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florenceafternoon · 6 months

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━。゜✿ jily fic recommendations ✿ ゜。━

These fics are set in the wizarding world but aren’t necessarily canon complaints.

For reference, anything in italics is taken from the summaries on ao3.

I ain’t missing you at all (requires an ao3 account) by @blitheringmcgonagall

Set post first wizarding war. "Lily Evans disappeared just when the war with Voldemort ended. Nobody knows why she left. James Potter doesn't care. He hasn't missed her at all."

It reads like a character study. All of the repressed emotions are so well-portrayed that I could picture all their facial expressions and body language. The dynamic between Lily and the marauders really illustrated how she wasn't just James' girlfriend - she was their friend too. I just wanted to give them all a hug.

Up In Arms by @mppmaraudergirl

When Lily jokingly tells her owl to deliver a letter to "the love of her life", i.e. Marlene McKinnon, her owl misinterprets the directive and, to her horror, her ode to James Potter’s arms lands squarely in his lap.

The banter in this one is so good that it made my friend fall back in love with jily's dynamic and read fics again

Evergreen and Pine by @tinyluminaryzombie

Lily Evans is stuck in a closet with Sirius. All Sirius wants to talk about is exactly what she's trying not to think about: James Potter.

Or: A seven minutes in heaven that's more like seven minutes of sweet sweet interegation ft. Lily and Sirius.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by @jfleamont

Lily's an overthinker, but fear not, James knows exactly what to say to cheer her up.

Because Lily being a stress smoker is canon (to me)

All The Things I Would Do also by @/ jfleamont

Lily can't stop thinking about James' hands.

Anything Leda writes is great so do yourself a favour and go read her works

I’ve Got My Hate to Keep Me Warm by @dizzy–bird

When a mission for the Order goes badly wrong, Lily Evans must spend the holidays lying low in the middle of nowhere. The rules: no magic, no visitors, and absolutely no Christmas cheer.

And the kicker? She’s sharing the safe house with Order darling – and rival – James Potter, who just happens to be the reason she’s in this mess in the first place.

Kat's poem from 10 Things I Hate About You

Hemispheres by @ohmygodshesinsane

James Potter and Lily Evans have set aside their schoolyard animosities for the sake of the Order of the Phoenix, but when they are enlisted to race Lord Voldemort across the world to prevent him from corrupting the very nature of death, tensions run high. In all manners.

Lily's characterisation in this one is so good

No One Knows Us by @annasghosts

As Fifth Year begins, Lily Evans is certain of a few things: she’s proud to be a Muggle-born witch, despite what Petunia might think; Severus Snape is still a loyal friend and whatever confusing feelings she has as she watches James Potter strut around the castle must be squashed because he’s nothing, but an arrogant toerag.

In which Lily gets the dynamic character treatment that she deserves.

51 Minutes to Change Your Mind by @sosohh

When Muggle-Born Oliver Wood becomes an extremely successful cyclist for the British Cycling team, both muggle and magical ministries have to come up with a plan to make sure all is fair. Enter James Potter and Lily Evans.

The Art of Self-Defense by cgner (on ao3)

Gilmore Girls AU in which "after seventeen years of single parenting, she now has to manage a persistent James, nosy villagers, and a son who's all too interested in joining the Order."

#for everyone tired of lily getting sidelined #this one is for you #jily #jily fic rec #jple #lily evans #james potter

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in-flvx · 1 year

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We all love a possessive Sirius, but, going from Canon, I think Sirius is also the first person to stand back given the vibes.

Like, sure, he'll hunt down Peter to safe Harry, and he'll live in a cave for his benefit. Bur he's also first ask if Harry is even interested in a relationship with Sirius, and then gives Harry the reins to coordinate it.

He'll be obnoxious towards snape, bc Harry doesn't like snape, and Sirius has no reason so trust him at that point either (like, literally. The guy straight up set him up for the dementors kiss just about a year and a half ago. Excuse Sirius to be a bit short and antagonistic toward snape!? As if it's Sirius' fault Remus didn't take his potion and then went on to hunt down children. But noooo Sirius, who had a million other things to consider is the bad guy in this situation, of course! Not the man who insisted on both his, and Remus receiving the dementors kiss) and Sirius, at that point, had spent over a decade in prison. But azkaban isn't just prison. It's emotional torture and solitary confinement. Aka more emotional torture. The fact that sirius is downright sensible, if a little cruel, is a goddamn miracle. And he is, by a landslide, the only grownup Harry actually regards as a guardian and safe haven.

But nooo, he sometimes has a few emotional outburst (let me reiterate: after over a decade of emotional torture and solitary confinement), so he must be the only bad grownup around!!!! [this is still sarcastic obv. Even with that, Sirius was one of the most responsible adults hp has to offer by a landslide])

Stepping away from the rant: Sirius is the one to tell James that he's being a pushy asshole with lily, and that she has no interest in a relationship with him. And this comment alone is, if you ask me, the reason why James gets his shit together over the following years. Like, yea, it's Sirius being bored who brought the entire mess of snapes worst memory into motion, but in the end it's James who is the most cruel, snape who lashes out against lily rather than James, and Sirius who tells James to calm the fuck down regarding lily, who obviously can't give a shit about james.

You have to be super freaking special for Sirius to care about you, and for Sirius to call you out!

His fight with Molly is so interesting in that regard. From the way they talk to each other before, and after their confrontation, and even in the time of it, it's obvious that they have a positive rapport with each other. He only gets volatile when she tries to baby Harry, when Sirius knows intimately (going from Harry's letters) how crazy it drives Harry to be out of the loop. Which is also why he give harry the two way mirror only after Christmas of Harry's fifth year. He could have given it to him much earlier, except it was a sacred part of his and James' relationship. So Sirius only gave it to harry when he knew both of them needed it as a tool of survival.

Sirius isn't easy with the trust he puts into the world. And he never expects anything back (if anyone ever looked for a martyr character, this is it. Sirius is the martyr among false martyrs. He's the only one ever getting to the ground of it. Remus can only ever get the aesthetic of the martyr, and with him not mastering 'reparo', he really sells that aesthetic. Sirius has much more real and dramatic shit going on than that though.

#sirius black #marauders #Sirius Black never did anything wrong in his life #Sirius Black defense squad #He's the cuntiest among those characters #And the least straight one as well #And fucking hell #He's by far the most reasonable one #Which is even more unique and special #Bc sirius spent canonically over a decade in solitary confinement hell #The fact that he is smart and helpful and on good terms with most people #Is a God fucking wonder #Yea he and Molly have their disagreements. But they still respect each other and are civil in these moments of antagonism #And if sirius gets manipulative #It's bc he spent over a fucking decade in solitary confinement and literal daily emotional pain #The literal 15yo Harry was his actual last resort #The last person who gave a shit about him #Between Harry and James he is the last person who ever will #Sure a dog needs a master. But try to be a worthy master for your dog once in a whole #Sirius isn't equipped to sort out all your problems #And a good master takes care of his dog as well #Yes im totally normal about the sirius being a dog implications #And my readings of them absolutely align with whatever fanon decided for wolfstar to be #Lol

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birlwrites · 10 months

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Your post about writing Regulus as a fully developed person who exists outside of the context of the Marauders was just so satisfying. Because so many fics miss out on the complicated, emotional mess that would come with Regulus getting extracted from a Death Eatery social circle. They generally focus on the family drama which is rich and compelling yes, but totally neglect any platonic messiness. All this to say I love what you're doing with Regulus, Evan and Barty in You Know it's your Blood That I Bleed.

agjslhgjlsdf im glad it's resonating with other people i was really feeling it when i wrote it (i am always feeling those sentiments to a certain degree tbh) - and thank you!!!

imo it's much more compelling and also more difficult and complicated to write a regulus with a real character arc, because character arcs are hard when they involve starting in a place writers may be uncomfortable with, e.g. being a willing member of a group responsible for frequent hate crimes and acts of terrorism. that can be emotionally hard to write and it's a nerve-wracking thing to post where other people can see it

so, like, i totally understand why we see this very flat pure version of regulus so often - it's just also very dull and ignores the most interesting parts of him as a character in favor of making him ✨unproblematic✨

and that gets even more complicated with regulus's friends!! because if you make him friends with other canon death eaters in his generation, unless you just pick like. snape and maybe narcissa and nobody else, then you're in an awkward position because those friends of regulus's may not even HAVE his redemption arc, which makes them yet more complicated to write. do you make all of regulus's friends assholes who he cuts off without a second glance (the easy way out), or do you make genocidal terrorists likable (and risk getting harassed relentlessly for it)? not to mention that you yourself might be uncomfortable acknowledging your ability to imagine the POVs of these characters, which makes it hard to write

that may make people shy away from giving regulus friends in general, along with the whole 'focus on the marauders, nobody else really matters' mentality i talked about a little in my last post (i have so much wrath)

so there are multiple axes - people's devotion to the marauders leading to treating everyone around them as accessories, the emotional conundrum of regulus himself, and the looming specter of internet purity culture lurking behind everything you post. yay!

