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readerof-books · 1 year

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I posted 13 times in 2022

That's 1 more post than 2021!

10 posts created (77%)

3 posts reblogged (23%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@womanoncesaid

@claudiagray

I tagged 12 of my posts in 2022

Only 8% of my posts had no tags

#book review - 10 posts

#netgalley - 10 posts

#banned books - 2 posts

#marvel - 1 post

#reyna grande - 1 post

#hide kiersten white - 1 post

#kiersten white - 1 post

#del rey books - 1 post

#harry potter - 1 post

#smart pop - 1 post

Longest Tag: 36 characters

#david copperfield's history of magic

My Top Posts in 2022:

David Copperfield's History of Magic

Published October 26th 2021 by Simon Schuster

An illustrated, illuminating insight into the world of illusion from the world’s greatest and most successful magician, capturing its audacious and inventive practitioners, and showcasing the art form’s most famous artifacts housed at David Copperfield’s secret museum. In this personal journey through a unique and remarkable performing art, David Copperfield profiles twenty-eight of the world’s most groundbreaking magicians. From the 16th-century magistrate who wrote the first book on conjuring to the roaring twenties and the man who fooled Houdini, to the woman who levitated, vanished, and caught bullets in her teeth, David Copperfield’s History of Magic takes you on a wild journey through the remarkable feats of the greatest magicians in history. These magicians were all outsiders in their own way, many of them determined to use magic to escape the strictures of class and convention. But they all transformed popular culture, adapted to social change, discovered the inner workings of the human mind, embraced the latest technological and scientific discoveries, and took the art of magic to unprecedented heights. The incredible stories are complimented by over 100 never-before-seen photographs of artifacts from Copperfield’s exclusive Museum of Magic, including a 16th-century manual on sleight of hand, Houdini’s straightjackets, handcuffs, and water torture chamber, Dante’s famous sawing-in-half apparatus, Alexander’s high-tech turban that allowed him to read people’s minds, and even some coins that may have magically passed through the hands of Abraham Lincoln. By the end of the book, you’ll be sure to share Copperfield’s passion for the power of magic.

Who else but David Copperfield would you want telling the history of magic? This is a great mix of biographies for each magician who changed the field in their own way, and part autobiography for Copperfield who added his own story about how each one effected his own career and life. Which is why he would be the perfect choice to tell the story of his fellow magicians, it's not just a flat description about who each one was and what they contributed but also about how in some way or another they helped get him where he is.

0 notes - Posted February 17, 2022

A Deadly Affair by Agatha Christie

Published January 4th 2022 by William Morrow & Company

From the Queen of Mystery—this all-new collection of stories about love gone horribly wrong will get your heart racing. Love can propel us to our greatest heights . . . and darkest depths. In this new collection of Agatha Christie short stories, witness the dark side of love—crimes of passion, games of the heart, and deadly affairs. This pulse-pounding compendium features beloved detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, master of charades Parker Pyne, the enigmatic Harley Quin, and the adventurous Tommy and Tuppence, all on the ready to solve a tantalizing mystery. In “The Face of Helen,” a night at the Royal Opera could reach a deadly crescendo for a woman caught in a dicey love triangle; “Finessing the King” delivers a curious ad in the personals that could mask sinister intentions; who’s in danger of getting stung in “Wasp’s Nest” depends on rounding up suspects and solving a murder—before it even happens; and more tales that make for essential reading that Christie fans old and new will simply love to death.

Agatha Christie in quick short story form? Who wouldn't love it. Not only is each one more intriguing than the one before but each one will also leave you wanting more. Agatha Christie is truly the queen of the genre proving she can weave intriguing mysteries as well with a limited number of pages as she could with entire novels.

0 notes - Posted February 15, 2022

A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande - Book Review

A Long Petal of the Sea meets Cold Mountain in this sweeping historical saga following a Mexican army nurse and an Irish soldier who must fight, at first for their survival and then for their love, amidst the atrocity of the Mexican-American War—from the author of the “timely and riveting” (People) Across a Hundred Mountains and The Distance Between Us. A forgotten war. An unforgettable romance. The year is 1846. After the controversial annexation of Texas, the US Army marches south to provoke war with México over the disputed Río Grande boundary. Ximena Salomé is a gifted Mexican healer who dreams of building a family with the man she loves on the coveted land she calls home. But when Texas Rangers storm her ranch and shoot her husband dead, her dreams are burned to ashes. Vowing to honor her husband’s memory and defend her country, Ximena uses her healing skills as an army nurse on the frontlines of the ravaging war. Meanwhile, John Riley, an Irish immigrant in the Yankee army desperate to help his family escape the famine devastating his homeland, is sickened by the unjust war and the unspeakable atrocities against his countrymen by nativist officers. In a bold act of defiance, he swims across the Río Grande and joins the Mexican Army—a desertion punishable by execution. He forms the St. Patrick’s Battalion, a band of Irish soldiers willing to fight to the death for México’s freedom. When Ximena and John meet, a dangerous attraction blooms between them. As the war intensifies, so does their passion. Swept up by forces with the power to change history, they fight not only for the fate of a nation but for their future together. Heartbreaking and lyrical, Reyna Grande’s spellbinding saga, inspired by true events and historical figures, brings these two unforgettable characters to life and illuminates a largely forgotten moment in history that impacts the US-México border to this day. Will Ximena and John survive the chaos of this bitter war, or will their love be devoured along with the land they strive to defend?

A Ballad of Love and Glory by Reyna Grande

Published March 15th 2022 by Atria Books

My rating 3 of 5

I am truly torn on this one. On the one hand it’s beautifully written and absolutely captivating. But, well, on the other it was pretty boring.

I went in expecting a timeless love story set amid a war I knew nothing about but was looking forward to learning of. And I did in fact end up learning a lot about the war. A lot. Because there were moments when it felt like it would just go on. After a while, I’m sorry to say, the battles just started running together.

Off in the background, like the occasional interlude, the romance that I came for. Almost like a second thought, because there were moments where I would forget about it. It very well could have been written without these two characters ever falling in love. It’s not a romance novel with a war, it’s a war novel with a romance.

But as I said the writing style is well worth sticking around for. And I did learn something I not only didn’t know but had actually never even heard of.

1 note - Posted April 11, 2022

Hide by Kiersten White - Book Review

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don't get caught. The prize: enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win--to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts--Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she's an expert at that. It's the reason she's alive, and her family isn't. But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive. Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run. Come out, come out, wherever you are. A high-stakes hide-and-seek competition turns deadly in this dark supernatural thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kiersten White.

Hide by Kiersten White

Published May 24th 2022 by Del Rey Books

My rating 5 of 5 stars

Has Kiersten White been holding out on us? While I have been a longtime fan of her YA books, if this is her writing for adults all I can say: "Yes, please" and "tell me there will be more."

Adult book Kiersten White is everything I have been looking for. Even more so after a long string of disappointments from books promising me thrills and suspense that got nowhere near delivering on those promises. Hide not only kept me up at night reading but, long after I put it down, wondering what would happen next. And while I won't admit to nightmares; there probably were a few nights when I did wake up worried something was in the room with me.

Unfortunately, while glancing at reviews I did see one that spoiled the big plot point for me, (and I do mean glancing, I wasn't even reading them when I noticed someone literally started their review with "This is what the big plot point is based on") but even with knowing what was coming the story and writing is so great that I was still caught up in it from start to the very finish.

3 notes - Posted May 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll - Book Review

The New York Times bestseller that reveals the intimate story of Elvis Presley and Priscilla Presley, told by the woman who lived it. Decades after his death, millions of fans continue to worship Elvis the legend. But very few knew him as Elvis the man. Here in her own words, Priscilla Presley tells the story of their love, revealing the details of their first meeting, their marriage, their affairs, their divorce, and the unbreakable bond that has remained long after his tragic death. A tribute to both the man and the legend, Elvis and Me gives Elvis fans the world over an unprecedented look at the true life of the King of Rock N' Roll and the woman who loved him.

First published September 19, 1985

Audiobook Published August 23, 2022

Blackstone Publishing - Audiobooks

My rating 4 of 5 stars

I have long since made it a rule of mine to not read biographies written by people who weren't there at the time or barely knew the person being written about. So, naturally when it comes to Elvis, who better to tell his story than the women who was a part of?

Personal thoughts about these two asides, because at some point early on I did think to myself that if this was a work of fiction, I wouldn't be able to stand either of them. I enjoyed hearing about a side of Elvis few knew about, or as she even mentions, have tried to turn into something else. This is a story only one person could tell, and Priscillia Presley did a wonderful job in doing so.

As the title says it's about both Elvis and Priscillia Presley, but of course, it is her story so she would be the "main character," making Elvis a secondary character. Looking at it that way makes it all the more interesting, since he was the star that everything, including Priscilla's life, revolved around; so therefore, seeing him through the eyes of an insider, one who I now know so much more about, was enlightening.

It is not a beautiful story, but it is beautifully told and listening to the audio version of it read by Priscilla Presley herself, made it all the better. I especially loved the little moments while reading where she would sometimes giggle, it just gave the story so much more than having it read straight through.

5 notes - Posted August 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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fanficcrossoverprompts · 2 years

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Encanto Wizarding Info Husbands Edition: The Ultimate Collection Part 3

Felix Madrigal

Wand:

Vine wood with a phoenix feather core, 9 ¾ and pliant flexibility

Vine

The druids considered anything with a woody stem as a tree, and vine makes wands of such a special nature that I have been happy to continue their ancient tradition. Vine wands are among the less common types, and I have been intrigued to notice that their owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. Vine wands seem strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths, and I have found them more sensitive than any other when it comes to instantly detecting a prospective match. Reliable sources claim that these wands can emit magical effects upon the mere entrance into their room of a suitable owner, and I have twice observed the phenomenon in my own shop.

Phoenix

This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike.

Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won.

Ilvermorny House:

Heart: Pukwudgies are defined by their passions and desires, by how they feel, and by whom they love. They form deep connections, wholly commit themselves to everything they do, and defend their people and passions with ferocity. Pukwudgies are caregivers, protectors, and loyal friends. They will use all their talents, values, and potential to pursue their passions and protect the ones they love.

Hogwarts House

Ravenclaw House

Founder: Rowena Ravenclaw

Head of House: Professor Filius Flitwick

House Ghost: The Grey Lady

House Colours: Blue and bronze

Main Characters: Luna Lovegood and Cho Chang

Of all the Hogwarts Houses, Ravenclaws get the least amount of attention in the Harry Potter series, and they have the fewest main characters. Many Ravenclaws are disgruntled by the fact that some characters who exemplify their primary house strengths and culture were sorted elsewhere (for example, Hermione and Dumbledore). Despite this, Ravenclaws have a strong sense of house identity and fellowship, and there are many online communities of friendly Ravenclaws willing to welcome a new member into their fold!

"Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you've a ready mind, Where those of wit and learning can always find their kind." — J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Ravenclaw Traits and Strengths:

Intelligence: While not all Ravenclaws are naturally intelligent, all members of the house have a strong thirst for knowledge and learning that places them among the best students in the Wizarding World, and this quality adds up to a generally high level of intelligence and knowledge among members of the House.

Curiosity: One of the main traits that defines the Ravenclaw House is a desire for exploration, inquiry, and learning. Ravenclaws are generally highly curious about the world around them and are constantly asking questions to expand their understanding.

Creativity: Ravenclaws tend to be "out-of-the-box" thinkers and as such can be highly creative. This creativity effects their spell-work and their way of relating to others and also means that many Ravenclaws are artistic and have unique approaches to solving problems.

Individuality: Ravenclaws are highly individualistic and don't tend to follow the crowd or succumb to peer pressure. In essence, they do what they want to do. This is most obviously exemplified by Luna Lovegood, who wears radish-like fruits as earrings and is fiercely true to her own identity, even when people tease her for it.

Ravenclaw Weaknesses:

Disconnection From the Outside World: Because Ravenclaws tend to live inside their own heads, they can come across as vague, disconnected, or uninterested. Some are genuinely disdainful of others and the outside world, but most simply don't understand that their constant daydreaming is inappropriate in certain situations.

Arrogance: Ravenclaws can be arrogant about their own intelligence and use it as a justification to view themselves as being better than others.

Isolation: Some Ravenclaws purposefully isolate themselves from others... even from their fellow Ravenclaws. This isolation can occur for innocent reasons—for example, if they want to be alone to study for an upcoming test or read a good book—but it can also be a byproduct of arrogance. They may view themselves as being better than others and may be unwilling to associate with inferiors.

Patronus:

Dolphin

A dolphin Patronus means you are very graceful, lovable, and intelligent. Those who conjure this Patronus are sociable and have a playful side to them, but they are also fierce protectors when necessary.

Dolphins are very people-oriented and make friends very easily. Their loving and caring nature is their biggest strength and their natural inner light will block out the darkness of dementors.

Dolphins use something called echolocation that helps them track down and catch their prey. Echolocation is done by making clicking noises that bounce sound waves off their target to reveal where the prey is and how big it is.

Animagus Form:

Dolphin

As a Spirit Animal and guide Dolphin comes to those who need to reclaim their voice, communicating in effective, honest ways. This creature also mentors those out of touch with nature’s rhythms and messages.

Some lightworkers feel that Dolphin may, in fact, have higher intelligence and instincts than humankind. Theories exist that they were once aliens. In both cases the Dolphin teaches you the lesson of self-love.

Dolphin as a Spirit Animal often comes to people who need to connect with their inner child again. Play is healthy and laughter heals. Dolphin councils holding dear to these two things, which in turn encourages wholeness in body, mind and spirit.

