got me a gift!”

“Don’t think you’re special.” Severus muttered. “It’s not just you.”

“Severus got us all gifts!” Filius realized. “Severus loves us!”

He made eye contact with the headmaster. “Consider this my official resignation.”

Albus nodded, his expression turning serious. “Of course, my boy, I understand.” His eyes twinkled. “It’s a shame my staff cannot be more professional when they venture out of the castle walls, but alas, there is a reason I do not let them wander far.”

“Truly awful.”

“Severus loves us!” Pomona repeated and the table burst into giggles, save for Severus who covered his face with his hands. And he was the youngest of this lot?

They paid soon after that - Severus discretely cancelling the silencing and repelling charms they had cast on their table to hurry them along - and made their way towards the nearby park where the lights festival had been set up. The others wandered off on their own, leaving Minerva and Severus to walk the paths alone.

Once the others had wandered far enough ahead that their conversation would no longer carry, Minerva learned slightly into her friend, nudging his shoulder. “Now will you tell me?”

“It’s not a traumatic childhood memory, if that’s what you mean.”

“But you did remember something.” Minerva pressed.

“Yes.”

The path they walked was illuminated by tiny orbs, leading towards a tunnel strung with hundreds of white and blue lights. As they walked through it, Severus fell silent and simply looked up, sneaking glances of the night sky beyond the wire cage that held up all the lights.

There was a giant christmas tree waiting for them when they exited the tunnel, made entirely of green and gold twinkles - strings of lights pulled taut from a metal pole and pinned onto the ground. Similar displays surrounded it, contraptions of metal and colored lights creating bow-tied gift boxes and ornaments, stars and snowflakes, all glowing in the dark.

All the natural trees were wrapped in lights as well, not a single twig or branch left uncovered. Giant, glowing candy canes dotted the path now and they followed it, taking in every sparkling display. Music was playing and though others wandered the path, no one stood too close.

“I remember my mum used to make this dessert when I was little, it was a blancmange made from dirigible plum and cardamom, I believe."

"Oh?"

"She used to tell my father they were persimmons." he smiled softly. "Said she learned the recipe from her grandmother. It was probably my favorite part of the holiday break. I helped her make it one year; funnily enough, that was also the last Christmas I had with her."

"You said it wasn't a traumatic memory." Minerva scolded.

"It's not." Severus defended himself. "It's one of my only good ones."

"There was blancmange on the menu." Minerva remembered, smiling sadly. She watched a pair of children run between the candy canes, their laughs echoing as they chased each other.

"Fig leaf and orange." Severus recited. "It made me realize I haven't seen anywhere serve that particular dessert, let alone one made from dirigible plums. I miss it."

"Perhaps we could make it."

"You think?"

"Why not?"

Minerva nodded towards a coffee stall and they ordered themselves the gingerbread hot chocolate. They cradled their red paper cups and took small sips as they wandered through the park, pointing out certain displays.

"Perhaps nostalgia is getting the best of me." Severus finally circled back to their conversation. "But I find myself wanting to try. I don't have much left to remind me of her, especially not without also thinking of my father, but that one? That one's all ours."

"Elphinstone and I used to make a yule log cake." Minerva offered. "Down to the mushroom meringues and everything."

"I've never had one."

"Well, perhaps a baking day is in order."

"Perhaps it is."

-----

a/n: this is starting to feel more like minerva and severus' adventures in eating out

hope you enjoyed the staff picking on my problem child a little

menu inspiration comes from bocca di lupo, london (sometimes i wonder if places ever search themselves to see what people are saying and find they're being featured in harry potter fanfics and the like)

stracchino - a soft, creamy cheese which the restuarant serves fried stracotto - italian pot roast, served with pasta here baccala - preserved, salted cod (fried) bicerin - a hot drink made from espresso, drinking chocolate, and milk blancmange - this one's special because i took a direct quote from the hogwarts mystery game, where sev reminisces about this dessert and gave it more backstory. its a sort of gelatin dessert, sweet and milky. bocca di lupo has a fig and orange panna cotta on their menu, which is basically the same thing (just different thickeners) so i traded it out for the sake of using the one tidbit i know about the game.

#snapemas 2020 #snolidays2020 #snapedom #pro snape #severus snape #snapemas #professor snape #snapecember #holiday writing challenge

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