i'm not saying this to attempt to glorify myself or say i'm ~better~ than the ~nameless hordes~ - these are things i think about a lot and they do influence what i write as well. (it's just that the way that the devotion to the marauders influences my writing is that i feel spiteful about it and devote myself ever more thoroughly to the marauders' era characters who tend to get caricatured. including the marauders)

regulus is not a simple character and that's exactly why i'm so invested in him - and i think there are a lot of people out there who feel similarly, which is why there's such a hunger (that i've observed) for takes on his character that don't make him a powerless, helpless victim who needs to be saved by the marauders.

the whole thing about regulus in canon is that he didn't intend to be helped or saved, even knowing that meant his death - because of that, i think that making him someone with little to no agency, who exists so the marauders have someone pretty to rescue, really strips his character of its essence. he becomes nothing more than sirius's poor, unfortunate baby brother, and that gets old really fast.

#should i make an inbox tag

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enbysiriusblack · 6 months

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Thoughts on Severus?

this question made me stare at the computer, contemplating every thought i've ever had. but, i shall answer. because there are Thoughts.

I do not like him. I'm not a snape fan at all, I really don't like him as an adult, and I think his relationship towards lily is extremely messed up.

however, as a child, and as a teenager; I do find his storyline, dynamic with other characters, and such very interesting.

him and lily becoming best friends as kids, living in a small town in scotland with not many other kids around, and being the only two people with magic at all. severus teaches her a lot about the wizarding world, and they depend on each other a lot, lily with understanding her magic and severus with having someone kind/a shoulder to lean on. but as they start hogwarts, lily makes friends with other people, and doesn't really need him to explain and teach her about the wizarding world anymore since she's not a part of it. but severus still needs someone to rely on, he doesn't make any other friends, tolerating his roommates and slowly finding himself listening to what they have to say as he grows up, as lily finds herself more independently and has more and more of a life seperate to him. which, of course, leads to him calling her a 'mudblood' and lily no longer wanting to be his friend. which, he blames the marauders for, instead of owning up to his own mistakes, and that hatred and blame just deepens as time goes on with lily no longer in his life at all. and he never really moves on from her, because she was the only real friend he ever made, and he fucked it up, and lives the rest of life in misplaced blame and subconsciously feeling deep guilt.

#i also think he blamed lily (and james) a lot for simply lily not liking him back in a romantic way. she only really liked him platonically #and he never really accepted that. preferring to believe that james stole lily from him (when that wasn't really the case at all)#marauders #marauders era #not sure whether to tag this as anti snape or just his name since its not really anti but i dont want snape stans getting pissed off with m #i'm just not gonna bother with any #anon ask

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saintsenara · 8 months

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Hey, hope you're having a wonderful day. Scylla and Charybdis was how I found you, but I really do love Other Women and of Purer Blood. One, I love love love your portrayal of Severus Snape and just how you depict the whole mess that he got himself wrapped in his late teenage years. I rarely see such good portrayals these days. Second, I love how you wrote Narcissa and the woes of her marriage life and the pure loneliness she feels and how you twisted a line from canon to a whole new side of both Narcissa and Severus. I simply adore how you write the women of the HP world. Especially now with Tiktok and the eruption of new ships like Nobleflower or Quillkiller - I couldn't care less about new ships but most of the works are original and I cannot align them with the characters written in canon. Thank you for your hard work. <3

thank you very much @be-at-peace05, i am having a wonderful day and i really appreciate this lovely comment.

i'm delighted to see scylla and charybdis get a shoutout, not least because i'm dawdling on the next chapter and shall now get off my arse and finish it.

the toxic mess that is severus snape/lord voldemort is my poison of choice, not least because i think it has so much potential to not just be horrific. after all, the canonical voldemort really likes him, the canonical snape clearly has a thing for powerful men, and the material circumstances which led to snape's radicalisation are something which voldemort - to be fair to him - seems to be the only person in britain willing to do anything about. there's so much complexity there, not just for a deep dive into the social and political context of seventies britain (wizarding and muggle) which gives me a chance to indulge my conviction that the whole thing is like the troubles, but also for - despite all the odds - a love story.

it also gives me a chance to indulge my own anti-marauders-fanon agenda and write regulus black as a complete knob.

the conspiracy theory hill i will die on is that narcissa malfoy/severus snape is canon. maybe not that it's a full-blown, lady chatterley's lover-style sexual affair as in other women and of purer blood, but that there is some sort of closeness between them that everyone except lucius has clocked.

this is because i am convinced - convinced - that narcissa is indeed the person voldemort is referring to in the line from which the story gets its name.

he desired her, that was all, but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him.

[incidentally, from a scylla and charybdis viewpoint, i love the idea of those two sitting down for a chat about girls.]

this is a much less charitable lucius than i usually write (or, at least, a less charitable lucius in his relationship with narcissa - he's a dick towards most other people regardless of the story), but it ended up being really interesting to think about how he might function as the sort of aloof aristocratic husband found in so much british literature and, in particular, how that coldness might interact with the oppressiveness of narcissa's confinement within what are clearly - even if jkr thinks otherwise - quite oppressive gendered expectations.

i'm always struck by the fact that narcissa's narrative mirror - molly weasley - must be quite lonely. she's the only member of the family not interested in quidditch, she doesn't seem to have a social circle, her self-conception is directed though her children, she must spend her child-free hours - so every day, once ginny's at school - just rattling around the house. and i could easily see how narcissa - at the other end of the social spectrum - might feel the same. she has no real friends, she feels excluded by lucius' parents, she knows she should be pregnant but doesn't seem to be able to get there, and she spends her days drifting around her enormous house. she also feels - and i think this is important to understanding her - extra pressure to conform because neither bellatrix nor andromeda have.

and then snape - who spends canon being remarkably tender to her - turns up and upends her world...

#asks answered #scylla and charybdis #other women and of purer blood #attention seeking behaviour

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leogichidaa · 8 months

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I’ve only really thought of Pandora for my stuff, but I have mulled over the other members and blank space characters from that era being older, I’ll have to revisit.

My hc for Pandora is that she’s half Lestrange instead of full Lestrange (which I’ve seen in the fandom wiki, which I don’t trust). Her mom was a Lestrange, fell in love with a French muggleborn on holiday, and eventually pulled an Andromeda. Only the Lestranges kill those that they disown, so Pandora is born in England so she can get in the Hogwarts book before the fam flees to France.

Pandora returns from Beauxbatons and starts Hogwarts in her fourth year. Her mother begged Dumbledore to let her in, and she came fourth year because she didn’t want her daughter under the same roof as her cousins, Rodolphus and Rabastan.

She becomes friends with Sirius and makes money off of them by providing them her own potions- which James and Sirius frequently collaborate with her on so they can get “half off.” But when they try and borrow her own original spells because they are hellbent on using it on Snape, she makes sure she gets money out of it (James complains of highway robbery, Sirius is just entertained, especially bc Pan is a Gryffindor).

To James and Sirius, Pan is the go to person when they’re in a rush, or they want to collaborate 😂 She drives the professors insane because she’s finding shortcuts for spells and stuff that either isn’t in the curriculum or is dangerous to the caster. (She was an inventor canonically I believe? Did experiments 😊)

I also wanted to leave the dreamy stuff to Xeno.

Oh I like this hc! Interesting choice to make Pandora a Gryffindor, but I can see that suiting her. She must be somewhat daring to mess around with experimental magic. I like the idea that she's going around causing chaos and setting fire to things/herself/others by using spell shortcuts 😂

And I do think it makes sense to leave the dreamy stuff to Xeno. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Xeno's eccentricity was at least in part exasperated by grief. Harry notes that Luna looks better groomed in the photo of her with her mom than he's ever seen her in life, which really tugs at my heart-strings.

#ask #freezedive #pandora lovegood #xenophilius lovegood #luna lovegood #house of lovegood?