As Dolphin swims into your life you will begin to notice that your head and heart seek balance. Dolphins are very smart creatures but they also have impressive intuitive aptitudes. This creates a “knowingness” and inner peace without foregoing personal power.

Dolphin energy can help you breathe, release and “BE” in order to grow spiritually. You cannot swim life’s waters and embrace true joy if your arms are filled with bad memories and feelings from the past. Dolphin has come to help you navigate those waves.

Part 1 Part 2

#encanto #felix encanto #encanto felix #felix madrigal #la familia madrigal #the family madrigal #the madrigal family #familia madrigal #madrigal family #reblog post

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sacramentonewsjournal · 2 years

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Actor Robbie Coltrane Harry Potters Hagrid dies at 72

LONDON (AP) — Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane, who performed a crime-solving psychologist on TV sequence “Cracker” and the half-giant Hagrid within the “Harry Potter” films, has died. He was 72. Coltrane’s agent Belinda Wright mentioned he died Friday at a hospital in Scotland. She didn’t give a trigger. Coltrane got here to fame as a hard-bitten detective within the Nineteen Nineties sequence “Cracker,” for which he gained greatest actor on the British Academy Tv Awards three years working. He performed mild half-giant Hagrid, a mentor to the boy wizard, in all eight Harry Potter movies, launched between 2001 and 2011. Different roles embrace a Russian crime boss within the James Bond thrillers “GoldenEye” and “The World is Not Sufficient.” Coltrane gained rave opinions for taking part in a beloved TV star who might harbor a darkish secret within the 2016 miniseries “Nationwide Treasure.” Wright mentioned that “in addition to being a beautiful actor, he was forensically clever, brilliantly witty and after 40 years of being proud to be known as his agent, I shall miss him.” Wright mentioned Coltrane is survived by his sister Annie Rae, his ex-wife Rhona Gemmell and his youngsters Spencer and Alice. Shut Modal Recommend a Correction Recommend a Correction Originally published at Sacramento News Journal

#Sacramento News Journal

0 notes

lunaralight09 · 3 years

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Could you do books that the scps might read?

Books that the SCPs might read

SCP 035 Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins Anna is shipped off to boarding school in Paris where she meets the super-charming Etienne, and that's when things get interesting. I was a squealing, giggly, mush-fest all the while through reading this book. Stephanie Perkins knows just how to turn a seemingly ordinary love story into an unputdownable read. SCP 040 Your Brain Needs a Hug: Life, Love, Mental Health, and Sandwiches Just the title of this book by Rae Earl makes us feel a little lighter. And we don’t know about you, but our brains could definitely use a hug right now. While the book is geared towards teens, we found Earl’s advice to be relevant for all ages — particularly for anyone who struggles with depression, anxiety, social media addiction, and self-esteem issues. TBH, pretty much anyone can benefit from this book! SCP 049 And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini And the Mountains Echoed is such an amazing and heartwarming read. It's about a pair of siblings that fate cruelly separates and then finally reunites. A must-read for its simple yet gripping narration and amiable characters. SCP 049-j The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain This is a French romance novella, and basically a love letter to book lovers. There's mystery, romance, and some of the most beautifully crafted sentences and paragraphs I have ever read. The ending is so sweet, even though you wonder how you ever got there so soon. SCP 053 Lulu and the Rabbit Next Door by Hilary McKay Lulu and her cousin help their neighbor Arthur learn to love and care for his (neglected) rabbit. She doesn’t want her neighbor to feel bad so she writes the rabbit little notes with helpful gifts signed from her own pet rabbit named Thumper. It’s a kind way to show Arthur how to take care of his new pet SCP 073 HumanKind: Changing the World One Small Act At a Time Looking for heart-warming stories of kindness and compassion? HumanKind by Brad Aronson was made for you. But the book isn’t only full of uplifting stories that will move you to happy tears, it’s also packed with practical and actionable tips for how to be kinder in your everyday. One thing is for sure: after you put this book down, you’ll feel inspired to do something nice for someone else. And because of that, we think this is one of the best books on the planet! SCP 076 Do Unto Animals We absolutely DEVOURED this book by Tracey Stewart. Whether you’re looking for tips on how to better understand skunks and squirrels or read your pet’s body language, every page is full of compassionate wisdom about to treat animals in a way that they deserve. Also, the illustrations are absolutely beautiful — we nearly wanted to pet the pages because the animal drawings were so lovable. SCP 079 Walden (Henry David Thoreau) With the outdoorsman renaissance happening as we speak, it is nice to look back at one of the books that probably started it. Walden isn’t the bore you read back in middle school, it takes time to appreciate like a nice bottle of red. Thoreau’s masterpiece tackles so much while quietly nudging your brain into activity. It also makes you want to build a cabin SCP 096 Black Beauty by Anna Sewell Told from the perspective of the horse, this story is so beautifully written that it's easy to get lost in it's pages. I laughed and cried, as did my daughter when she read it. SCP 105 Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury Warm and fuzzy the whole way through, Dandelion Wine is by far the best story to make you feel good. Though I'm not the correct age to directly relate to the young adult story, I still felt the warm summer days and the wonder of it all. SCP 106 Catch-22 – Joseph Heller “War is hell,” is the old adage we all know, but Catch-22 looks to modify that a bit. Instead, war becomes super goddamn weird. The book follows a bomber squadron in the Second World War whose collective sanity is slowly being eroded by whatever passes for power. Throughout it all, the main character keeps trying to prove himself insane enough to be kicked out of the Navy, which is precisely why he can’t

be kicked out. Which is a catch 22 and yes, this is where the phrase comes from. It’s a great extrapolation of quirks and idiosyncrasies we see in day to day life, only this time, they’re affecting war SCP 134 (I know she don't have eyes . But there is a books for blind people) A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass A Mango-Shaped Space is about a 13-year-old girl with synesthesia (she can see, taste, and hear colors) and her journey in getting a diagnosis and accepting herself and all her differences. It's sort of a coming-of-age story, too. As someone with multiple chronic illnesses who has gone through the same process at the same age, this really was an incredible reading experience. One of my favorite quotes is "We all do the best we can, trying to keep all the balls in the air at once." I recommend it to everyone. SCP 173 Rabbit, Run (John Updike) The greatest mid-life crisis novel of all time doesn’t actually deal with a mid-life crisis at all. Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom is 26 when he decides to leave his wife and son for a new life. Of course, what that new life is, and what exactly he wants out of it isn’t clear to the reader or to Rabbit himself. It will strike a cord with all men who struggle with the idea of settling down. SCP 239 The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling SCP 682 THE WOLF AND THE WATCHMAN BY NIKLAS NATT OCH DAG If you're the kind of person that can't get enough of Scandi noir films, TV shows and literature, then Niklas Natt och Dag's The Wolf And The Watchman should be next on your reading list. Set in 18th-century Stockholm, this tale is as dark as it gets, following the titular watchman and a detective as they hunt down the killer behind a dismembered corpse that appears in a local pond. As gruesome as it is gripping, it's the perfect literary companion as the nights get longer and increasingly eerie. SCP 847 The Case Against Satan by Ray Russell Two priests are called in to examine a girl who might be possessed by the devil. The Exorcist, right? Nope, it’s Ray Russell‘s The Case Against Satan, a novel of theological horror that beat William Peter Blatty’s book to print by eight years. The Case Against Satan is as much the story of a crisis of faith as it is a supernatural tale, and readers looking for a nuanced take on both should give it a try SCP 953 THE PILLOW BOOK BY SEI SHŌNAGON If you want to learn a bit more about the Japan of the past – and also, weirdly, all of us in the present – The Pillow Book is a cult classic you should absolutely try. Sei Shōnagon was a lady-in-waiting in the court of Empress Teishi in the year 1000 and here she collects her thoughts and musings about court life. To read a woman more than 1,000 years ago being as philosophical, neurotic and scandalous as anyone is today on social media is a thrill that lasts from the start to the end. SCP 1678 Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden Absolutely moving, the struggles Sayuri faces are painted so beautifully by Arthur Golden's masterful craft that you totally empathize with her as she grows and triumphs in a world designed to see her fail. The ultimate conclusion of the novel fills me with such warmth — it's both entirely unexpected and wholeheartedly appreciated.

#scp foundation #scp #scp 035 #scp 040 #scp 049 #scp 049-j #scp 073 #scp 076 #scp 079 #scp 096 #scp 105 #scp 106 #scp 134 #scp 173 #scp 239 #scp 682 #scp 847 #scp 953 #scp 1678 #scps #books

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fandomsmeantheworldtome · 3 years

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My Fandoms

Everything about The Six Idiots

BBC Ghosts

Horrible Histories

Yonderland

Good Omens

Our Flag Means Death

AMC's Interview With The Vampire

The Sandman

Gotham

Supernatural

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Doctor Who

BBC Sherlock

BBC Merlin

Hannibal the series

Hornblower

Breaking Bad

The Witcher

Prodigal son

The Flash

Supergirl

Stranger Things

Legends of Tomorrow

The Umbrella Academy

Bridgerton

Sanditon

Killing Eve

Moon knight

Wandavision

What We Do In The Shadows

Loki series ( 2021)

Stargate Atlantis

Star Trek The Next Generation

Star Trek Strange New Worlds

Star Trek Discovery

Miracle Workers

The Orville

The Alienist

Gentleman Jack

Warehouse 13

The Librarians

Brooklyn 99

Firefly

The X-Files

Downton Abbey

Doom Patrol

Titans

A series of Unfortunate events

The Terror season 1

Bates Motel

Love Victor

Humans

Battlestar Galactica

The Magicians

The Mandalorian

American Horror Story

Masters of Sex

Lucifer

Peaky Blinders

Poldark

Maniac

The Crown

DC Universe

Marvel Universe

Lord of The Rings

Harry Potter

my sideblogs

@edward-nygma-is-my-addiction

@vanya-deserves-the-world

@lovemesomevillanelle

@give-me-malcolm-and-whump

@sweetbarryallen

@scottlanglover

@yennefer-the-greatest-sorceress

@superherovillainsfemalesquad

@penelope-bridgertonlove

@unconsciouswhumptastic

#these are not the only tv shows i watched #but the ones i care about #sideblogs about many of my favourite shows and characters because one blog is not enough #also the last one sideblog is dedicated to my obsession over whump

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peralta-guaranteed · 3 years

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Amy falling asleep on Jake hcs?

turnaround's fair play! :D

- it's already been HC-established round these parts that Jake's belly/paunch is the greatest pillow in the world, and Amy will use it to sleep wherever she wants. In the park. At her family's. On the couch. In the break room, that one time during an overnight case.

- She fell asleep on him pre-relationship a lot during more tedious detective-work, because if they're holed up in some place or car and she gets cold (like always) there's nothing better than sidling up to human radiator Jake Peralta and stealing his body heat without a care. And so what if that warmth and the quiet of their mission gets her sleepy-eyed and slumping over and essentially full-body leaning against his side at some point. (He certainly didn't mind)

- She also tends to fall asleep on long car rides, like when they get back home after a weekend trip to the cabin or something like that. It's not falling asleep on Jake, per se, but it is waking up in his arms when he tries to carry her up to their apartment or when he's actually succesfully managed to do so and tucks her into bed.

- (it's great kiddo-training too, because if he can lug Amy upstairs in a koala-hug there's really no problem when Mac and Maya snooze away somewhere. He's actually managed to carry both of them together once without waking either and he's still proud of it)

- she'll often finish her book or crossword puzzle in bed before Jake's done with whatever he's doing on his phone or reading himself, so she'll get comfy against his side with her head on one side of his chest (or The Paunch(tm) if he's still sitting up straighter). He'll always start to play with her hair without even noticing while he keeps scrolling / turning pages, and that plus his soft breathing gets her to sleep better than anything else in the world.

- he was once chilling, lying on his front, in the Santiago cabin yard reading something, and she joined him and made a joke about how if his paunch wasn't available she had to make do with his butt, and laid down just for a laugh, but he didn't move (it was the final Harry Potter book, he didn't move for several hours actually) and the sun was at exactly the right strength to warm her instead of hurt her and the blanket was soft and the week had been long and basically he still jokes about the time she fell asleep on his butt and woke up with her face smooshed into his shorts

#B99 #Brooklyn 99 #Peraltiago #Jake Peralta #Amy Santiago

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theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin · 3 years

Note

Hi! I’m a big fan of your work!! I am looking for more but unfortunately I feel like I have read all yhe good Harry Potter docs on Ao3. Do you have any recs?

Sorry for the delay, I just know that whenever I make rec list it usually ends up taking a while.

With that, Harry Potter fics are a big genre. Just saying Harry Potter in general really isn’t that specific to me so this is across genres/character focuses/you name it.

Also, as usual, I’ve been on fanfiction longer and have amassed more favorites there. Some of these are cross posted to Ao3. Similarly, a lot are unfinished, this personally doesn’t bother me but if it bothers you take heed.

Also, you’ll see my embarrassing obsession with Tom Riddle. So, heads up for that.

Stepbrother (Tom Riddle/Hermione Granger, period piece, in which the two remind me a lot of Nabokov)

Cat Among the Pigeons (Tom Riddle/Lily Evans, Psycho-Pass Detective AU, in which I am a beta actually so my promoting this goes without saying)

Til Death Do Us Part (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Voldemort wins AU, which for me does very well with the concept of immortality and what exactly Tom is supposed to do after he wins)

This Tangle of Thorns (Tom Riddle/Hermione Granger, modern AH AU, a full on Nabokov inspired fic which I enjoy because Lolita)

Delusional (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, sort of. Harry wins the war, goes crazy, checks into a mental hospital. Or he’s not crazy and Voldemort is as unkillable as Palpatine.)

Harry Potter and the Natural 20 (OC insert, D&D inspired, shameless crack. I mostly enjoy the beginning of this but it makes me laugh enough to recommend.)

A Hairy Business (AU, Harry is a deer, he is literally a deer, that’s it. It’s funny.)

Animus, Anima (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Harry travels back in time, gets stuck in Tom Riddle’s brain, and it turns out Harry’s responsible for every terrible thing that ever happened. This one was squicky even for me, very well done, but strap in.)

Addendum, He is Also a Liar (Tom Riddle/Hermione Granger, Tom has an inexplicable ability to travel to the future, but only to this random little girl Hermione Granger)

Framed & Fractured (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Harry gets stuck in an evil painting back in time. Tom is creepy as usual.)

Trying for Eden (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Harry travels back in time to lecture Tom into morality. It doesn’t work.)

Magical Mirrors (Luna Lovegood and Severus Snape, Luna and Snape stumble on the Mirror of Erised at the same time and strike up a conversation)

Aphelion (Hermione Granger/Loki, MCU crossover, Hermione and Loki strike up the world’s weirdest toxic friendship when Hermione’s young and attending Hogwarts, this leads terrible places as Loki slides into madness and despair)

Wandering Souls (Luna Lovegood and The Undertaker, Black Butler crossover, Luna meets and strikes up a conversation with the Undertaker)

Of Lies Most Beautiful (Tom Riddle, Hunger Games crossover, Tom wins the Hunger Games becaues that’s what he does bitch)

In Wonderland (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Harry ends up back in the past and decides to raise Tom Riddle. This goes so poorly that the pair almost get eaten by eldritch gods multiple times.)

Rumpelstiltskin, Guess My Name (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Female Harry travels back in time and offers to save Merope’s life/get her Tom Riddle Sr. the non rapey way in return for her firstborn son. Merope thought Harry was joking. She wasn’t joking. In the sequel, also linked, Harry kills Morfin.)

The Eyes (Harry Potter, AU, turns out “the power he knows not” is the power humanity knows not, Harry’s ability to see eldritch abominations and cosmic gods and thus bring them far enough into our reality that they eat everything. And I mean everything.)

Mirror Mirror (Harry Potter, MCU crossover, Harry makes a huge mistake and stops Hulk in the middle of a rampage. This gets him abducted by octopus nazis.)

I See the Moon (Harry Potter and Bruce Banner, MCU crossover, Harry got brain damage from the war and wanders around the middle of nowhere. He runs into Bruce. He’s now Bruce’s only friend.)

You Will Be the Death of Me (Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, Despicable Me inspired, through a series of convoluted events Tom as the world’s worst father figure ends up raising Harry the sad adorable orphan.)

In Death, Standby (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter (sort of, the authro claims), Tom raises Harry, the only Tom raises Harry that I’ve seen done well because Tom is the world’s worst father. Harry thinks he’s a deformed snake until the age of three.)

Little Harry’s Mirkwood Adventure (Harry Potter and Dudley Dursley, Hobbit Crossover, one of the most Tolkien style crossovers I’ve actually seen and is very good)

A (Self-Imposed) Trap for a Fool (Ginny Weasley, turns out Harry Potter never existed, as in he’s a collective hallucination made up by the entire wizarding world)

McLaggen and From McLaggen with Love (McLaggen, a detective AU then a James Bond style adventure starring McLaggen, the greatest wizard who ever wizarded)

Tom Riddle’s Diary: on keeping devils in the summer (Tom Riddle, Tom Riddle’s antichrist orphan adventures involving exorcism and burning people alive)

and the fates sing (hold on, son) (Harry Potter, MCU crossover, Harry is the son of Loki and like all children of Loki he is a wretched and cursed thing)

A Faulty Master (Harry Potter and Itachi Uchiha, Naruto crossover, Itachi after the massacre of his family has a run in with a master of death Harry, who is a creepy creepy man)

Eye of Reason (Harry Potter/Jack Frost, Rise of the Guardians crossover, due to the mythos surrounding his life Harry ceases to be a man and becomes akin to a god)

Flowers for a Ghost (Luna Lovegood and Itachi Uchiha, Naruto Crossover, Luna befriends a blind ghost)

Third Time’s the Charm (Harry Potter, MCU crossover, Bruce Banner keeps trying to kill himself and MoD Harry is there to have himself a real good day)

Blind Faith (Bellatrix LeStrange/Tom Riddle, canon compliant, an in depth look at Bellatrix from the escape of Azkaban onward)

Cocktail Time (Rita Skeeter and Gilderoy Lockhart, Rita does an expose and autobiography detailing the descent of Gilderoy Lockhart and how he became what he became)

Fantastic Elves and Where to Find Them (Harry Potter, canon divergent AU, Harry thinks he’s an elf. That’s it.)

The Twine Bracelet (Colin Creevy, a look at Colin’s death)

Legal Alien (Harry Potter, MCU crossover, Harry visits New York and an alien invasion breaks out. Culminates with the best, dumb, joke.)

The Root of Desire (Tom Riddle/Hermione Granger, Hermione travels back in time and tries to influence Tom. All this does is inspire his sexual awakening.)

Deadheads (Harry Potter/Godric Gryffindor, a romantic comedy of a kind, culminating in the best dumbest joke)

Give and Take (Tom Riddle/Hermione Granger, Hermione tries to outwit Tom, it ends in despair)

The Road to Somewhere (Harry Potter, Spirited Away crossover, Harry as MoD is in the realm of the spirits)

Absolute (Harry Potter, Harry picks up a death note, he kills everyone)

Fortunate Son (Dudley Dursleys, years afterwards Dudley looks back and writes a memoir and expose about the abuse inflicted on his cousin)

Elective Affinities (Severus Snape/Harry Potter, Harry travels back in time to discover his parents are assholes and things are more complicated than he imagined)

Juxtaposed (Bod, Graveyard Book crossover, Bod attends Hogwarts)

The Fire Omens (Tom Riddle and a look at WWII)

Broken Toys (Tom Riddle and his useless broken toys)

The Fine Art of Poisoning (Madame Zabini)

A Marriage of Convenience (Pansy and Theo get married)

Reparabilis (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Tom becomes a professor, he still destroys Harry Potter)

The Unforgivable Curses (Draco Malfoy, a look at the 4th year unforgivable lecture with Moody and the Slytherins)

Ugly (Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy one sided Dudley/Harry Potter, Dudley’s fat, ugly, and creeps on his cousin)

Three Can Keep a Secret (Harry Potter, on secrets and secret keeping)

Caveat Incimici (Hermione Granger, on Hermione and her terrifying wrath)

Babylon (Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, Harry never gets rid of Tom)

Wonderful Tragic Mysterious (Luna Lovegood and Albus Dumbledore, Luna Lovegood time travels and becomes a young Albus’ neighbor)

In the Clockface, Weighted and Weary (Harry Potter/Ariana Dumbledore, Harry after DH ends up back in time in Dumbledore’s childhood and witnesses the beautiful Dumbledore family dysfunction)

Eternal Return (Harry Potter and Tom Riddle, Harry is reincarnated as Tom Riddle and as a result becomes Voldemort so that a Voldemort exists)

Like Pale Fire (Harry Potter/Godric Gryffindor, the Founders are resurrected and it turns out Harry had travelled to the past and become Salazar Slytherin, turns out the Founders were more complicated than people expected.)

12 Moves Sideways (Harry Potter and Light Yagami, Death Note crossover, Light becomes the Defense Professor, for once Harry does not figure out the mystery.)

A Very Young Girl’s Record of Her Own Impressions (Ariana Dumbledore’s diary)

Night Comes Early (Moody on war)

Little Witches (The Black family women and how it all falls apart)

Paved with Good Intentions (Petunia on finding a baby on her doorstep)

Emerald Serpent for Vanity (Draco and Nagini introspective)

Blue (Tom Riddle/Bellatrix LeStrange, Voldemort wins dystopia, Tom visits Bellatrix’s grave and is very crazy)

Eighteen (Hermione Granger, on Hermione’s betrayal of her parents)

Ouroboros (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, on what they’ve made of each other)

Not so Different (Scout, To Kill a Mockingbird Crossover, Scout reflects on the wizarding world’s raicsm)

Traitor (Hermione Granger, Hermione is captured by the Death Eaters and commits unspeakable acts to free herself)

Smashing Mirrors (Tom Riddle, introspective)

Twelve Dark Moons (Luna Lovegood/Tom Riddle, Luna becomes a captive of the dark lord)

Full Circle (Harry Potter, Harry wins and is miserable)

The Web of a Thousand Spiders (Luna Lovegood on the diary)

The Metronome (The fall of Lucius’ entire generation)

Understand (Hermione Granger and her betrayal of her parents)

Tea with the Headmaster (Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore, the pair have tea)

This Grief Feeling (Hermione Granger and Severus Snape after the end)

After Innocence (The trio after the end)

Of Great Turmoil and Excess Stupidity (Sesshomaru and Hagrid, Inuyasha crossover, Hagrid decides to capture a demon for class)

What’s Left of Hope (Severus Snape and Albus Dumbledore, on preserving hope)

In His Keep (Severus Snape and Luna Lovegood, Snape informs Luna her father has died)

Wednesday (Petunia Evans, introspective)

In the Presence of Angels (Moody in WWII)

What He Grows to Be (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Harry Potter raises Tom Riddle in the past and it goes horribly wrong)

Being Cassandra (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Harry Potter, Tom, and their strange AU friendship)

The Girl (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, a fem Harry Potter keeps accidentally appearing in Tom’s childhood)

Corruption (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Tom wins AU and female Harry slowly becomes corrupted)

One Night Stand (Tom Riddle/Lily Evans, a wonderful look on the first war, Tom Riddle, Lily Evans, the Order of the Phoenix, and terrorism)

The Voldemort Principle (Severus Snape, turns out Snape was Voldemort the whole time and Harry is a lying liar who lies)

Harry Potter and the mountain of pure diamond (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Harry has become an ageless god who travels worlds and decides to raise Tom Riddle. He’s disturbed when he realizes Tom is more of a person than he is)

A Road Less Travelled By (Harry Potter/Lucius Malfoy, Harry’s a veela, just read it, it’s amazing, I know I sound crazy but it is)

Transformation (Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy, Draco gets eaten by the Forbidden Forest and then Harry gets eaten too)

Rock Bottom (Tom Riddle/Harry Potter, Tom gets trapped being defense professor and has a miserable time)

#ask #anon #harry potter #recommendations

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memelovescaps · 2 years

Text

IN NEED - CHAPTER 20

Despite Harry’s strong spell, the vampire was still on his feet, a smug smirk on his lips. He was wearing very dark clothes, black ankle-high boots and a black leather motorcycle jacket on top. The rain was falling over them, but the jacket seemed to protect the vampire from it, or at least, he seemed oblivious to it. His long red hair looked slick and was plastered to his forehead and face, but he didn’t seem to mind. His fangs were showing, his mouth curved into a smirk.

What caught Harry’s attention, though, were his eyes. They were of a dark crimson colour, with the pupils constricted into a single black fine line. They looked menacing, calculating; as if he was waiting for the right moment to pounce. Harry couldn’t help the shiver that ran through his spine and made his blood run cold.

“Well, well, well... what an honour” the creature sneered, his voice silky and deep, as he fake bowed to Harry “to be hunted by the one and only Harry Potter.”

“Shut up, you!” he heard Ron scream behind him, who walked to stand in a defensive position next to him.

“Oh, and his dear friend, of course. Where would he be without the Saviour? What’s the matter, Weasley?” the creature mocked “can’t the Deputy Head of Aurors catch a vampire all on his own? He has to call the Saviour of the World to do so?”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about” Harry spoke, and he was surprised to hear his voice so even, so calm, while he felt his heart beating like mad. "You will regret all those deaths. Why did you do it?”

“Why kill them?” the vampire asked, then shrugged “and why not? I did it because I can, Potter. Not everyone needs morals. I certainly don’t.”

“Your reign of terror ends today, creature” Ron stated as he took a step forward “and as Deputy Head of the Department of Aurors, I am arresting you...”

“No Deputy Head will stand in my way” the creature snarled.

His voice sounded a bit less smug and much more threatening, although it hadn’t lost that silky texture. A growl escaped his throat and it travelled to Harry’s ears, sending shivers down his spine. He felt his hands sweaty, and he gripped tight the wand in his fingers.

“Ah, yes... the adrenaline, the fear... those make my feast all the more delicious” the creature voiced, the voice calm, composed, and Harry was terrified to detect, a hint of lewd desire. He smelled the air, his nostrils flaring, as he set his red eyes on Harry. “I think I will begin with you first, Harry. After all, killing you will be my greatest honour.”

“In your other life, perhaps."

“I’ve got plenty of time in this one” the creature answered, his fangs showing above his lower lip in a threatening manner “and I’m about to make it worthwhile!”

Harry was prepared, but the vampire was too fast.

And cunning.

In a single leap, he jumped from where he was, throwing himself up in the air. Harry looked up, his glasses wetting with the rain falling incessantly, but as he set his feet apart in a combat stance, he realized what was happening.

“RON!”

The creature hadn’t leapt for him as he’d warned, he’d jumped for Ron, who’d been standing near Harry but observing their exchange.

The adrenaline made Harry’s muscles move before he even realized what was happening. He leapt to his left, his arms stretched, and tackled Ron with as much strength as he could, pushing him to the ground.

He turned around in a second, and he saw a pair of crimson eyes, glowing in the dark, and two sharp fangs that were out, ready to bite, to break the skin and draw blood. Using his arms as leverage, his feet connected with the creature and pushed him away with a kick, as hard as he could.