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jiangwanyinscatmom · 3 years

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This is a bit of a long rambly mess, but I just to vent somewhere! When I was at first getting annoyed at JC’s depictions, I thought fanon JC was painted as similar Mu Qing, right down to JC being given MQ’s secret care for children. But I then realized that even that comparison was inaccurate.

Even MQ apologizes (more than once across the story!), says that XL was right, and says he wants to be his friend. And if JC did that in most fics, that would at least be fine. But fans don’t even do the courtesy of giving JC that arc! Instead, it’s always JC being right -- whether about the GC transfer, or he’s suddenly become a person who’s willing to help the Wens and WWX is just a stupid idiot for doing it on his own -- and WWX has to admit that JC was right.

And where MQ becomes more comfortable with the fact that he used to be a servant, accepting and overcoming the insecurities, JC’s arc in fic could be learning to overcome his insecurities that WWX is better than him at many things even despite their class differences. But no, fanon JC has to be AMAZING at something, or even SEVERAL things, SO much BETTER at them than poor stupid WWX. That’s the BEST solution for Yunmeng bros reconciliation, obviously.

At this point, I honestly wish JC was actually given MQ’s character arc in more fics, because at least he could be said to have one, and not just have always been a perfect person, best brother, best jiujiu, bestest sect leader. Ugh.

It kind of feels like another side of purity culture from the people who should be against it. If JC and WWX reconcile,if JC loves WWX, then JC can’t have ever been a bad brother. Instead, it’s Wei Wuxian who has been the bad brother (the character who’s more easy to change since he a) has already gone through this characterization in all versions of the canon, so his development can be reversed for the fic and brought back up to speed by the end, and b) has actually had character growth, unlike JC, so it’s easier to write that growth). It’s Wei Wuxian who needs to change to match where JC is at. It’s fine if the “bad brother” is the character who tried to do good, but fucked it up because he “doesn’t know how to ask for help!” or “is too stupid to know other people care!” or whatever other excuse. That’s easy to fix! But it’s not fine when it’s the character who never really cared about people outside of his sect and is terribly low on empathy/mercy/compassion/caring. JC has to have been secretly good all along! He loves his brother, so obviously he never did anything terrible to him! Or to other people in the name of hating him! Love cannot be unhealthy or messy or crystalized over by and wrapped up in hate!

(I mean, if we’re comparing characters to JC, Severus Snape also has an unpleasant personality yet was actually revealed to not have been evil all along, and the discourse around him is more interesting than the stuff surrounding JC. It’s still often stupid discourse, but at least it’s based on evidence from the text and not a made up secret narrative where JC hasn’t been a bad person this whole time so fans can just make up whatever characterization they want.)

Instead of dealing with JC’s and WWX’s canon relationship and trying to find a way forward from where they left off in Guanyin Temple (if they’re ignoring the extras in MDZS, or going off CQL), fanon JC is just retroactively made into having always been a good person to justify the ease of their reconciliation.

And as someone who loves delving into fictional complex, complicated, messy, ugly relationships, I find it so...bland, boring, childish, and exhausting.

"As someone who loves delving into fictional complex, complicated, messy, ugly relationships, I find it so...bland, boring, childish, and exhausting."

Hello there anon, the above as well as what you said about reversing Wei Wuxian's character to be on par with how awful Jiang Cheng was to him is especially resonating. As a person Jiang Cheng himself for all intents was considered at least above average from the normal cultivators.

Yet his downfall always relied on his hate of Wei Wuxian (as a person, in talent, socially) it is a core part of his character that is woven into the work itself and the catalyst for Wei Wuxian's death itself. Jiang Cheng if anything, is coldly upfront on just why he refuses to help Wei Wuxian out of his predicament as well as framing Wei Wuxian. The text itself says he puts little fight in pretending to even speak for Wei Wuxian's behalf when Jin Guangshan begins to sully him and conspire about him wanting to be a sect leader. He is meant to be the complete contrast in Lan Wangji and Mianmian trying to speak for his good-will, in fact he contradicts this by saying that Wei Wuxian has always been tiresomely reckless and uncontrollable, something that holds little truth as Wei Wuxian worked in trust for Yunmeng Jiang's benefit for years. Their actions simply are not of comparable fault and the end of the work (in the least the novel) makes this message clear. Jiang Cheng, as a character, like MXTX said is a product of following what his environment made him as well as him putting no fight on his end to amend that to be better and learn. Love is very complicatedly explored in this work in all it's ways and that's what is very beautiful about it. It does not shy away from the forms it manifests in. Including Jiang Cheng's who at the base of it, the rivalry there was as much one-sided as Shu She's for Lan Wangji, the layers of irony are the best part of the novel for each of it's characters.

As for fandom. I do think a lot of it is petty stupid discourse (oh and I have never said I am particularly immune to it, I am far too sarcastic for my own good and have a bit of a loud mouth when I see something particularly ridiculous for this fandom and I do not know when to shut up my filter). But, so much of it is coated within personal resonance towards certain characters which leads to feeling personally hurt, especially when the block features exist on this site. Multiple tags have been implemented to block for this exact purpose, yet their comes the takes that you can not use these sarcastic tags that are blockable because "it's not the right ones". Fandom is ever shifting and as such it is curated as much as you want it to be. Being ordered to not use these tags or to avoid posting all together is a moot point as well as demanding others to read how you want them to, even when the work textually supports or does not certain interpretations. As lovely as the thought is that "all interpretations are valid", logically it does not work quite so well when you attempt to push that on so many others with little helpful evidence other than flimsy fanon popularity (Ron the Death Eater And Draco in Leather pants are infamous fandom tropes that are despised for reasons). JC is not a case of questionable good for selfish reasons as in the comparison to Snape, he is simply a show of selfishness who has an ambiguous opening to do better, in terms of those in the future. Too much clout though is put on that idea when the work itself is not shy to say real good, kind, supportive people are hard to come by.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #canon jiang cheng #jiang cheng #I love him but he is very much a trash racoon king #fandom also needs to chill with is elitisism and faux intellectualism

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sneverussape · 3 years

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What kind of person do you think lily was? There's a lot said about her in the series, but i have trouble reconciling pure, shining paragon lily with someone who would marry someone that spent years tormenting her friend, 4 on 1.

ooh boy this will be a LOT. i can't even promise it will be coherent but i'll make an attempt to be. (going under a cut to save us all the grief).

first off, i think it's fair to state that one of the biggest drawbacks of lily's character is how she was written. she is a plot device. she exists to boost other characters’ narratives: she's simultaneously the Rich Boy's trophy wife, the self-sacrificing mother of the Boy Who Lived, the best friend slash lost love of the Fallen Hero, and, at the same time, also no one at all. lily is a character with little to no background and character development that she can barely stand on her own two feet without any of the associated (usually male) characters to prop her up. it absolutely sucks but that's how it is. that's how jk wrote her.

given that and working with the scraps that we do have, my opinion of lily is...complex. i try to give her justice by trying to understand her context, the workings of her mind, and the possible pressures she was subjected to, but it can be challenging especially since lack of canon pushes you into a space where you have to put them in Either/Or situations. my opinion of her has also changed as i got older. when i was younger (i read the books waaaay back, as they were getting released in fact) i only saw her as an extra character (i was most interested in snape, if that's not obvious enough, but neither did i think snape was 'obsessed' with her as a lot of hp fans now think). i saw her and snape as good friends who had had a falling out, and that he'd probably had a crush on her at some point, and it got naturally overtaken by guilt etc when she died. then when i reread some chapters containing her, i was quick to put her in the Bad Friend camp. i don't think that now. i think that she, like snape, was a complex human being who made a lot of questionable decisions but shouldn't be entirely vilified for them.

my main thoughts of her that are kind of built on material from canon as well as what jkr has said herself:

- she was not posh. she grew up in cokeworth, in the same town as severus. i don't think she was middle class as a lot of fics portray her. i think the evanses were slightly better off than the snapes but they were all working-class, and living was a day-to-day struggle. the kids spoke in the local accent, their clothes were all worn and patched over, there were no green spaces or public infrastructure for kids to safely play in, and they were all mostly running wild about the town since all their parents had to work. food was something to be thankful for because there was never enough, and sometimes they had to share with their neighbors. that's the kind of setting i think lily and severus grew up in, although severus suffered abuse on top of it all. it's possible that lily did too because of the setting (post-world war 2, poverty, adults dealing with repressed trauma from the war, etc) and it wouldn't even be that surprising if she had been;