“STUPEFY!” he heard the vampire shout, but from the ground, not even having time to stand up, Harry shouted a Protego that shielded him from harm.

It seemed that despite Harry being powerful, the vampire blood made the creature more resistant to spells than a regular human. So, Harry focused on him. Before he could give him time to attack, made a complicated movement with his wand, effectively keeping the roaring creature at bay.

He was close, so close.

He could smell the putrid smell of blood on him. From where he was standing he could see his eyes, ablaze with a fire that meant he had been fed quite recently. His teeth were razor-sharp and stark white, and he growled with his fangs out. Harry could see the blood dripping from his lip and smearing his neck and clothes.

The creature smirked before he lifted his wand, ready to attack, but Ron shouted a spell behind him that hit him on his torso, making him stagger a few steps.

CONFRINGO!

Harry shouted in his mind, and this time the spell hit the creature full force on the chest. Having used non-verbal spells, the vampire hadn’t had time to cast a protective spell.

The gnarl he heard made his hair stand on end.

Suddenly, the creature disapparated, leaving no trace behind him. Harry looked left and right, pulling himself to his feet as he waited, his hand clutching his wand.

And then he gasped and cried out, every cell in his body screaming in agony as he felt an acute pain in his neck.

“HARRY!” he heard Ron roar, in the distance, but he sounded so far away...

He felt the fangs sinking into the skin of his neck, the blood rushing to the surface. His entire body was shaking as the creature snarled, noises of triumph and satiety coming out of him. His cold lips closed in on the wound, drinking avidly and sucking while Harry screamed in agony. He tried to move, to push him away, but he felt his limbs slow and heavy, and his attempts futile, the creature had lodged on his neck and wouldn’t let go. His vision blurred and he lost strength, he couldn’t think, he couldn’t move. He felt his knees weak as the vampire sucked on his blood, feeding off of him, his putrid smell surrounding him.

He saw through blurry eyes Ron sending spells and curses to the creature, but he fought them off, it was as if they didn’t even affect him. Harry’s mind was foggy and sluggish, he couldn’t think of any way out... was this how it was to die?

And then, he saw him.

Severus.

Severus with his long hair, his big cold hands, his slender fingers. Severus with his dramatic entrances and his cloak billowing behind him as he strode the castle with confidence. Severus, with his cold stare that warmed up as soon as he saw him. His smile, so wide his dimples showed. His laughter, deep and reverberating in his chest. His heart, beating and warm, so close to him that he could feel its steady drum. His sleepy eyes in the morning, at the break of dawn, as he curled up a bit more to Harry, basking in his warmth.

No, he wouldn’t give him up.

He couldn’t let him down. Not now that they’d found each other.

So, Harry pushed through the pain, focusing his mind on one single thought: he had to get back to Severus.

READ ON AO3

#severus snape #harry potter #harry potter fic #harry potter fanfic #vampire #pro snape #snape community #snape fandom #snapedom #my writing #age regression #severus snape age regression #little severus #little snape #vampirisim #agere #age regression severus snape #vampires

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 4 years

Note

What do you think the Animorphs would be like playing D&D? Not "the Animorphs in a D&D world", but the Animorphs actually sitting down and having a campaign of D&D. Like the classes/races they'd pick, their play styles, wacky shenanigans (because we all know it would happen).

[Credit to Cates for 100% of the character builds, and most of the lore, in this AU. In case you were wondering, I’m the Jake-style “never read the manual” chaotic-dumbass bard of our campaign; she’s the Marco-style “uses the rules exactly as much or little as needed” DM.]

It was decided almost right away that one on the team had any alignment. As DM, Marco attempted to start there, only to have Ax begin questioning whether the manual’s explanations of “good” and “evil” truly captured human ethics on a grand scale. Tobias claimed that Ax was looking at it all wrong, that the moralities were only default behavior types within the game, and that within this particular context morality didn’t matter. Cassie got very concerned about the idea of context-dependent morality, Rachel declared that the book was stupid and short-sighted for claiming that destroying things was always bad, Jake quietly asked for the fourth or fifth time if this game was actually a good idea…

“Fine!” Marco announced. “You’re all amoral characters. Happy?”

“‘Amoral’ implies that we’re immoral, doesn’t it?” Cassie asked. “Or that we exist outside the spectrum of moralities?”

“Just…” Marco rolled his eyes. “Everyone leave that spot on your character sheet blank, okay? If it ever comes up, we’ll deal with it on a case-by-case basis.”

“Yes,” Ax said, “although you never did answer my question about the implied ethical structure of this universe.”

After that, character creation went fairly smoothly. Kind of.

“Why does Dennis need a backstory, again?” Jake asked, looking down at his sheet.

“Dennis?” Marco said. “Dennis?

“You already said I wasn’t allowed to use ‘Dylan’ or ‘Brad’, so…’”

“C’mon man, this is D’nD. There are no Dennises in medieval fantasy epics.”

“Fine.” Jake crossed out and rewrote the name at the top of his character sheet. “Why does Keith need a backstory?”

“To explain his motivation.”

“You just said that the whole time we’re going to be chased around by orcs and whatnot. Isn’t not dying enough motivation?”

“You really don’t understand this game, do you?” Rachel said.

“I really don’t understand this game,” Jake agreed.

“My character’s a dragonborn rogue named Joan, and she’s the greatest gymnast of all time.” Rachel added a Dexterity marker to her sheet with a flourish.

“I thought I was a dragonborn,” Jake said. “Is that allowed?”

“Yeah, we can have as many dragonborns as you all want.” Marco shrugged. “We just can’t have multiple bards. And since you called dibs on that class, and Rachel wants to be a rogue, we’re fine.”

“Yeah, okay,” Jake said. “I just want to help out the team. Or, uh, Keith does?”

“Great.”

“So that’s my backstory, right? Being a bard?”

“Yes,” Rachel said, at the same time Marco said, “No!”

In the end, Marco declared that if neither Rachel nor Jake could come up with a proper backstory, he was making their characters cousins. Tobias, who had a better flair for the romantic, declared that said cousins were from an internationally feared family of highwaymen.

“So does that get us any extra skills, coming from a family of pirates?” Rachel asked.

“Maybe it’d explain how good your character is at gymnastics,” Jake said. “Because of riggings and all.”

“Highwaymen.” Marco looked up from where he was trying to salvage Keith’s stats from the hopeless tangle of Jake’s incorrect math. “Tobias said you guys are highwaymen, not pirates.”

“What are pirates but highwaymen of the sea?” Tobias asked, tilting his head in thought.

“Just put us down as jewel thieves.” Rachel made a note on her own sheet. “Jewel thieves of diverse methodology. Wherever jewels can be found, there we are with threats of violence to take them away.”

“By the way, why is Ax now a tiefling?” Tobias asked Marco.

“I told Marco I have no preference for my class and race,” Ax said. “And the word is most pleasant, tea-fling. Ffflllling.”

“They’re blue and have tails.” Marco smirked at Tobias. “It’s perfect!”

Rachel and Jake might’ve been vague on the idea of backstory, but Ax was quite definite.

“I am Eldrias the tiefling, fffflllling, paladin. She was raised by cows,” he announced.

“Don’t you mean raised by wolves?” Jake said. “Isn’t that a thing, raised by wolves?”

“Uh-huh,” Marco said, “since your land-pirates make perfect sense.”

“Wolves are beautiful animals, but they pale in comparison to cows,” Ax said. “Among other things, wolves’ meat is not so succulent and does not pair nearly as well with french fries.”

“Okay then,” Jake said, “raised by cows. Got it.”

Becoming a barbarian was Cassie’s idea. She spun through the manual in a rapid burst of pages, brushing gentle fingertips over the beautifully rendered illustrations, and then pressed it shut. “Barbarian,” she said. “That’s the one that can protect the team the best, right? So I’ll be a barbarian.”

Marco laughed. “All right then. Barbarian it is. Anything else in mind, for this barbarian of yours?”

Cassie tapped a finger against her lower lip, fluttering through the first several pages of the manual once again. “I could make my character a big, tall guy, right?”

“Sure.”

“But I want pointy ears.” She grinned at the rest of the table, somewhat sheepish.

“Half-elf barbarian, then?”

“Half-elf barbarian.” Cassie looked down at the sheet in front of her. “He can be named Reisgalan Von Schwartzel of the Morsgalath Half-Elves, Lord of the Plains and Wielder of…” She glanced around. “What’s that thing with the spiky ball on a stick?”

“Mace,” Rachel provided.

“Mace is that spray you use on bears and muggers,” Jake said.

“And it’s also a spiky ball on a stick.” Marco glanced at Cassie’s sheet. “You have a backstory for Reisgalan Von Whatshisface?”

“Hmmmm. Can I be widowed and have a tragically dead prince I must avenge?”

“Is it me?” Jake smiled hopefully.

“What?” Cassie frowned at him. “No. That’d be horrible.” She looked over at Marco. “Uh, can my character be a guy and also have a dead husband? Is that allowed?”

“Yeah, sure,” Marco said. “I’m the ruler of this universe, so I say it’s fine. And Tobias is the designated rules lawyer, so he’ll probably have some reason that it’s not.”

“I am not rules-lawyering!”

Marco looked at Ax’s character sheet, and then pointedly back up at Tobias. “Ax, how did you end up as not just a paladin, but a paladin that’s even more overpowered than the standard build?”

“Paladins are allowed.” Tobias shrugged. “It’s right there in the manual.”

“Ax, how you have splint armor?” Marco demanded.

“Paladins can wear Heavy armor,” Tobias sing-songed.

Marco growled.

Ax squinted at his character sheet. “Tobias says when I get to Level Three, I will take the Oath of Vengeance and take a Vow of Enmity. I will know the spells Thunderous Smite, Command, and Detect Magic.”

Marco’s face was turning an interesting shade of red.

“Oh, and Eldrias the paladin is taking Great Weapon as her Fighting Style.” Tobias wasn’t bothering to hide his smirk. “It’s all perfectly legal.”

Ax frowned at Marco. “Banging your head against the table with that level of force may have an adverse effect on your brain’s ability to function.”

“I’m not rules-lawyering for selfish gain,” Tobias said loftily, looking over Marco’s prone form. “And besides, Ax is new at this. He needs all the help he can get.”

“You find yourselves in a magical land.” Marco made a wild gesture in the air. It was probably meant to look dramatic and mysterious. “A land known as Falicornia.”

“Marco sucks at naming things,” Rachel whispered loudly.

“Rachel sucks at listening,” Marco whispered more loudly.

“You were saying?” Jake asked.

“This magical land is under threat from the dread god Cthulu! You must stop him through using the Philosopher’s Stone, which is powerful but cannot be used except by those who do not wish to use it. It contains many powerful temptations for the bearer. You must journey across the land, facing many dangers, to bring it to the only magical mirror that can destroy it before Cthulu has the chance to rise from that mirror and take over the world.”

Cassie raised her hand.

“Yes?” Marco said.

“Why does Cthulu want to take over the world?” she asked. “Does he need it for something?”

Marco sighed. “He wants to take over because he’s Cthulu. Any other questions?”

“First question: did you steal more of this plot from The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter?” Rachel said immediately. “Second question—” She turned to Ax. “Have we showed you those movies?”

“He’s reading the books first,” Tobias said.

“I’m reading the books first,” Ax agreed.

“You were saying about Cthulu,” Jake said to Marco.

“Yes. He wants to take over because he’s Cthulu,” Marco glared at Rachel. “Just because.“

“Actually,” Tobias said, “the original version of Cthulu was kind of like the Silver Surfer of Norse Mythology, and his motivation—”

“He wants to take over because he’s Cthulu.” Marco took a deep breath. “Anyway. Moving on.”

“Okay, you’re here.” Marco pointed to the G.I. Joe figure sitting in the middle of their somewhat crudely drawn map. “The goblins are…” One after another, he set four white pawns from his mom’s chess set around the G.I. Joe that represented Jake, forming a half-circle that separated him from Ax’s Smurf, Cassie’s My Little Pony miniature, and Tobias’s Precious Moments angel figurine. “Rachel is, uh…” He set the teddy bear pencil topper several inches back, between two goblin-pawns. “There. So.” Marco looked up at Jake. “You’re under attack. You’re up first in initiative order. What’re you going to do?”

Jake frowned, surveying the scene in front of him. “I have magic, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Okay, so I’ll use magic to turn myself into a bird, and then—”

“Yeah, no.”

“Then I’ll turn my teammates into birds, and they can—”

“You cannot turn yourself into a bird, you cannot turn anyone else into a bird, no one is turning into a bird or any other animal at any point in this game.” Marco glanced over at Tobias. “No offense.”

“Oh, I totally agree,” Tobias said. “A Level One bard performing an animal shapes transmutation? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Anyway.” Marco pointed at Jake’s G.I. Joe figurine. “Assuming we’re sticking to handheld weapons, what else do you want to do?”

“I… shoot the goblin?” Jake suggested. “With my…” He flipped over his character sheet, squinting at his own handwriting. “With my board-sword.”

“Pretty sure you meant ‘broadsword,’” Rachel said. “Okay, Jake killed the goblin, now what?”

Cassie peered over Jake’s shoulder. “It could just be a sword made out of boards, you don’t know.”

“Jake only has thirteen out of sixty odds of killing the goblin on one go,” Marco said.

Tobias flipped open his own manual to the entry on goblins. “Where are you getting these numbers from?”

Marco selected two dice from the pile, handing them both to Jake. “Oh, I just figure that if the goblin’s got an armor class of seven and five HP, then Jake’s got a thirteen-in-twenty chance of scoring a hit and then a two-in-six chance of it being deadly, given his hit dice. So if you reduce twenty-six over one-twenty down it’s thirteen in sixty. Like, point-two-one-seven out of one. Simple math.” He gestured at Jake. “Roll those.”

“You and I have very different definitions of the word ‘simple.’” Jake looked up. “Uh, ten and the other one says four?”

“You grievously injured but did not kill the goblin,” Marco said graciously. “Now it’s the turn for this leftmost goblin, who is going to run and stick a sword through Rachel…” He rolled, and winced. “That’s fifteen to hit, and two damage?”

“What’s that mean for my little rogue?” Rachel waved her pencil topper at him.

“You got stabbed,” Marco said.

“Uh-huh.” Rachel picked up her pen and sheet. “Where?”

Marco shrugged. “The leg, let’s say. Uh, upper thigh?”

“Mm-hmm.” She wrote that down.

“Okay, then.” Marco glanced at his sheet. “Next in initiative order is—”

“I cast psionic blast as a Level One spell, which would cause additional damage to fiends or the undead. Are they undead goblins?” Tobias asked.

Marco rolled his eyes. “Nope.”

“Then they each suffer three points of damage and do not have the opportunity to make saving throws for the next minute and a half,” Tobias said. “That’s my first spell slot today.”

“Okay.” Marco tipped over one of the goblin pawns. “That one’s dead. Cassie?”

“That one’s threatening Ax?” She pointed at the pawn within the same square as the Smurf figurine.

“Yep.”

She nodded. “Then I smash its head in with my mace.” She rolled. “Eight to hit, eight damage?”

“Oh yeah, you just annihilated that one.”

“Good, good, so now can I mace the one that attacked Rachel?”

“Cool your jets.” Marco held up both hands. “You don’t get to do multiple hulk-smashes in one round until several levels up from here.”

Cassie wilted a little. “Okay. But I want to run over next to that one to be ready to mace it soon.”

“All right, center goblin is going to try and swing his big old greatsword at Cassie as an attack of opportunity…” Marco rolled. “And that’s a miss. Rachel, you’re up.”

“I’m unconscious,” Rachel said.

Marco gave her a blank look. “No you’re not.”

“Yes she is,” Ax said. “You just allowed that goblin— gob-blin? Goo-blin? —to stab her.”

“I did not allow— The dice—” Marco took a deep breath. “Rachel, you only took two points of damage. Go ahead and make a turn.”

“Okay, you clearly said…” Rachel glanced at her own notes. “That the goblin stuck its sword through my upper thigh. And apparently these are pretty big swords. No way in hell that misses the artery, not if I’m only about human-sized at the time. You also said that the goblin has its sword back, which means it pulled the sword out, which means that by now I have definitely lost enough blood to be unconscious. It’s just basic logic.”

Marco opened his mouth halfway. “That’s not how damage functions in this game,” he said at last.

“No, she’s right,” Jake said. “She wouldn’t necessarily be dead from blood loss by now, but on the super-narrow chance she’s still conscious, she’s not going to have the, like, grip strength to be shooting people with arrows or anything. That’s just how getting stabbed works.”

“Actually…” Tobias looked up from where he was sorting his flash cards of wizard spells. “In combat time, each turn is six seconds. So it hasn’t been five minutes of game-time. It’s been less than three seconds.”

“So this goblin managed to stick its sword all the way through me, pull it loose, and then get back into position to make a different attack in less than a second?” Rachel said. “And I don’t need to take a second or two to react to having been stabbed?”

“Yes!” Tobias said.

“This game is not closely aligned with the timing and functions of real combat,” Ax pointed out.

Marco let out a noise somewhere between a sigh and a shriek. “No shit, Sherlock! Can we please just play by the rules?”

“I’m just saying it’s not realistic,” Rachel muttered. “You get run through the leg with a sword, you bleed to death. That’s how it goes.”

“Would you please shoot someone already?” Marco said.

“If you insist.”

At Level Two, Tobias’s gnome wizard joined the School of Divination for exactly one game. “He’s rules-lawyering things that haven’t even happened yet,” Marco cried, throwing out his hands like this was the greatest injustice ever visited upon humanity. At which point Tobias decided that discretion was the better part of valor and switched to the School of Evocation. Marco’s eye stopped twitching.

“No, no, no.” Marco leaned over to look at Jake’s roll. “You add your charisma modifier to your attack roll, and then your strength modifier to your damage roll.”

“So he adds twelve to his roll?” Cassie looked at her own sheet. “I add seventeen to my roll?”

“Modifier. Not the whole stat. Mod-if-i-er.” Marco groaned loudly. “Is Tobias the only one who even tried to read the manual?”

“C’mon, man.” Jake shrugged, grinning. “When have you ever known me to do the assigned reading?”

“I have Tobias here to summarize the manual for me,” Rachel pointed out. “Why bother?”

“I did attempt to read the manual. Man. Well. It was not the most boring human book ever written, but it was very repetitive.” Ax glanced around at all of them. “Not to say that all human books are bad, even if they are all repetitive,” he added quickly. “Take the books of Harry Potter, which are acceptable in addition to being repetitive.”

“‘Acceptable’?” Tobias shook his head. “‘Repetitive’? You, sir, are wounding my entire species — one of my species — Just don’t diss the Potter.”

“There’s no need to call me ‘sir,’ professor,” Ax intoned.

Laughing, Tobias leaned over to bump their shoulders together. “I take it back. I love you, Ax-man. Never change.”

“Anyway,” Cassie said, “we elected Tobias party leader, so he’s the only one who really needs to know how to play, right?”

“‘Elected’ is a pretty strong word for it. The way I remember it, I was like…” Marco put on a deeper voice, “‘Who wants to be party leader?’ and Jake yelled ‘NOT IT’ so loud that he probably startled pigeons in the next county over. And then Tobias was the first one to recover from the shock long enough to volunteer.”

“I didn’t yell it, I said it,” Jake mumbled. “Said it enthusiastically.”

“And you’re wrong. We did nose-goes.” Rachel tapped her own nose to demonstrate. “Tobias lost.”

Ax’s eyes widened. “So you and Cassie covering your noses was a primitive selection procedure in the manner of duck-duck-goose? I thought we were all simply being polite by hiding our hideous human orifices from one another.”

“Anyway,” Tobias said, “as party leader, I’m declaring that we can whine about noses — and bipedalism — at a later time. For now, let’s play.”

“Ah, yes.” Ax looked down at the dice, and then back up at Marco. “Who was attacking whom, again?”

Marco stared around the board, and then back at the dice. “Like I remember that now!”

It was a small miracle that they all kept showing up after that first week. Tobias and Marco were the only ones with both the skill and the enthusiasm to be any good at the game. Cassie and Rachel lacked the necessary motivation: Cassie tended to get lost in long conversations with NPCs and never advanced the plot at all, whereas Rachel was likely to start climbing the walls with impatience after half an hour of sitting still. Ax and Jake were both reasonably enthusiastic but terrible: Jake paid no attention at all to the math, and Ax paid too much. They had one set of dice between the six of them, if one was generous and called rolling a d6 twice the same as rolling a d12. (It wasn’t, but Marco’s and Ax’s attempts to explain this always made everyone else’s eyes glaze over.)

Seriously, though, Marco knew perfectly well why they kept showing up. And it had nothing to do with everyone getting on board with Tobias’s super-geeky idea. They’d tried Dungeons and Dragons, and they hadn’t actually started liking it.

It had nothing to do with the storyline. Or the dice. Or the characters. They weren’t here for swords or goblins. They didn’t drop everything to spend four hours a week in each other’s company because they liked the game.

Duh.

Of course, even their love for each other could be tested, at times, by their sheer incompetence as players.

“We’re still in the undercave?” Jake groaned, looking at the game board. “We’ve been down here for like six weeks!”

“Yeah, ‘cause we’re stuck.” Rachel glared around the table. “Because we keep trying to fight the ooze monster and then almost dying. Because we suck at this game.”

“Still say there should’ve been illithids,” Tobias muttered. “We’re in the cave of the illithids, but instead we’ve got apocalyptic ooze where there isn’t supposed to be any. That’s why we’re stuck.”

Marco sighed into his hands. “For the last time, man, we’re not having any stupid mind flayers in this game. There is a way out, I promise you, if you guys would just stop and figure it out.”

“I stab the ooze?” Cassie suggested.

“You take fourteen acid damage and permanently blunt your sword.” Marco didn’t bother to look up. “Just like last time.”

“Ugh.” Cassie wrote down her new HP. “At least I ruled out repeated stabbing as a way out?”

“Okay, okay.” Jake stared at the game board, yet again failing to take the this map not to scale memo. “We can figure this out. Is it a cave kind of like those caves under Leeran?”

Marco lifted his head, tossing his hair out of his face. “I got schlooped back to Earth before you guys got to see those, remember?”

“They were very beautiful,” Ax said, “and also full of toxic eels. So perhaps Prince Jake’s comparison is apt.”

“The real toxic eel is the friends we made along the way.” Rachel tilted her chair back, picking at her manicure. “Think we should just call it a day?”

“No, no, Jake’s right.” Cassie stared at the board. “I believe in us.”

“It was kinda cool in the Leeran caves, so sorry you missed it,” Jake said to Marco. “I was dead and missed the Battle of Trafalgar, though, so it all balances out?”

“The Battle of Trafalgar was not cool at all.” Marco rolled his eyes. “It was a battle. It was gross and loud and bloody. Is no one going to try anything else?”

“I pull out my rope and my flint, I set the rope on fire, we all die of smoke inhalation,” Rachel drawled. “There, I got us out of the cave.”

“And into the afterlife,” Ax said solemnly. “If, indeed, this game has an afterlife. It was designed by humans, so I assume… Soom. That it must.”

“Look, if we could just fight the mind flayer instead,” Tobias said, “there are clear strategies in place for how to fend off psychic attacks, and even if a few of us end up as mind-witnesses we could still use a handful of different spells—” He swung his copy of the manual around to face Marco, pointing to a spot low on the open page. “If you’ll just look at what the book says…”

Marco slammed the book shut, hard.

Tobias had to yank his hand back to avoid smashed fingers. “Watch it!” he snapped.

“Guys,” Jake said. “Let’s—”

“Rule. Zero.” Marco flattened a hand on top of the closed book. “I’m the DM here, and I get to say that there are no mind flayers and definitely no mind witnesses, because I say so. I’m the Ellimist of this little universe, and you don’t get a counter-argument.”

Rachel snorted loudly. “Bad comparison. Tobias argues with the real Ellimist all the time.”

“Only when he’s doing something stupid.” Tobias was looking at Marco, not at her. “Or breaking the rules of his own game.”

“Tobias…” Jake inhaled slowly, massaging the bridge of his nose. “It’s just a game, okay? Marco… We are kinda stuck, dude, no offense. Couldn’t we at least try to fight whatever it is Tobias wants, see if that gets us out of here?”

Marco pushed to his feet, face flushed. “I’m running this game, because you people decided I should. And I don’t give a fuck how much Bird-Boy complains, this game is not going to involve anyone getting psychically mind-controlled. It will not feature alien tadpoles that crawl inside people’s brains and take over their bodies.” He swept a hand across the board. “There will be no illithids, there will be no brain golems, there will be no controllers—”

Marco snapped his mouth shut.

There was a long silence. Tobias stared at the floor.

“Mind-witnesses,” Marco said at last. “I meant mind-witnesses.”

THUNK.

Figurines and dice scattered everywhere. The play-dough lump of ooze flattened underneath the second game board Cassie had just dropped on top of the first.

“Anyway,” she said, giving everyone an embarrassed smile. “How about we switch to Monopoly for a while?”

“I call being the little dog piece,” Rachel said, pulling the box open.

“I’m sorry,” Tobias whispered to Marco, as Ax began clattering through the pieces and asking Jake questions. “I didn’t mean…”

“Yeah.” Marco pulled the bank toward him and counting out notes. “Same here, man. Uh, y’know. Sorry I…”

“We’re cool. We’re cool?”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

“Does this highly successful roll mean I have first chance to stab Income Tax with my—” Ax squinted at his game piece “—car? So I’ll be attempting to inflict damage on Income Tax by running it over?”

“Many have tried that strategy,” Rachel intoned. “None have succeeded so far.”

“You know that your beloved manual lists exactly the same stats for hawks, eagles, and owls, right?” Marco asked, grinning evilly.

“What? No.” Tobias frantically flipped toward the back of the book.

“Anyway, is he right?” Cassie asked as Tobias searched. “Are we all supposed to be dead right now?”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Marco said. “Yes, the explosion would have done a lot of damage to all of you—”

“Thanks, Jake,” Rachel snarked.

Jake sighed loudly. “How was I supposed to know you had to throw the hand grenade after you pulled the pin?”

“You mean the part where Ax and Tobias were both yelling ‘toss it, toss it,’ and you were like ‘no, I’m gonna do an investigation check first’?” she said. “And then we all died?”

“Actually, I believe Cassie was raging at the time when the ceiling fell on us all,” Ax said. “Therefore, her damage would be halved.”

“Hell yeah!” Cassie laughed. “So it’s just…” She peered at Marco’s roll and winced. “Everyone else… in the entire party… who automatically failed a death check. Right, Tobias?”

“No,” Marco said loudly, “because Jake cast Teleportation Circle and got you all out of there before the ceiling fell.”

“But Tobias believes that that would be allowing too many actions on a single turn. Uurn. Earn,” Ax said. “And that Jake wouldn’t have time to set up the circle even if he did have a bonus action left.”

“For fuck’s sake, do you want to end on a total party kill?” Marco demanded.