- she and petunia got along fairly well up until the point lily found out she was a witch and, as a result, became friends with severus. it's stated in canon that petunia had also wanted to attend hogwarts with them, going as far as writing to dumbledore to allow her admittance. her jealousy upon his rejection had festered and grown into outright hate that she projected onto harry as an adult, but i don't doubt that she continued to love lily even after her death and despite how she treated harry. i think as kids they had stuck together and were very close, but magic had torn them apart. suddenly lily had a world of her own that petunia wasn't welcome in, and that would have hurt. pottermore stated lily attended vernon and petunia's wedding or engagement party but james made a right mess of it. i think lily TRIED to maintain their relationship but external factors always got in the way. i don't doubt she had also loved her sister very much;

- i don't think she had any other friends. she may have had a lot of acquaintances but i think her only real friend, the one who saw her for who she really was, was severus, and i think, at a certain point in their lives, she saw that as a weakness and resented it;

- i think, from the interactions we saw in canon of lily with other people, that lily had a penchant to please people, especially the ones who ranked higher than her in terms of power dynamics - petunia (who was the older sister), professors (sluggy comes to mind, the head of slytherin with a lot of connections), even the marauders whose actions she defended. it's not necessarily a bad thing, but i've always seen it as her being borderline manipulative. i noted that she wasn't the same with severus (based on their conversations, especially the ones in 5th year, before SWM) because he's lower than her in a lot of aspects, being a slytherin and quite likely of a lower social standing. she could boss him around and tell him to piss off and he probably wouldn't have minded. she actually strikes me as someone who could have been in slytherin; a perfect arrangement, save for the fact that she was a muggleborn. i think lily knew her place and the cards she was dealt with more than anyone, but she was also determined not to stay there;

- this brings me to the point as to why she ever went out with james potter in the first place. i think her friendship breakup with severus was inevitable because they were in the middle of a burgeoning war and both of them were being pulled to opposite and opposing ends. as an added complexity, i think she also wanted to be better than being muggleborn lily evans of cokeworth, best friend of the evil greasy slytherin git, and her way out was to associate with housemates who were in the upper echelons of power. like, we don't even know what her life was like in gryffindor tower. ron was poor, but he was also a pureblood, so that may have saved him from ridicule. but what if you were a poor muggleborn, with a northern accent to boot? in the same way severus trained himself to be more posh, lily could have done the same and could have furiously tried to blend in. maintaining a friendship with severus would have ended in heartbreak as there were too many risks and it likely outweighed the gains. this was the wizarding world too which is much much smaller than the muggle world and relied on connections more than anything. openly siding with the marauders would have saved her skin and secured her a future (which, as we all know, was forfeit anyway but whatever);

- jumping to the jily relationship, i honestly think it was also not one that was meant to last. iirc jkr projected a lot onto lily, so i'm surmising jily reflected a lot of her own failed relationships. i think james and lily had a less-than-ideal relationship, one that involved abuse (verbal, emotional, mental, physical, take your pick, but at least one form of it), and i think she may have been unhappy in the last year of her life, living in hiding with none of her own friends (if they even existed) and seeing no one else but james' pals. her only light in that darkness was likely harry as she couldn't even see her own family. i think, during those times, she thought a lot about the home she left behind and, as a consequence, her lost friendship with severus. she probably missed him, and i'm sure she must have been very lonely.

in sum, i don't think she was the Virgin Mary figure a lot of hp fans paint her to be. imho she had her own questionable but utterly human moments, and i just tried to fill in the blanks as to why she would have acted the way she did. i don't think it was easy to be lily evans at all, and majority of the 21 years of her life was likely a struggle.

#lily evans #and the cards she was dealt #i wish we knew more about her tbh #ask #hp #also mentions #snape #of course

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kohakhearts · 3 years

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snape as harry’s guardian

ok so. my take of the day is that snape was harry’s only true guardian/protector/trusted adult. before anyone tries to suggest i’m vilifying the remus, sirius, dumbledore, mcgonagall, molly, etc., please know that’s not my point at all. i think each of those characters loved harry in some capacity. but none of them was fit to protect harry - his life, his soul, whatever else. sirius tried, yes. but he was a fugitive. kinda puts a damper on the whole “adopting a child” thing. and dumbledore did do a lot to protect harry. the problem there is just that...dumbledore was also a big reason why he needed any protection in the first place. i’m not here to talk about these characters, though. that’s just my opinion. feel free to reject it.

my point is that even if those characters were fit to fill the role of harry’s “parental figure,” snape is the character who fills that role the best. i actually think this is intentionally baked into the narrative. why do i think that? because snape is to lily as sirius is to james, but lily’s love for harry is elevated above james’s by the story. ergo, snape fills a larger role than sirius does in protecting harry.

i don’t think it’s a good message, but there is no denying that motherly love > all other forms of love in the hp ‘verse. the emphasis on lily’s connection to harry over james’s is in fact so emphasized that jkr made a continuity error in gof because of it (with the priori incantatem; lily should have come before james, but she came after him. i’ve seen plenty of people try to explain this away for x, y, or z reason, but imo the reason is that whoever comes second is more important. plain and simple). in dh, when he uses the stone, he’s fixated on his mother. he looks directly at her when he says “stay close to me.”

obviously, snape isn’t a mother, but “snape was a single mother” will never not be one of the funniest jokes made about hp imo but he is given a lot of feminizing traits, from his handwriting to his long hair to his patronus (edit: check out this post for more on this! super interesting stuff tbh). in fact, on the last - i would argue his partronus is less reflexive of obsession and has more to do with the fact that, in many ways, lily taught snape what love is. similarly, we see with the title of “half-blood prince” that snape feels more connected to his mother than his father. his connection to magic is a maternal one. we don’t get a lot of info on eileen, no, but there is a lot to indicate that she has more positive influence in her son’s life than tobias does.

there’s a lot more that could be discussed there, but i’d rather focus on the part about lily. at first glance, sure, his love for her looks obsessive. it probably is a little bit. but lily was snape’s first and only true friend, and it is his fault she died. uh, yeah. i’d be obsessed too. that is an insane type of grief to be carrying around - the bereavement of a lost friendship, coupled with all that guilt. dude spent his whole adult life atoning for what he did. well, never mind that. lily was also his first “out” from an abusive household. i’ll be the first person to say that like...a lot of my attachment to harry as a character comes from his abusive upbringing. i don’t think the topic of abuse is handled well in this series. i also think that a lot of times, people in the fandom downplay its effects on the characters who experience it. but like...loveless childhoods mess people up. a lot. there’s this deep, very human desire we all have to love and be loved - to have our experiences, our existences, validated. even if one or both of his parents did really love him, it doesn’t change the fact that kids like snape don’t get that at home. they have to seek it out from other people. and snape found it in lily. his whole life revolved around her. when she died, he devoted himself to her son.

which is all a very long way of saying that snape becomes a stand-in for lily. it’s all very cyclical, too: lily dies to keep harry alive, and snape keeps himself alive only long enough to ensure harry knows he has to die. isn’t that neat!

so there’s one big part of my argument: snape is harry’s best protector, because he is supposed to represent lily - his mother, the person who loves him more than anyone else. but that’s just what i see has been intentionally slotted into the narrative. i think it’s boring. and sucks because i hate the way lily is put on a pedestal by the narrative.

but! there’s more! a lot more, in fact.

imo a better basis for this is in all the things we actually know snape does for harry. some are very obvious. some are probably just coincidental, or solely symbolic. here’s a list of the top of my head, which is not exhaustive by any means:

was suspicious of and actively working against quirrell throughout ps

countered quirrell’s jinx on harry’s broom, then actually reffed the next gryffindor game

he’s the one who finds and fetches ron and harry after they crash ron’s dad’s car

he actively discourages the idea that harry is slytherin’s heir

one of those symbolic ones - he teaches harry exepelliarmus

he is hyper-vigilant in poa - under the belief that sirius black is a serial murderer out for harry’s blood

he goes after harry and co. in the shrieking shack and steps in front of a werewolf to protect them (great parallel to The Prank, js)

returned to spying despite the risk to his own life

agreed to teach him occlumency, and tbh was shit at it but he did realize what harry was dreaming about and put two-and-two together there and reported it to dumbledore

actively impedes umbridge from interrogating harry

he understands harry’s message about sirius, and when harry doesn’t come back he goes out into the forest to find him himself after alerting the order of what he thinks is going on. i’m bolding this because imo this detail and everything that happens around it is kinda huge

he gets between harry and draco when they’re basically throwing death threats at each other LOL

the half-blood prince’s book. need i say more.