Rachel smiled sweetly. “It’s not a TPK if Cassie’s still alive.”

Marco rolled his eyes. “Oh, in that case—”

“Oh my god, you’re right!” Tobias sounded outraged.

“Am I dead?” Rachel pouted. “Just when this stupid game was starting to grow on me.”

“No, not that.” Tobias stabbed a finger on the page. “It says right here. ‘For hawk, see: eagle.’ It fucking classifies hawks as a fucking subspecies of eagle!”

“What were you just saying about us following the manual at the expense of our lives?” Marco said smugly.

Tobias stared in betrayed horror at the page for another second. And then he tossed the entire book clear over his shoulder and out of the room. It clattered loudly in the hall.

“So as I was saying, Jake cast Teleportation Circle,” Marco said. “And teleported you all out of there.”

“So we’re… not dead?” Cassie asked.

“Given the nature of teleportation, perhaps we are both dead and not, existing in the gap between states,” Ax said. “Like when our consciousness was trapped in z-space, and yet our matter remained on Earth. Or we exist in multiple universes at once, some in which we have died and some in which we yet live.”

“Yeah, cool, Schrödinger’s party,” Rachel said. “Blah, blah. Anyway, I’m gonna punch Jake in the arm for being a dumbass. In-game and out-of-game.”

“Good luck with that.” Marco cackled his evil DM cackle. “The only universe I care about is the one where the whole lot of you give me an initiative roll. Because I didn’t say Jake teleported you to a safe location, just a different one.”

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misscrawfords · 3 years

Note

Top 5... Comfort reads.

So, this is quite difficult for me to be specific about because I very rarely re-read books. (Or rewatch films.) But let's try!

1. Agatha Christie. The exception to the rule. I re-read Agatha Christie all the time; she wrote so many books that I can just keep cycling through them whenever I need a comfort read. This usually happens at the beginning of holidays when I'm pretty brain dead.

2. Other detective books. You might think I'm a romance reader but I'm really not. My comfort genre is cosy, often historical crime novels. I'm a fan of Lindsey Davis (though recently I'm finding her Flavia Albia books a bit tired), Elizabeth Peters (though she's quite hard to get hold of these days) and I'm really looking forward to reading more Perveen Mistry mysteries. A new one was published in June and I've not got it yet. Very promising series. Suzette Hill's novels are extremely easy reads but I'm fond of them. And towering over them all, Dorothy L Sayers, though they're not always exactly "comfort reads". I'm not sure anyone would describe Gaudy Night as "comforting" exactly, even if it is one of the greatest novels ever written.

3. Harry Potter fanfiction. Yes, you read that right. Sometimes, if I just want to feel nostalgic, what I really want is to sink back into the wizarding world that I inhabited as a teenager. Not the canon books (see above re re-reading and also JKR is not actually an amazing writer) but the universe. I go on AO3 and find a 50 chapter epic Dramione fic and it's just extremely soothing to me.

4. Something purely comic. Think Cold Comfort Farm or PG Wodehouse. Usually I turn to these books when I need comfort for romantic disappointment. Or sometimes my Tintin collection for similar reasons.

5. A non-fiction book about literature or history. Sometimes fiction can seem too on-the-nose and I want to deal in facts and detached scholarship. That can be very soothing.

Bonus 6: The Bible. Sometimes in deep distress and when I don't know where to turn to at all, I get out the King James Bible and read some Psalms. If nothing else, the elegant language can be very comforting.

Ask me my Top 5 Anything

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camelliacats · 3 years

Text

Waking Up When You Want To

Another oneshot, done for a forum exchange.

Fic: "Waking Up When You Want To" [FFN] [AO3]

Pairings/Characters: eventual Oliver Wood/Harry Potter, Oliver's parents, & Sirius Black, with a cameo from the Weasley twins & Flitwick, & mentions of others

Rating: K+

Words: ~6,980

Additional info: romance, slash, AU fic, Harry's era, 3rd person POV

Summary: Someone, after all, had to teach Harry how to be normal. Or, Oliver comes to know a pair of eyes very well.

The first time Oliver met Harry, he was blown away. Granted, most everyone was. This was the kid who'd killed You-Know-Who.

Still, those green eyes were so innocent.

"Well, Harry, shall I teach you everything about Quidditch?"

That gaping mouth had been all the encouragement Oliver had needed.

Over the course of three years and through three attempts on his life by followers who wished to resurrect He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, Harry had demonstrated that he was much more than a wizard. He'd accomplished so much, had done much more in his life so far than any person would ever do in their entire lifetime.

And, yet, all Oliver could think was that, "At least I'm leaving Gryffindor in capable hands," and he thought winning the Cup before graduating was his own greatest achievement.

Then Harry had said, before the students dispersed and the seventh years left for good, "Oliver?"

They were almost to the trains, and Oliver was surprised Harry had time for him. The kid had looked to have a lot on his mind lately. No wonder—his godfather had been vindicated, and Harry had a new option in life. Still, Oliver had all the time in the world for the best Seeker he'd seen since Charlie. "What's up, Harry?"

"I was wondering… Could I get some more pointers on Quidditch and stuff?"

"Ah…that's a bit of an odd request…"

"No, I just— I mean, Ron knows loads about these things, since he's into it. Chudley Cannons and all that…"

Maybe it was a trick of the sunlight, but Oliver thought he detected a trace of uneasiness, of little confidence in his eyes. He gave Harry an easy smile. "It's no problem, Harry."

Harry seemed ready to exhale a sigh of relief, but he didn't. Instead, he grinned back, feigning the confidence Oliver had only seen in him on the pitch so far. Ah. The Boy-Who-Lived was trying to grow up. "I'll owl you, yeah?"

"'Course. Hey, I hope you have a nice summer, Harry." And he meant it.

Sad to say, Harry was in the back of his mind that summer. After a grueling June of training and practice, and a July full of tryouts and rejections, August came.

And, with it, an invitation from Puddlemere arrived.

Oliver's parents were ecstatic. "I'll paint the whole house blue and yellow!" his father exclaimed.

"Christmas cards this year—shall we do Puddlemere-themed ones?" his mother asked, her eyes lit with excitement.

(In all honesty, his parents seemed more amazed by it than Oliver was. Hmm. Was that an insult?)

Still, his father was happy. "You'd never spoken much about what you'd do after school, besides play Quidditch," he told his son in early August. "Truth be told, your mother and I were a little worried."

Oliver frowned at his father. It was a small annoyance in the back of his mind that he might look like him someday, bearded and a little rounder than he'd want. "I was always going to play Quidditch."

"Yes, yes… Well, a lot of people think that…" His father trailed off, realizing he was getting further from his point than he wanted. "But enough about that. How about we go see a game?"

"Really?" the Gryffindor asked.

"Yes, all three of us."

"Even Mum? But she's never been very keen on watching matches."

"Oh, she'll want to see this one." And his father pulled from his pocket three tickets for the 1994 Quidditch World Cup.

Oliver gaped at him. "But this is—"

His father grinned. "A small reward for working so hard, Oliver." The older wizard shrugged. "Besides, this year it's Ireland versus Bulgaria, but maybe someday we'll go see a match that's England versus…anyone."

The teen smirked. "You'll only need two tickets for that, I hope," Oliver remarked.

"That's the idea. Make it onto the national team and get in yourself, son. After all, you're an adult now."

They laughed together, and it was nice. It was nice, even despite the niggling feeling in the back of Oliver's mind that he was forgetting something…

Of course, he understood why he'd had that feeling when he got to the Cup and spied the Weasley twins.

"Oi, you two!" he said to Fred and George—er, George and Fred…well, who ever really knew which one was on which side? (Times like these, Oliver wished for Angelina's expertise on that matter.)

The twins turned and flanked Oliver on either side. "Oi yourself, Wood," the twin on the right said.

"It's not very nice to holler at people in crowds," the other stated.

"We're classy gents," they said in unison.

Oliver laughed in spite of himself. "Nice to see you, too. I didn't know you were coming to this."

"Sort of a last-minute thing," the one on the right mentioned. (Oliver decided he was Fred since he insisted on taking the lead.)

"We even picked up Harry and Hermione for Ron," George informed him.

"Wee little friends to keep wee ickle Ronniekins entertained," they snickered.

"Plus Ginny's a given," Fred added.

Oliver stopped walking, which was quite a feat since the twins had been leaning on him and they'd kept going. Ah, right, Harry. He felt like an idiot. He'd promised to communicate with him over the summer, but it had completely slipped his mind.

As the twins wandered off, talking about making some bet, Oliver turned back to his family's tent, hoping he'd see Harry at some point so that he could apologize in person. At least he might make things a little more right by telling him the good news about Puddlemere.

As luck would have it, though, Oliver bumped into Harry almost literally a few yards from the tent. "Oh, Harry! Long time, no see," Oliver blurted.

"Good to see you, too, Oliver." Somehow, Harry looked out of place and yet right at home at the same time here at the World Cup. It was easy to forget, Oliver realized, that Harry had not grown up around all of this.

"Fred and George told me they grabbed you and Hermione. Isn't this exciting? The World Cup! Who're you supporting?"

Harry held up the scarf zipped into his sweatshirt. "Ireland, from what I know of them. Though Ron's a big Krum fan."

Absentmindedly, Oliver noted that the green of the Ireland scarf wasn't the same green as the Seeker's eyes. But he shook himself free of that thought. "Yeah, Ireland's a great team."

The younger boy looked around him. "Who're you here with?"

"Oliver?" Mrs. Wood called at the perfect moment.

"Ah, my parents…" Oliver ducked his head sheepishly as his parents appeared behind him. "Um, Harry, this is my mother and father."

Luckily, the greetings were short and sweet. Oliver's parents did their best not to embarrass him, though they came close when they recognized Harry's infamous scar. Still, they gave Oliver a moment to walk with his former teammate.

"Sorry about them," the older boy said to drum up conversation again.

"Why? They're fantastic," Harry confessed.

Oliver glanced down and frowned. Good Godric, he was an idiot… Of course Harry would like Oliver's parents. Just because Harry had Sirius now didn't mean he didn't miss his parents. "By the way," Oliver said, trying to lift Harry's mood, "all that practice has finally paid off."

"Yeah?"

"Yep. You're looking at the new reserve Keeper for Puddlemere United."

Harry nodded appreciatively. "That's brilliant, Oliver. Honestly." His expression was sincere. "After having practiced under you for three years…I'm not surprised you made it."

"Yes, well, I might only be a reserve, but I plan on giving my motivational speeches whenever we have a game, since they did Gryffindor well. I mean, we eventually won the Quidditch Cup, didn't we? …Potter, are you laughing at your former Captain?"

No matter how hard Harry tried to hide it, his shoulders shook, and he couldn't quite keep his face straight. "I said nothing whatsoever, Wood."

Oliver's face grew warm from embarrassment. "Yeah, yeah…" He scratched the back of his head. He knew it was time to head back to his parents, so he had maybe another minute or two to spare for Harry. "By the way, sorry about no post this summer."

"No, the fault's mine. I sort of got caught up watching the drama unfold as my godfather popped another vein in my uncle's neck while telling him that I'd be in his care now."

"Everything all right, then?"

Harry shrugged. "More or less. Sirius' home is becoming home, though the house-elf, Kreacher, is someone I could probably live without… Ah, I should get back to Ron and the others before Hermione sends out a search party." He held his hand out and shook Oliver's hand. "Congrats on Puddlemere, Oliver. I'll owl you soon, promise."

"It's no problem, Harry, really. And maybe I'll be able to send some tickets to the team in the future, have everyone learn some new tricks."

"That'd be nice." Harry tipped his head then and left, and the night just became another festive one for Oliver.

Well, it wasn't all that festive when Death Eaters crashed the party and sent everyone fleeing.

As most of the fans had, the Woods had abandoned their tent almost immediately. Oliver did pause to worry about Harry—and the twins and the others, of course—but he had no time to go looking for any of them. His parents dragged him along and forced him into Side-Along Apparition. He would have to learn later that several Death Eaters cornered Harry and his friends and that the Ministry didn't quite understand things, not yet.

Oliver did end up sending an owl to Harry first, shortly after the scene at the World Cup:

Harry—

Are you all right? The Prophet's been going on about what happened, and my father heard from a friend who'd witnessed Ministry officials botch things. Did they really point their wands at you?

—Oliver

A response did not come immediately. Not until after the school year began and the Gryffindors had a few Quidditch practices under their belts with Angelina as Captain did Oliver finally hear from him.

Oliver—

I'm fine. We were all unhurt. The Ministry thought I'd cast the Dark Mark in the sky, but it's fine. My name was cleared, though I confess I'd like not to deal with the Ministry anymore.

There was a drop of ink on the page after the paragraph, indicating…hesitation, Oliver assumed. Which made sense, as the letter continued.

So, learn anything useful from the Ireland–Bulgaria match? I'm not sure I caught all the action, though watching Krum play did get me fired up to play this year.

—Harry

It wasn't much comfort, but Oliver breathed a sigh of relief. He'd hated the thought that, as their senior, he'd left them to fight on their own. But…but…

Oliver sighed and stared at the items in his room, most of which were Quidditch-related. If he were being frank, he'd admit that he was only a real fighter on the pitch. Percy and McGonagall had long ago and several times pointed out that he had a one-track mind: the Quidditch track.

Still, if that were the case, then Oliver wouldn't be talking about things other than Quidditch with Harry, right?

And, as it turned out, that really wasn't the case. The Triwizard Tournament came to Hogwarts, and, though the letters were spotty and infrequent, Harry came to tell Oliver more and more of the things he did off the pitch.

Not to mention that Quidditch has been rendered pointless, Harry wrote, with the tournament. Surprisingly, Krum is Durmstrang's champion. Oh, and do you remember Cedric Diggory? He's Hogwarts'…and so am I.

Oliver…didn't know how to react to that. He compartmentalized so that he fretted a bit about those on-goings when not at practice, but he was confused. Hadn't the tournament always been one student from each of the three schools? So two Hogwarts students didn't make any sense…

At least Harry told him about the dragons. He had a good plan, to Summon his broom and to utilize his flying skills.

Charlie never mentioned if it was possible to out-fly a dragon, Oliver wrote, but I reckon if someone has a chance, it's you, Harry.

Oliver didn't get a response to that letter, but he heard the good news from Angelina and Katie. Harry had bested the dragon and rather spectacularly. Imagining the feat put a smile on the Keeper's face.

As the school year dragged on for Harry and blurred from one match into another for Oliver, their communication remained fairly erratic. It surprised Oliver to get a short missive from Harry before Christmas, though, griping about the Yule Ball. Oliver commented, It'll probably look gorgeous in the castle, though.

And Harry? The castle's one thing. But witches are scary when it's time to dress up and dance.

Oliver somewhat understood his pain. Several times before matches, he'd seen Angelina, Katie, and Alicia primp to no avail, since flying always messed up their hair. But he'd stopped trying to stop them after the second time they'd hexed him off his broom. It hadn't been a pretty sight. Speaking of sights…

The Keeper wondered how odd it would be for him to visit his alma mater. He still lived at home and split his time between there and Puddlemere's practices, and he'd grown bored. A part of Oliver tempted him with the idea to visit Harry, even if only for a change of pace. Besides, he convinced himself, surely he was beginning to forget his friends' faces.

And, yet, he had left Hogwarts alone throughout two tasks and the ball. Still, Oliver hadn't shaken the idea, and he did visit in late spring, before the third task commenced.

The grounds were as lush as he recalled…and Oliver blushed. As he entered through the front door, to seek permission from McGonagall if not Dumbledore to visit, Oliver internally groaned. Would anyone miss him? Had anyone been missing him? Perhaps Angelina and Alicia. Maybe Katie and Lee. The twins… And Percy—ah, no. He'd graduated, too, and Oliver hadn't heard from his roommate for a long while, despite spotting him in passing a few times at the World Cup…

Oliver's mind wandered, and Flitwick spotted him. "Mr. Wood!" the little Charms professor squeaked. "To what pleasure do we owe this visit?"

"Ah, Professor Flitwick… It's nice to see you. I suppose I was feeling nostalgic." The tall boy grinned wanly.

Flitwick cocked his head to one side. "That's lovely. It's not against the rules, you know. I do wish more of our former students would visit." He pointed, though not rudely, up at Oliver. "Do let Professor Dumbledore know you're wandering the campus, however."

"Of course, professor."

"Good day, Mr. Wood."

"The same to you, professor."

Flitwick toddled off behind Oliver, his footsteps echoing in the rather empty corridor. Oliver himself continued forward, wondering if perhaps he'd come not during a break but during classes, which defeated his purpose.

He rounded the corner, saw two people up ahead, and ducked back behind the corner. When he peeked around again, he saw they were still there…"they" being Harry and Diggory.

It wasn't an unusual picture, as they were both Quidditch players. And yet…Harry was smiling. Comfortably. Maybe he'd just been laughing as well, judging by his soft expression. Diggory, too, looked to be enjoying Harry's company as they stopped to chat.

Oliver frowned at himself. Why the hell was he hiding? There was nothing strange about seeing them…although Oliver was curious. Harry had mentioned Diggory just a few times in their letters, as Diggory had sort of taken Harry's side in the ensuing chaos of Hogwarts having two champions. Diggory had been an ally, Harry had told Oliver.

The Keeper sighed. He wished that Diggory weren't that older figure for Harry to look up to—Oliver had begun fancying the idea that he himself was that figure for Harry. Which had been nice, since everyone else on the Gryffindor team had never taken Oliver seriously at all. Harry didn't, either, but he could on occasion.

He was too caught up in his thoughts, so much so that he didn't notice when Harry and Diggory parted ways, and Harry came his way.

"Oliver?"

Harry's voice spooked him, and Oliver jolted. Agile and light on his feet—Harry really was a Seeker. "H-Harry," Oliver stuttered.

"What're you doing here?" No joy or confusion on his face, just curiosity.

"I, uh… I wanted to see Hogwarts…"

"Lonely?"

Harry always went on about Hermione, but he was fairly perceptive himself. "No," Oliver fibbed. He fell into step with the younger lad.

"I'm surprised to find you walking around the castle like this," Harry continued, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. "Everything all right at home?"

"Oh, definitely. And Puddlemere's been great, too." Oliver fidgeted before shoving his hands into his pockets. "How're the houseguests?"

The Boy-Who-Lived shrugged. "Not too bad. I don't deal with them that much, although it's amusing to watch Ron fawn over Fleur Delacour while Krum chases after Hermione."

"No joke?"

"No joke."

The brunet wizard stroked his chin. "What about Diggory?" He paused, wondering if Harry might guess he'd seen them. Though that wasn't bad, right? They hadn't been doing anything for Oliver to witness.

"Everyone loves him and hates me," Harry said with half a smile. "And, yet, he still insists on being nice to me. It's almost as though I'm rubbing everyone's nose in it that way," he added with a light chuckle.

Oliver liked the sound, and he chuckled a bit, too. "Must be tough, not having any Quidditch this year… Wait, don't you have class?"

"I could skip one History of Magic, I'm sure," Harry answered. "And I do miss Quidditch. I'd much rather fly after the Snitch instead of risking my life for these stupid tasks." He stopped and looked up at Oliver. "I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but I really don't want to be one of the champions."

They stood by the moving stairs, and, while the stairs were moving, no one else was around. Oliver pushed his questions about Diggory to the back of his brain and reached up, hesitantly. Then he went for it and ruffled Harry's hair, looking away. "Don't say that, Harry," he told his underclassman. "You're a great wizard and a hell of a Quidditch player."

Harry snorted and gently pushed Oliver's hand away. "Cedric said something along those lines, too, not that long ago."

Oliver's eye twitched, but he didn't understand why. "Well, I should let you take your time moseying to Binns' class," the older male stated suddenly.

Harry's face dropped. "I thought you were visiting?"

"Ah, I've seen what I wanted to," Oliver said, which wasn't entirely false. He forced a smile. "I'll see you around, Harry."

As he walked away, Harry called after him. "Come see the final task, will you?"

Oliver didn't trust his voice. He raised a hand over his shoulder, neither confirming nor denying his presence for the third task.

For a short while, Oliver puzzled over how he'd acted and reacted when he'd seen Harry. Maybe he'd just been a bit jealous of Diggory for…being a big brother in Oliver's absence?

That had to be it. Oliver was sure of it. And, with that decided, Oliver seriously considered going back to Scotland to cheer Harry on for the final task.

But, when the time came, Puddlemere was forced into several late-night practices after suffering a humiliating loss to Wigtown. The reserve Keeper was worked nearly to the bone like the rest of his teammates, and he could barely lift a quill to parchment when he got home, an apology for Harry on the tip of his tongue. Yet exhaustion took him, and he slept the night and much of the next day away.

Then, of course, the news was everywhere.

The Triwizard Tournament, a disaster. Champions hexed, cursed—and killed. Harry, deemed insane. The Death Eaters were gaining numbers once more.

Oliver…didn't know what to do or how to react. A little time passed, but the end of the summer was still far off. Eventually, he wrote something:

May I see you? —O

It was a sentence that fit on three lengthwise inches of parchment. It was hardly worth the owl's energy, perhaps, but Oliver felt it was all he could do. When not on the pitch, Oliver Wood felt ridiculously useless, and it didn't help him to recall those brief moments when he'd seen Harry's eyes waver over the years.

Luckily, he might not prove to be so useless after all, for, the next thing he knew, Harry told him how to get to Sirius' house. The note was only directions, but Oliver had a feeling it was the most Harry had spoken to anyone in weeks.

It was mid-July when Oliver flew to London, in search of Twelve Grimmauld Place. He got lost on the street when he looked several times for Number Twelve, but Harry appeared on the steps when Oliver blinked, and he realized there must've been enchantments on the townhouse.

Harry looked the worst Oliver had ever seen him. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he looked thinner than when Oliver had last seen him. Even his normally messy hair seemed to droop. But, while Oliver saw sadness on that pale face, he could recognize anger when he saw it.

"No, I'm not all right," Harry confessed when the older boy approached. "But that's about as much as I want to say right now."

Oliver nodded, understanding that he didn't need to speak yet.

"Let's walk," Harry said, and he came down the steps and began walking up the street, leaving Oliver to jog after him. After the first block, Harry exhaled and relaxed his shoulders. "Sorry," he began. "It's just—after all that happened, this summer hasn't been so great." He pursed his lips. "I've not even heard from Ron or Hermione."

The Keeper blinked. "Strange."

"I've not seen them, either. It's frustrating." He glanced up at Oliver. His look was both apologetic and thankful. "I…rather needed a friend right now."

Oliver's chest tightened, and he nodded. "I'm glad you were all right with me."

Harry managed a snicker. "Don't put yourself down, Oliver. I don't think I could've played for you if I didn't like you, and I'd like to think teammates can be friends, too."

The Keeper fought a stupid grin from appearing on his face. "Well, Houses, too. I mean, I'll die still hating Flint, and I have to admit that Chang was a good player, but Diggory wasn't too—" Oliver choked, realizing what he was saying. "…wasn't too bad," he finished weakly.

His companion stared at the ground as they walked. Six, seven minutes of silence passed.

"I'm sorry, Harry. The only thing I'm not rubbish at is being a Keeper."

Still Harry said nothing for another five minutes. And then— "No one seems to get it. He…his name was Cedric, and he was a good friend as well as a good Seeker."

To make the awkward moment worse, Oliver thought Harry was on the verge of tears. Neither of them mentioned it.

"It's not safe anymore," Harry said at last when they turned around and headed back towards Grimmauld Place.

"When has it ever been?" Oliver glanced down at Harry. "Or did you not attend Hogwarts the past few years?"

Harry laughed darkly. "Point taken. At least Voldemort's dead—though that didn't stop his followers from trying to resurrect him recently."

Oliver's eyes widened in response.

"Yeah. That's the story that the Ministry doesn't want me sharing. He's not back, but his followers are, in large numbers. I know for sure that one of them is Malfoy's dad, too, but the Ministry doesn't want to believe me. They think they just have some bad eggs on their hands for the Hit Wizards to take care of." Harry shook his head. "And Pettigrew…I already told Sirius…"

Whatever that meant, Oliver didn't know. And he also didn't know if he preferred an angry Harry over a depressed one. He clenched his fists and subsequently relaxed them, patting Harry on the back. "You need to fly, my friend."

The remark caught Harry by surprise, and some color returned to his cheeks. "Oliver, we're right in the heart of Muggle living—"

"Then let's get away from the Muggles for a moment." He tugged on Harry's arm. "C'mon."

"I don't even have my broom on me, just my wand—"

"So live a little crazy and go for a ride with me." Oliver squashed the mental images of a pretty witch riding behind him instead, as he was determined to do this.

It did take some pushing, but, once they'd walked nearly out of the city, Oliver mounted his broom and waited for Harry to hop on. He did, and the two rose into the early evening sky.

They were quiet for the whole three minutes they flew, but Oliver sensed Harry lighten up. At first, his arms around Oliver's chest and waist had been tense, but then they fidgeted and turned awkward when Oliver flew slower. At least his mind seemed to go elsewhere for the moment.

When they landed, they remained quiet. Oliver was breathing hard from the brief flight, but he still walked the entire way back to Harry's godfather's place.

"We'll have to do this again sometime," Oliver joked as Harry went up to the door.

Harry snorted at him. "Maybe, maybe not."

"See you, Harry." He turned to go.

"Oliver, wait. Aren't you going to come in?"

The older boy blinked. "Huh?"

"You came all the way here. You could eat with us. I'm sure Sirius wouldn't mind."

"I, uh…"

Harry smirked. That smirk coupled with those green eyes had occasionally put Oliver in mind of a Slytherin…but he was glad to have shared Gryffindor with Harry, even if they hadn't been in the same year. "You hadn't thought that far ahead, had you?"

Oliver ducked his head, hiding his red cheeks as he walked in after Harry. "Shut up… I'm a good strategist—"

"On the field, I know, I know," Harry said with a laugh. Unbeknownst to Oliver, it was the first Harry had laughed for real in a month.

Throughout the summer, Oliver visited Grimmauld Place, often. To his shock, he liked Sirius Black; Sirius was nothing as the old stories had described him, and he was more of a doting father than caring godfather when it came to Harry. But Sirius appreciated Oliver coming around and hanging out with Harry between practice and matches.

Sirius gave him a look once in late July, when Harry had left the kitchen. "You know, because…" He hadn't needed to finish.

Oliver nodded. "I know." He did. Still Ron and Hermione hadn't contacted Harry or seen him, and he'd begun to get a little pissed with them, since they were supposed to be Harry's best mates.

"I'm off to Remus'," Sirius announced, as if that were a rare occurrence. It turned out that the two old friends spent a lot of time together, though Oliver had to wonder if they were only catching up on old times. With Ron and Hermione acting strangely and Sirius leaving Grimmauld Place a lot, Oliver would be damned to think that something wasn't up.

"Oh, something definitely is," Harry said when Oliver voiced his opinions. "Now, come on. I've got a few moves to practice, and I need to try them out on you."

Oliver groaned. "I'm beginning to feel like your Quidditch dummy, Harry."