he heals draco after harry uses sectumsempra on him, and then lets him off tbh prety easy. harry wholly deserved to be expelled for this. snape is the one who protected him from being expelled, even though he himself was nearly accidentally killed by classmates too - and didn’t get justice for it. i’ve seen people say his choice of detention was too harsh, but i very much disagree. it was deserved. and could have served to teach harry a pretty good lesson tbh; snape just misjudges his character in such a way that it can’t do that because it’s not actually really a lesson harry needs. either way, the punishment was lighter than the crime

he kills dumbledore. maybe the poison wouldn’t have killed him first, but either way - it keeps the death off harry’s conscience

he’s the only character who ever calls harry out for casting the cruciatus curse. this is in chapter 28 of hbp, “flight of the prince.” this entire scene is super big to me. harry is throwing crucio and sectumsempra at snape, and he just blocks the spells. he lashes out once, and it’s when harry tries to use levicorpus on him - it’s an exact 1:1 parallel with snape’s worst memory. he slashes his face, just like he did to james. in this scene he tells harry “until you learn to shut your mouth and close your mind” which is...frankly, live-saving advice. even while this kid is hurling torture spells at him. speaking of torture spells - when someone else tortures harry here, snape is the one who makes them stop and forces everyone to flee, and leave harry where he is

honestly? it’s a hell of a lot more than any other adult does for harry. and what’s interesting to me is that after the first book, harry mostly stops being shocked when snape does something to protect him. in fact, in ootp, he blames what happened on snape with the full awareness that it is actually his own fault. that’s what makes this part stick out to me the most. children often do this thing where, like...they blame a parent or other trusted adult for x bad thing that’s going on. they’ll say, like, “it’s all your fault, i hate you,” etc. and one of the reasons why is because the trusted adult in question is someone they know will continue to love and protect them regardless. it’s a way of deflecting difficult emotions - things that are too large for them to handle on their own - on to an external target. self-hatred opposes the human instinct for survival. projected on someone else...it’s safer to lash out.

my thoughts? deep down, harry knows snape will protect him. he is reliable. very rarely do we ever see him go back on his word about something - to harry or anyone else. in a sense, he’s kind of predictable. his hate for harry is as normal as his determination to keep him out of harm’s way. i think this is a big reason why harry reacts so violently to finding out about snape’s hand in telling voldemort the prophecy. it’s a betrayal twice over: one, a betrayal by dumbledore for never telling him - and letting snape teach at hogwarts, letting snape watch over harry - and two, a betrayal by snape for doing something that is, yeah, unforgivable in his books. and then he kills dumbledore on the same day. suddenly he’s gone from reliable but hated teacher to some harry “hated nearly as much as he hated voldemort.”

but in the shrieking shack, he is compelled to approach him. he takes his memories. he views them, and accepts them. there is real trust there, i think. trust, which grows into respect. a name worthy of passing on to a child - because like harry, snape had no family. which leads me to their parallels.

their parallels. holy shit.

so. i’ve got a lot of issues with how harry potter is written. one of the biggest has a lot to do with this quote, from dh chapter 34 “the forest again” (my most detested chapter for a whole host of other reasons. go figure):

“hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. he and voldemort and snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here...”

people have hashed this conversation out a million times - should harry have been sorted into slytherin? i’m not here to answer that question, but i think uh. yeah. he should’ve been. that’s a way more profound story imho. thematically, it would make a lot more sense. but ask me about that some other time. i have plenty of thoughts.

anyway, what this quote tells me is that, even if they had a lot of untapped potential, there are major parallels between these three characters:

they are all half-bloods

they all have ties to slytherin house

they all came from nothing. they had no families

voldemort is beyond saving. and while the parallels are strong with him too, they’re more abundant between harry and snape:

they grew up in abusive households

they grew up wearing hand-me-downs

they were detested by muggle relatives for being magical

they were bullied and assaulted in school

they were both in some way marked by voldemort

stag patronus | doe patronus

they are “dumbledore’s men” - harry tells scrimgeour this about himself. in dh, he tells voldemort that “snape was dumbledore’s.” as it turns out, dumbledore made them both sacrifices. they were both betrayed by him in the same respect. by dumbledore’s orchestrations, they both die at voldemort’s hand

when snape starts teaching dada, hermione points out that he approaches the subject much as harry does

they both use dark arts - some of the only “good” characters we see use them on multiple occasions, in fact

like i mentioned, they play out the werewolf prank in reverse in poa. in hbp, snape’s worst memory

i think, ultimately they both see a lot themselves in the other. their mutual hatred, then, is the same sort of thing i mentioned before - self-hatred projected outward. harry gains peace and acceptance from snape’s memories. in other words, he gains peace and acceptance from seeing snape exactly how he was. when snape dies, he asks harry to look at him - in that moment, he sees him not as james potter’s son, but as lily evans’s, too. he sees, in a way, “both sides” of harry.

do i think they ever liked each other? absolutely not. this comes from the fact that they don’t actually see each other until the very end. which is i think...a big reason why so many people struggle with the name “albus severus,” or feel like snape’s death was cheap - somehow a "redemption through death.” it wasn’t that, because his redeeming actions were done throughout the timeline of the entire series, and before that, even. but we find it all out at once, like harry does. by which point, snape is already dead, so it feels like a cop-out. but harry forgives him! ergo, he forgives himself. in a literary, symbolic sort of way.

anyway, we all know i love a good snape adopts harry story. for me, that comes down to the fact that these parallels and everything add up so that snape is the adult with the capacity to understand harry best. and if snape’s final moment in canon is seeing harry just how he is - and vice versa - yeah! it’s really satisfying to see that played out in a fic scenario where they get to actually talk to each other about it. in my opinion, there’s a lot of potential there. a lot of potential that just...can’t work in the books. and it’s really unfortunate, because more than understanding each other, they can learn through one another to understand themselves. and i think that’s a pretty cool dynamic, honestly.

#*meta #taylor.txt #severus snape #harry potter #severitus #not actually but for my own tagging purposes. so you can all see why severitus >#not about to start tagged my posts as pro snape or whatever the fuck but yeah sure i left out the 'bad parts'#did snape hate harry unfairly? treat him badly for a bad reason? he sure did. doesnt make the rest of this untrue tho >:0 #anyway this couldve been longer but im sure ive said enough #feel free to add on to my points or argue or whatever and sorry if i made typos. im too tired to check for them LOL #its not an 8k+ word essay this time. promise. its significantly shorter #mine

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spxllcxstxr · 3 years

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Cold to Cozy • R.L

(Gif not mine)

Request: oshdskdhkshs what about Remus being really patient, loving and gentle with the reader who’s insecure and anxious to open up to sb and be with someone after she had just got out of the toxic relationship? Sorry for my English. Love you so much. — anon

Summary: After a rough break up, you wind up at the top of the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the night. Remus joins you.

Warnings: toxic relationship mention (not with Remus), more along the lines of emotional abuse, not physical, crying, but it’s mentioned and Remus comes to comfort you, but please stay safe

Word Count: 1.1k

A.N: Relationships are hard to write when you’ve never been in one. I hope I did this request justice! Could be read as platonic since it’s more focused on like comfort and not really a relationship, but who knows? Read how you’d like to! I think gn!reader. I also still don’t know how to end these things oops. Hope you enjoy, and I love you all ❤️

****

You don’t remember why you even started dating William Mulciber in the first place.

It was a well known fact that he was a bigoted asshole, and anyone with a brain wouldn’t even touch him with a ten foot pole. The only friends he had were Avery, Rosier, and Snape, and even those three needed a break from him sometimes.

But he made you feel wanted in some twisted way—at least at first.

He would flirt with you in class and stare at you across the room instead of getting assignments done. Mulciber would comment on your figure, mostly lewd remarks that had your eyes widen in shock. But he assured you that these were compliments, and who were you to say otherwise, especially in public when all eyes were focused on you?

You’d get embarrassed and duck your head towards the ground as he and his little group laughed at whatever crude joke your little admirer thought of this time.

But he was the only boy to ever outwardly express any sort of interest in you so you felt obligated to accompany him to Hogsmede. And after your little date, even though you realized that the two of you didn’t really have anything in common and he did enough talking for the both of you, you felt obligated to kiss him in front of the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

And your relationship with him was fine for about a whole two seconds before it became damaging to your entire being.

So that’s why after only a few months of being berated and judged by someone who persuaded you that it was all out of love, your relationship, if that’s what you would call it, ended after hours of shouting and flinging insults at each other.

It’s also the reason you’re crying into your house scarf at the top of the Astronomy Tower in the middle of the cold night.

The wind bites harshly at your exposed flesh, your fingers frozen and the tips of your ears completely numb.

Your legs dangle over the side, arms looped securely around the brass banister as your tears drip into your scarf.

The striped fabric is useful in muffling any rogue sobs that manage to escape.

“Rough night?”

The soft questioning voice coming from behind you has you furiously wiping your face in an attempt to look somewhat composed.

“You could say that.” Your voice cracks as the person sits next to you.

Glancing over you can tell it’s Remus, the sleeves of his thick blue jumper bunched up around his hands. He’s shivering very slightly, but is otherwise unbothered by the weather.

He nods silently, and you can hear your teeth chatter. Shyly, you bite your lip in an attempt to stop.

“I heard about you and Mulciber.” Remus speaks up, glancing at you before quickly looking back up at the cloudy sky.

“Oh yeah?” You snort, staring at his scarred face. “And what exactly did you hear?”

Remus looks back at you, the whites of his eyes illuminated in the blue glow coming from the tip of his wand.

“That you’re, and I quote, ‘a cheating bitch.’” He rolls his eyes.

“Oh yeah, because talking to Davey Gudgeon about our upcoming Herbology project is categorized as cheating, and him snogging that sixth year behind the Quidditch shed isn’t.” You scoff, balling your fists around your scarf in anger.

Of course he was spreading lies about you to make himself look like the victim. He was never in the wrong and you always were.

“That’s terrible.” You hear him shift closer to you.

“Yeah, well, that isn’t even the worst of it.” You mumble under your breath, a frown tugging at your lips.

“You don’t deserve that, (Y/n).” He tells you softly.

“But—“

“No, no one deserves the utter shit he put you through, alright?” Remus insists fiercely.

Your throat tightens as you turn your gaze down to your fingers. Nervously, you rub them together, trying to defrost them in order to find feeling again.

“You do know that, don’t you? That what he made you deal with wasn’t love?” Remus continues to press.

Noncommittally, you offer him a shrug, still avoiding those warm honey brown eyes of his.

“I’m sorry, I’m being a little too forward, aren’t I?” Remus sputters at your lack of response. “I just get so frustrated thinking about how he treated you, but if I’m overstepping—“

“No, no, it’s fine, Remus, really.” Finally, you look up, waving away his unnecessary panic. “Just...he was my first...everything, y’know? I think he’s ruined love for me.”

Remus’ face falls at your meek response. His sandy curls wave in the wind and you watch as he tries and fails to tame them behind his ears.

“Love isn’t whatever rubbish he gave you, (Y/n). Love is this warm and cozy feeling that makes you want to wake up in the morning. And makes you want to run around laughing in the pouring rain.” He rambles, marred hands waving around as he talks. “It’s a breath of fresh air and a million little kisses in the middle of the night. Honestly, I wish I could be a little more poetic, but it’s almost midnight and my brain is fried after that Potions exam.”

He chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck.

“No Remus, that was—that was beautiful. It certainly wasn’t what we had.” You smile at him, something you haven��t done in ages at this point.

Truthfully, his little rant had a warmth blossoming in your chest, something you can’t exactly explain. You felt comfortable with him, nothing like you’d ever felt with Mulciber.

With him, it was nothing but ice, sure the occasional dull spark was ignited when his arm was slung securely over your shoulders, but that was rare.

All Remus had to do was look you in the eye and you were a melting mess.

You liked this new feeling.

“You know, you should’ve brought gloves.” He gestures to your numb fingers, shivering in the wind.

“Well I wasn’t exactly planning on going through a break up tonight, Remus.” You sarcastically retort, trying once again to bundle up your hands.

“Here, let me help.” Remus’s large hands lay atop your own, warm palms pressing against your chilled fingers.

You study your joined hands before slowly lifting your gaze back to his eyes. Your hands start to thaw.

“This is nice.” You tell him, just above a whisper.

His face is a bit closer to your own, and you can see the pink blush rising on his cheeks and tinting the tips of his ears. His nose adopts a redder hue from the brutal wind.

“Yeah.” Remus agrees at a similar volume. “It really is.”

•

All Character Taglist: @aspiringsloth20 @amourtentiaa @cherie-draco @mullthingsoverinthehotwater @catching-the-train-to-hogwarts

Remus Lupin Taglist: @lunalovecroft

#Remus Lupin #remus lupin x reader #Remus Lupin blurb #Remus Lupin fluff #Remus Lupin angst #the marauders x reader #remus lupin imagine

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loveatfirstwriteblog · 3 years

Text

A Complete Analysis of Harry Potter

Like a lot of kids, we probably grew up on Harry potter. We were obsessed and rightly so. The universe created in the world of Harry Potter was, and is, a hugely successful one because of the fact it gave kids a world where magic exists! It seemed to be a great world to live in and it made even better with the fact that it included elements of empowerment, Whether it be showing girls can be just as successful if not more in various pursuits(Hermione), or the fact that even if you have a history of bad events, you can have a good heart(Hagrid), Harry Potter teaches us a lot.

JKR has written a mind-blowing plot in a world of magic, wizards, witches, wands, potions, friendship, love. Our inner-five-year olds--and actually most of our young adult selves too--jumps around excitedly at the beautifully penned words that creates an exit out of this world and into one where magic does exist.

As you get older, though, you begin to think of Harry Potter in a more critical fashion. The thought of “oh my god, it’s magic” no longer completely overrides my mind, but more of “but what are the laws regarding this? Can people just do this whenever they want? Are there no ethics?”

No matter how much we’re going to expose the flaws and plot holes in HP now, we’ll always love the books--we grew up on them! But some things just niggle you as you get older, and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on in this post.

Something I adore about the HP books is that everyone, including the “good guys”, has flaws. Harry has a “save the world alone, do first, think later” complex, a driving force that makes him go save Sirius, Ron is very, very insecure to a point where he ditches Harry twice, probably when Harry needed him the most, Hermione is a judgemental, narrow-minded nag (her thoughts on Luna, divination, Trelawney, basically anything that doesn’t fit her black and white world), Molly Weasley is misogynistic and blatantly favourites her children—probably being one of the main factors behind Ron’s insecurities, Arthur is condescending towards Muggles and makes several comments you cringe at while reading the books as a young adult/adult, Sirius, Snape, and Lupin still haven’t let go of their childhood grudges and hatred, etc etc etc.

These flaws are what make these characters so three-dimensional, so layered, so human. But the problem was, most of these flaws are never intentionally acknowledged. And honestly, that could have been such a good character arc, because the main characters are mostly students. No student is the same through their teenage years—they change, they evolve, they get over their flaws, they try to better themselves. I would have loved to see Ron becoming his own person, Hermione opening her mind up a little, etc.

Neville is not one of my favourites, but I love his growth and development, from someone who was scared of his potions professor to a man who faced down Lord Voldemort. Ginny Weasley could have had character development, from the trauma she went through in second year, but that was never written in. She went through this terrifying ordeal when she was only twelve years old, and jump to a year or two later and she’s absolutely fine, with no transition from her trauma whatsoever.

Some of JKR’s characters are brilliantly written and fleshed out, but some of her others lack the structure and complexity that usually comes with being vital to the plot—Ginny Weasley for one. Her internalised misogyny also plays a huge part in the way her female characters are written. We see this again in the case of how she wrote the character of Ginny.

Ginny Weasley is not a favourite of ours (if you don’t know that by now). She feels a lot like a convenient male daydream—when she waits for Harry to notice her by dating other guys, gets annoyed by Hermione “not knowing quidditch”, etc etc—and fits the “not like other girls” archetype too much, almost like she was made for it (hint hint). She’s portrayed to be strong-willed, spunky, and independent, and I love the idea, but I really don’t see it. To me, she’s a very shallow character, the least fleshed out one.

Just like James Potter wasn’t necessarily redeemed just because JKR said he was, and Ginny isn’t interesting just because JKR writes that she is.

Hermione also fits the archetype, but she’s JKR’s self-insert, so we really can’t say much about that.

To make things worse, Ginny and Hermione are pitted against each other in a very subtle way. Ginny is the sporty, pretty, flirty girl who’s never single from book 4. Hermione is the not-conventionally-attractive, nerdy girl who’s had a few dates here and there but never a relationship. They’re very different characters (the only thing they have in common is the archetype) but they’re against each other in the defence of Harry.