Harry grinned. "It's not my fault all the other Seekers are bigger than me. And you're burly, so it all works out."

Oliver rolled his eyes, but he let Harry do as he pleased.

The remainder of the summer carried on like this. Even Harry's fifteenth birthday, which only Sirius and Oliver celebrated with him. However, as the summer wound down, something stirred, and Oliver couldn't come see Harry as much.

"Oh, um—stuff with Ron and Hermione came up," Harry told him. Something flickered in his eyes again.

Oliver frowned. "You can tell me if you want, Harry."

"No, Oliver, it's—" He furrowed his brow and rubbed the bridge of his nose, beneath his spectacles. "It's nothing," he said with a sigh, trying to sound as though he meant it.

Oliver didn't hassle him. He'd come to learn that Harry would tell him things. In time, but he'd tell him things.

Of course, then Harry's fifth year began, the professor from hell arrived, and the year turned to utter shite.

One thing after another piled up, and Oliver ran out of time to read the dozens of letters Harry sent him on a semi-regular basis. By the time he got to them, guilt washed over him.

She's changing Hogwarts, Harry said in one.

We're teaching ourselves, that's all I can tell you, he said in another.

Her idea of detention is carving words into my hand… But I won't tell Dumbledore. He's got enough to worry about.

and

I kissed Cho Chang. But I don't think I should've.

Furthermore—

A lot of things are happening. I feel as though Quidditch is the last thing on my mind. I wish for its simplicity, though. I miss flying with you.

Worse, yet:

I miss Cedric.

And Oliver regretted his lack of attention most when the school year ended and things began to go up in flames as he read the headlines: MINISTRY BREAK-IN. DEATH EATERS BACK FOR GOOD. IS THERE ANOTHER YOU-KNOW-WHO ON THE RISE?

Suddenly, Puddlemere didn't seem so important with the rumors swirling about Harry.

When the summer arrived, Oliver asked Harry more questions. "What happened? Were you safe? What did you learn? Are you going to be all right in the future?"

Harry barely had time to answer Oliver as he tried to dodge the volleyball that they were calling a Bludger for practice. "We fought Death Eaters in the Ministry. Of course I wasn't safe, but at least Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna had my back! We learned to defend ourselves, is all! And, Oliver! Stop bludgeoning me with questions! You're not my brother or father!"

With both his words and the volleyball, he hit Oliver in the chest, hard. Oliver crash-landed on his broom.

Harry gasped and quickly dismounted. "I'm sorry! I didn't—"

Oliver held up a hand. "No, I know." He locked eyes with Harry. "But I'm your friend, and I do care about you."

Still…saying that… Oliver wondered if it was a lie, calling himself Harry's friend. Because he sure as hell spent more time with him and cared more for him than he believed a friend would or should.

And he could read it in Harry's eyes, too. They weren't friends, not really, but they were much more than captain and player.

"Let's practice again," Harry said, and that was the beginning of Harry refusing to meet Oliver's eyes.

For Oliver…it wasn't a blur. It was a smudge.

It reminded him of those times in Transfiguration when he'd nod off and hastily copy Percy's notes later, only to do a shoddy job and be unable to read them because he'd smudged it all. Blurs, he could sort of make out. Smudges were illegible.

And that's what Harry's sixth year was to him.

From romance (too many girls were after Harry, poor bloke) to pranks (the twins' store was doing well and still their chaos reached Hogwarts) to Dark things (because Oliver agreed with Harry's letters that Malfoy was likely up to something and that Snape couldn't be trusted), it turned into one big smudge between Oliver and Harry.

Harry no longer pestered Oliver about hanging out and playing Quidditch, but he also said nothing more about Cedric. Oliver was fine with the Cedric bit, at least.

Still, Dumbledore…died. Just like that.

It didn't make sense, Death Eaters in the castle and—and—and—

Oliver couldn't wrap his head around it. Harry didn't write to him after the news broke, but Oliver didn't think it needed to be in a letter. This sort of thing had to be talked about in person.

So, that July, Oliver went to Grimmauld Place in search of Harry, only to find that Harry was packing while Sirius was out.

"What the hell are you doing?" Oliver asked softly as Harry pulled on a jacket. Not a cloak. He wanted to be incognito, Oliver surmised.

"I'll be gone for a while," Harry said. And he pushed his way past Oliver, dodging the hand that reached for his arm.

"Harry—" Oliver swallowed the lump in his throat. He wished those green eyes would look at him…

He didn't see him again for a year.

By the next summer, Harry had grown. He looked like a man now, Oliver noted. Maybe battle had done that to him.

Made sense. The Death Eaters had tried to take over Hogwarts, but Harry had thwarted them. He'd killed Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy and…

Oliver shook his head. What did that matter? Maybe this Death Eater business and V…Voldemort nonsense would finally be put to rest…

But even though Oliver had participated in the Battle of Hogwarts and had caught glimpses of Harry and those dazzling green eyes…those eyes still wouldn't meet his.

Oliver tried not to care. After all, they weren't friends, were they?

(But that was only half of it.)

September of the year after next was fairly warm, in Oliver's opinion. The sun shone a lot, and Puddlemere was shaping up nicely. They'd even taken one of the best players from Holyhead last year, so…yeah. Oliver felt as though his life had purpose once more.

Quidditch, ah, Quidditch. Oliver's one and only love.

"The beginning of the season—just sets your blood on fire, right?" Cahir, a reserve Chaser, asked Oliver.

"Definitely," Oliver replied. He pointedly stared elsewhere as Cahir brushed her red hair back, and he caught a glimpse of the emerald ring on her finger.

Merlin, he hated the color green. (Too many tough memories. Not bad…just tough.)

"We're getting a new Seeker, y'know," Cahir told him as they got the equipment out for practice.

"What? That's big news."

"Oh, no, sorry… I meant reserve Seeker." Cahir shrugged. "Though, if his school record's the real deal, then he'll probably be our new one in no time."

"Really? He's that young?" Oliver inspected the Quaffle. "Which school? Hogwarts, right?"

Cahir nodded. "Yeah, his name's—"

"POTTER!" their coach yelled.

Oliver flinched. The coach had to be wrong…or, no, well, "Potter" was a fairly common surname…

But, no, the coach's announcement was for none other than Harry James Potter, and Oliver could feel his breakfast rising in the back of his throat as the raven-haired man walked onto the field in a brand-new, navy Puddlemere United jumper, emblazoned with the signature gold bulrushes.

Cahir whistled. "I didn't think it was him when I saw the name, but…wow. That is the Boy-Who-Lived, right?"

"He's not a boy anymore," Oliver griped, but he couldn't place his annoyance. Or was it anger? Agh…

As if his arrival hadn't been grating enough, Cahir had been right: Harry was less a reserve Seeker and more a first-string player. A part of Oliver was jealous about that, as he'd been playing for years already and still was only a reservist.

But Harry had the talent. And he had the skills. Some of which Oliver had taught him, but still.

Harry still wouldn't meet his eyes, even though it'd been, what, three years or so now?

Although, Oliver had to wonder: How in the world had Harry decided on Quidditch in lieu of Auror training? Harry had dreamt of that before, especially with each passing year that he had survived.

Oliver's curiosity won out over everything else, though, and he began trailing Harry like a needy puppy, hungry for answers. Things went on like this for months, until winter was very nearly over.

And Harry was not that patient a person.

"What, Oliver?!" he barked at his former Captain by the end of February. Despite Harry's skills, he was still a fresh face, and fresh faces, like Oliver, had to clean up after practice whenever the coach deemed so.

"I, uh…," the brunet said eloquently.

"Do you need something?" Harry asked, his tone calmer this time. It reminded Oliver of years ago, when Harry would ask him simply about Quidditch. Oliver had always liked those moments, with nothing but him, Harry, and the game in mind.

"…not really," Oliver mumbled.

Harry exhaled. "Then finish putting things away and hit the showers. I'm going on ahead."

Oliver dumbly nodded, but he hurried through his tasks, and, by the time he left the pitch, he could see Harry walking away. He jogged to catch up with him—ah, also like old times.

And, as before, they walked for a while in silence. Eventually Harry spoke up. "I apologize for my behavior, but…we're not kids anymore."

"I know," the Keeper remarked.

"A lot has changed since…the battle."

Oliver waited. Harry would tell him.

It took a few more minutes, but Harry sighed. "I couldn't stand it anymore, you know? The Dark Arts and the villains and the risks and the loss…" His voice was hard. "I—I couldn't become an Auror. Not after all I've seen and dealt with. Even when I was journeying with Ron and Hermione, learning the Death Eaters' plans…"

Ah, so that's what had happened then. A tiny part of Oliver tried to ignore the fact that Ron and Hermione had gotten to spend that time with Harry…that would just be petty, to be jealous of that situation…

"And, then, coming back, I think everyone had expectations of me." Harry sighed and tilted his head up to look at the nighttime sky. The moonlight reflected off his glasses. "I decided I loved Quidditch. It's perfectly normal, isn't it?"

Oliver smiled, watching those eyes. There actually wasn't any more self-doubt in there anymore… No, that gaze…it was almost content, almost. "'Normal' is a rather nice word."

"I s'pose so. It, and Quidditch—it means I can do what I want. Like, stay up late and sleep in—"

"So long as you don't miss practice," Oliver corrected.

"Quidditch nut," Harry teased.

Oliver shrugged. "Guilty as charged." He took a breath. "Harry…do you dislike me?"

Harry gaped at him. "Why are you…?"

"There are a billion reasons. Do I really have to point them all out?" He didn't want to. He didn't want to mention Harry's favor of Cedric over Oliver. He didn't want to mention not even looking at each other for years. He didn't want to mention not being friends.

"Oliver, I told you that I couldn't play for you if I disliked you," Harry said quietly.

"But, if I recall correctly, I once asked if I should teach you everything about Quidditch. Well, I must've. You've gotten here, to Puddlemere. You don't need me anymore, so you don't need to like or dislike me." Merlin, what was he saying? He didn't mean to show himself in a poor light, but… Agh! This was infuriating. He just wanted to be able to look Harry in the eye again, at least like equals.

…oh.

Oliver blinked. It slowly dawned on him, what he wanted. But he had no courage to voice it aloud. Maybe if this were a pitch…oh, Godric, no, he could never voice this on a pitch, either…

"Oliver."

The brunet turned. Harry had stopped with him under a lamppost. Even though the light was a horrific yellow, those green eyes were greener than ever—

—and they were finally looking at him.

Oliver shut his gaping mouth.

Harry frowned. "I joined Puddlemere because it's a good team, and I wouldn't have joined it if I disliked you. I want to play with you again, Oliver. I want us to talk again. I want to be—be friends again," he continued, stumbling over "friends." His cheeks darkened with color. "There are some people I can't forget—"

Internally, Oliver winced. Diggory's face flashed in his mind.

"—but I'd like to think that, with time, I'll make enough good memories to replace the sad ones. I'd like to make more memories with you."

If he'd been playing, Oliver felt as though he could've blocked five goals at once.

"And the team, of course," Harry added hastily. He ducked his head and resumed walking, forcing Oliver to keep up with him.

"That's fine, Harry," the taller wizard said. Oliver ruffled his hair, much to Harry's chagrin. But, no matter how much Harry swatted at him, Oliver couldn't resist. "Hey…," he began as they slowed and Oliver realized Harry would probably Disapparate soon. "Harry, are you done running?"

"Running? Of course." Harry looked at him as though it were such a simple question. "I saved the world, didn't I?" he mumbled a tad darkly.

"Are you going to look me in the eye from now on?"

Harry grumbled. "Of course! That's a ridiculous question, and—" He grabbed Oliver's hand and tugged it free of his hair. "Didn't I say we weren't kids anymore?"

Oliver laughed. "You're right." They took a few more steps. "Hey, Harry? Do you like me?"

Miraculously, the Boy-Who-Lived spluttered and let go of Oliver's hand as though it were fire. "Goodnight, Oliver. See you at tomorrow's practice!" And then he Disapparated.

Yet, somehow, Oliver felt that was only the beginning. And that it was about time for him to have an interest in something other than Quidditch… (Oh, who was he kidding? He already did.)

As I write this, it's almost one in the morning…and I'm tired. SORRY for the OOC-ness of…like, everyone… I'd like to think I did okay with Oliver and that Harry wasn't too bad, but they really fought me in this fic, Harry more so… And, yes, that was a hint of HarryCedric, because, the more I wrote, the more I was intrigued by both HarryOliver and HarryCedric (and the more I wished for Harry to get jealous if Oliver were to mention Percy, but maybe that'll be a separate fic). Within the scope of this fic, though, I think the ending was right. It was a long time before their beginning…other stuff can come later. Plus, boys will be boys, and they can be slow. ;P But it was fun to draw them in uniform for the cover! :D Hope you enjoyed it, HPSL! Dx This was a toughie for me!

Thanks for reading, and feel free to leave an anon/unsigned review via the FFN link or comment via the AO3 link at the top of the post, especially if you enjoyed this!

~mew

2017 note: Omg. XD Coming back to this fic, 3 yrs later, I'm…astounded. It's actually far better than my 2014 A/N gave me credit for. XD I think going the AU route rly worked out well for this fic, and Oliver… Not only does Quidditch make everything better (even Harry, who's not my fav), but OLIVER. WOOD. He makes EVERYTHING better. XD I think I've just realized he's one of my fav charries to write… :O Also, kudos to Sirius for being alive…and implied Wolfstar/Remmius. B3 I still think this oneshot reeks of sequel, tho, no? XD

#hp #harry potter #olivarry #oliver wood #harry himself #<7500 #romance #slash #au fic #rated: PG #trio era #3rd POV

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