Another place where JKR’s misogyny shows up is the way other girls are written. Lavender Brown is shown as vapid and immature, just because she likes clothes and boys and didn’t know how to handle her first relationship. Cho Chang is perceived as shallow because she’s emotional. Pansy Parkinson is seen to be throwing herself at Draco Malfoy. The Weasleys hated Fleur because she was beautiful and sexy and French, and that was ever really resolved in the end (Molly accepted her, but we never got Ginny’s and Hermione’s opinions again). You see where we’re getting at? The typical “girly girls” are portrayed as insipid, shallow, emotional, and boring, while girls like Hermione and Ginny are seen to be fun and multilayered.

The problems with Harry Potter don’t just stop with non-fleshed out characters. There are plot devices that go unacknowledged, issues like blood purity—which is the basis of Voldemort’s tyranny—are never really resolved, huge Chekhov’s guns that aren’t fired.

A common misconception, which if cleared up could probably expose a load of problems in wizarding society by itself, is that the wizarding world is racist. It’s not racist. Muggles and Muggleborns are not a different race, they’re a different class, at least according to pureblood wizards. Mudblood is a classist insult (a direct reference to nobility blueblood and aristocracy).

Another factor that wasn’t talked about but made the HP world so complex and realistic is the inherent classism in every single pureblooded wizard, including the Weasleys.

The “Light” wizards all operate on the notion “at least I don’t kill or torture Muggles”. The Weasleys refuse to talk about Molly’s squib cousin who’s an accountant, the Longbottoms were so desperate for Neville to not be a squib they nearly killed him trying to force magic out of him, Ron makes fun of Filch for being a squib, thinks house-elves are beneath him, and confounds his driving instructor in his mid-thirties, the ministry workers kept obliviating that muggle at the quidditch World Cup, etc.

This could have been a metaphor for how small prejudices and microaggressions (kind of the wizarding equivalent of white privilege) enable discrimination and murder, if JKR had actually acknowledged it.

The parallel to Nazi Germany is very twisted and definitely shouldn’t be taken too far, but the Nazi ideology grew on the basis of everyday antisemitism, “that’s not that bad” little things. Voldemort’s circle and army grew because the wizard superiority complex festered and blew up in some people, egged on by a deeply classist society.

Ultimately, Harry Potter has very, very shoddy worldbuilding, the kind of worldbuilding that’s obsessed with answering the “what” of the wizarding world, rather than the “how” or the “why”, which is strange, considering that fantasy or dystopian-era novels’ driving plots and conflicts are usually answering the questions the worldbuilding raises--The Hunger Games and The Shadowhunter Chronicles are two of the best examples of brilliantly written YA fantasy and dystopian novels.

In HP, however, the main plot just avoids the questions the worldbuilding brings up like the bubonic plague.

Voldemort’s agenda is built on prejudice towards Muggles and Muggleborns, but the plot just validates the negative perception of them—at the end of the day, being a wizard is what’s special. The Statute of Secrecy is the foundation of the main concept—blood supremacists believe wizards shouldn’t be hidden away—but only vague, barely-there answers are given to why it exists (a Chekhov’s gun that was never fired).

There are love potions that function like date rape drugs (even Harry was given one by a girl who wanted him to ask her out), potions that force people to tell the truth, potions that literally let you disguise yourself as another person, but the ethics are never talked about, and the laws are so lax that three twelve-year-olds broke them and were never caught.

But at the same time, the worldbuilding is so authentic, because it transforms the wizarding world into straight-up fridge horror. The everyday horrors are just accepted and rolled with. A corrupt government, constant obliviation of Muggles, slavery that isn’t even talked about. These things aren’t obvious to us as readers, or to the wizards as characters, because they match up to the real world, which is filled with things that are horrifying if you dig deeper. The multiple, normalised forms of abuse, police brutality, the violence in prisons that nothing is done about, the glaringly obvious cultural problems we have with consent, etc.

The abusive authoritative figures in HP, like Rufus Scrimgeour, Cornelius Fudge, Dumbledore, Umbridge, etc, are so authentic because real-life politicians and people in high places of power behave that way, and their abuse is excused.

The wizarding world is just like the real world. Corrupt, prejudiced, messed up, but if you’re privileged, or at least have certain privileges, you’re probably not going to notice. The ultimate problem is that the plot doesn’t acknowledge a lot of fridge horror things are messed up either, which is why it miserably fails.

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lunarfly · 3 years

Text

Ok so I decided to finally post the promised: defending Romione (🥺💗💕💖💞💘) against Dr*mione (ಠಿ_ಠ) shippers.

So I've read a few posts about Dr*mione shippers, talking about why their ship is amazing (which had nothing to do with canon btw) and bashing Ron (for no reason) and I'm literally shaking out of anger.

Here are my thoughts:

1. "Ron is too dumb for hermione"

Stop- Just-

Stop.

RON IS NOT DUMB.

Yes, he might not be very interested in school subjects, but 👏 that 👏 doesn't 👏 mean 👏 he 👏 is 👏 dumb 👏.

He is actually very smart! He beat McGonagall's chess game, he is logical and quick-thinking. There's MANY examples of this that I won't name right now, but it's a canonical fact. Ron. Is. Not. Dumb.

And consider he was dumb. So? Would that stop Romione from happening? NO! Hermione didn't mind Ron not being smart. She was just upset that Ron was lazy and wouldn't study anything until the last minute. She wanted to get both Harry and Ron to study according to a schedule.

Is it clear? Intelligence doesn't determine love.

**And this is something that confuses me. This doesn't have anything to do with the point, but why does nobody realize that Harry isn't much smarter than Ron? Yes, he was better at DADA but that requires TALENT, not intelligence. And I'm pretty sure we all know that Ron is talented as well (hopefully everyone realizes that). Nobody uses the fact that Harry wasn't intelligent against Harmione, but everyone uses the fact that Ron wasn't intelligent against Romione. The double standards tear apart the fandom.

2. "Ron bought hermione perfume and Draco could get her something better."

Soooo, you're saying that just because Ron didn't have the money that Draco had means that Hermione didn't deserve Ron?

Wow, this just says a lot about you dr*mione shippers. You only care about the money that Draco has, not his personality. You don't like Ron because he's poor (and I know how FanFics give the "kind Draco" Ron's canon personality so the only "problem" with Ron is his looks and lack of money). And you don't see Hermione nor Ron the way they are. This "point" of yours is literally stating that Hermione should be a gold-digger and get Draco because he can get her the expensive presents that she deserves. Yikes.

3. "Draco can understand the emotional side of Hermione while Ron can't."

Wait

What?

WHERE DO YOU GET THIS IDEA FROM-

Draco is only EVER concerned about his own self, he is a NARCISSIST. He would NEVER care for someone (let alone Hermione) as purely and truly as he cared about himself. He didn't even care about Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy Parkinson etc. He was selfish. The only reason he could express his emotions was because he had to go through a lot since he realized that killing Dumbledore wasn't as easy as bullying Hermione. This would never ever work.

And even if Ron didn't understand her as much, he STILL comforted her. Take the beginning chapters of The Deathly Hallows as an example. You'll see.

4. "Ron is too immature."

I need help.

Of course Ron was immature when he was 11!! Yes, he acted immaturely many times, yes, he made many mistakes, but guess what? He changed! He changed for Hermione!! Draco didn't change at all, not for Hermione, nor for anyone else. He remained the same bratty bully.

If you could reread the books and read prisoner of azkaban vs deathly hallows, you will definitely see how much Ron has matured. He doesn't argue with Hermione anymore, he comforts her, he's there for her. Yes, he made a mistake but he was manipulated by the horcrux! We don't blame Ginny for what tom riddle's diary made her do, do we? So stop blaming Ron!

Anyways, I think if dr*mione shippers have read the books, they'll know what I'm talking about when I say Ron changed for Hermione. I honestly don't know how you could miss Ron's character arc.

5. "Ron would be jealous of the brilliant Hermione."

What?

If I remember correctly, the reason Draco bullied the trio was because he was jealous of them. His jealousy turned into a 7 year torture for the trio and now you're saying that Ron is the jealous one? Please.

But anyways, Ron has been jealous of Harry and has made a few mistakes. But there are reasons behind them and I can defend him for each of these with arguments other than "everyone makes mistakes" (cough cough* Draco stans* cough cough).

First of all, Ron has admitted being jealous of Harry's fame because he lives with 5 older brothers who outshine him. But that's not really a mistake because he never let it get in his way. There were only 2 situations in 7 years when he left Harry out of jealousy but I think these have different explainations.

No1 Ron left in goblet of fire. I think the real reason that Ron let his jealousy get in his way this time, was not only because Harry got to participate in the tournament which could bring him eternal glory, but more likely because he was disappointed that his own best friend didn't even tell him that he was entering and didn't even help him participate (which wasn't true, but Ron thought so back then).

No2 Ron left in deathly hallows. This one was 100% because of the horcrux and I think we should all accept this by now and stop hating on Ron for being affected by dark magic.

And just like that, Ron never let his jealousy get in his way of friendships. I can't think of a situation where Ron is jealous of the brilliant Hermione so if you remember, please let me know so I can argue against it. <3

6. "Ron and Hermione would break up and remain friends, it's easy to imagine because they didn't have a strong relationship."

This was actually said, someone actually said this-

I'm just going to say that Ron and Hermione are happily married to this day (which definitely proves that their relationship is strong) and give the dr*mione community a moment of silence.

7. "Ron didn't do anything for Hermione and was just a jerk."

Coming from a person who has read and reread the books multiple times, I can assure you that Ron did many things for Hermione.

Of course, he was immature at first, he was mean to her, but slowly he started seeing more of the good in Hermione and started changing for her.

And even when he was immature, he still cared about Hermione and would protect her no matter what.

Let's remember how many times rubbish Ron stood up for Hermione against the brilliant bully Draco. 🥰

Let's remember how cowardly Ronald faced his fears of spiders to help Hermione (and the rest of the school, just how jerkier can he get?). 🥰

Let's remember how ridiculous Ronniekins stood up for Hermione against sensational Snape and got himself into detention (oh yes, this is the book version of the movie moment where Ron agrees with Snape about Hermione being an 'insufferable know-it-all'). 🥰

Let's remember how rotten Ronny comforted Hermione when she was worried about Hagrid and Buckbeak (and he even let her hug him and cry on his shoulder, how rude). 🥰

Let's remember how revolting Ronald sacrificed himself to save Harry and Hermione in the chess game. 🥰

Let's remember how horrendous Ron attempted to hex Draco when he used a slur that was meant to offend Hermione. 🥰

Keep in mind that all of these were done when Ron was still immature and still argued a lot with Hermione.

And these aren't even all.

8. "Ron and Hermione have a loveless marriage."

What the-

I'm sorry, I'm trying to be respectful here but this is crap. And the fact that the person said they also had "proof" from the c*rsed ch*ld but didn't want to spoil it-

As much as I hate the c*rsed ch*ld, I can tell you that it did its job portraying Ron and Hermione's unconditional love. Even in alternative realities, where they didn't get married, they were still in love.

And why would you even think that Ron and Hermione would marry and have kids if they didn't love each other? I need explainations.

Next.

9. "Ron never listens to Hermione."

I'm sorry, what? I'm genuinely confused??

What do you even mean by this? Yeah, they used to argue a lot, and? Ron thinks Hermione is brilliant and wonderful and he follows her advice. I can't recall a moment where Ron won't listen to Hermione, doesn't agree with her and ruins her plans. Anyone else?

Since this one is a big mess and a confusion, I'll move on to the next one until someone explains the points and arguments.

10. "Draco could make Hermione laugh while Ron couldn't."

....

Do I really need to say anything for this one?

Ron was the funniest one from the trio, that's why Harry enjoyed his company so much! Don't you remember the line in goblet of fire where Harry thinks about how much he misses having Ron as his best friend, because without him there's less fun and less laughs? I do.

But what I don't remember is finding Draco's sense of humor funny. I'm sorry but his intellectual level is almost as low as Crabbe and Goyle's. His insults are none other than Potty and Weaselbee, he only got 3 O.W.L.s and all of his jokes were stupid and dumb and their only purpose was insulting people he was jealous of.

These fanfics have rotten people's brains...😬

Anyways, I'm going to stop here. I've delayed this post for very long and I'm so excited to finally post it!

I read a book on wattpad by a dr*mione shipper and it was nothing but a giant headache. That's where I got all of these statements from. Most of the garbage in the book revolved around Draco and Hermione being inseparable and getting over all obstacles (wth) and other stupid stuff like that which really annoyed me. The book was called "why we love dr*mione" and it was by Bittenwizard. You can read and enjoy! Trust me, you'll have lots of content to post about after that 🤠👍

*I always try to be respectful to all ships, but sometimes some of them really anger me because the ships are either toxic or the arguments are plain trash. I'm sorry if I offend anyone.

Thank you for reading this. If you're a dr*mione shipper, I hope I've convinced you to give up the ship or come up with better arguments for it.

If you're an anti-dramione I hope you enjoyed the post. I'll delight you with more anti-toxic-ships content. :)

Thank you once again! <3

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 3 years

Note

What are your opinions on Draco x Harry

I mean, as you can probably guess, I’m not a fan.

Pretty much name your ship of the day and you can guess, “Oh, I bet Muffin hates that one too.” And you’d be right.

Also, to the Harry/Draco fan undoubtedly reading this post and feeling their ulcer starting to boil. Hello, welcome, please sit down and feel free to join the club of people I have grievously offended. So far including 1 Bellamort fan, 1 Ronmione fan, 1 Snape Stan.

Right, what are my thoughts on Draco/Harry...

Well, sort of like Dramione, it’s a ship with characters fandom has completely made up.

What do I mean?

Well, if we remember, in the books Harry is one scary dude. Especially when it comes to Draco.

Earlier books, Draco is just Harry’s schoolboy rival. And sure, Harry legitimately thinks Draco, a twelve-year-old, is petrifying the castle but Harry’s also very stupid. They get into spats now and then, Draco is the world’s largest brat, and they just get into various hijinks in their rivalry.

Half Blood Prince... Harry gets fucking scary. True, while he didn’t know what the spell he pointed at Draco did, his growing obsession throughout the book and the actions he took pointed towards... Well, had he not been caught or there was no danger of being caught, I’m sure he would have loved to murder Draco right then and there.

That Harry later saves Draco’s life in the next book never really felt that much about Draco. It was more that Harry likes to think of himself as a hero. I could have just as easily seen him leaving Draco Malfoy to burn alive.

So, what does Draco/Harry usually do about this? Well, they go one of two routes.

One, Harry’s obsession with and near murder of Draco Malfoy is played off as Harry’s secret attraction to Draco. See, he likes him, look how much attention he always pays to him!

Never mind that, had Draco been a female character, you’d have the fandom raging that Harry’s an abusive stalker. (Well, maybe, this fandom seems convinced Harry’s a cinnamon roll and too pure for this world).

Usually in this route Harry and Draco have one seriously messed up relationship, where they often near murder each other all the time, and it somehow turns into a relationship. That’s really just them murdering each other. What do I mean?

Well, let’s take one unnamed fic for an example.

The story is an AU where Harry and Draco get into fist fights nearly every night. And by fist fights I mean that Harry beats the ever loving shit out of Draco and Draco so loathes himself that he takes it. They do this for years, they hospitalize each other several times, Snape and McGonagall finally put their feet down and tell them to stop beating each other up in the hallway.

Then being around 15-16, Draco and Harry switch to molesting and raping each other instead. They have one seriously fucked up sexual relationship which, given the roughness, is still a lot like beating each other up within an inch of their lives.

Unfortunately, as the war goes on and after they graduate, Draco gets severe brain damage. This means no sex for Harry. Harry is very angsty about this and eventually breaks, he starts raping brain damaged Draco, only he tells himself it’s not rape because Draco seems to be responding. Maybe? Ginny tells Harry he is one messed up dude, Harry lives happily ever after raping brain damaged Draco Malfoy.

This fic has dozens of pieces of fan art and is beloved. There are many other fics that, while not quite this, involve a similar amount of dubious consent, rape, and more.

Behold, Draco/Harry at its core, a Nabokov worthy tale that no one wants to admit is a Nabokov worthy tale. Oh, they’ll call it angsty, but won’t admit just how messed up it is.

The other route is to pretend Harry’s not a fucked up dude and Draco’s not a whiny racist.

Harry will be made an inherently noble character who just... gets a little mad sometimes. But he’s an inherently good person who attracts the interest of Draco because of this nobility. Draco, in turn, wants to be a good person and doesn’t really believe the racism deep down, he just can’t get out.

This is... easier to read than the other versions, but we’re in a very strange AU where none of the characters match up to the original story. Draco and Harry are made much more palatable, and the story itself is usually diabetic levels of fluff. You need an insulin pump after all the cuddling you read through, my god.

And that’s usually the trouble, the stories are usually about nothing. Draco and Harry have misunderstandings, they get together, they cuddle, the end.

Though that said, on my scale of readability, Draco/Harry is more tolerable to me than Draco/Hermione. On my giant post of Harry Potter fic recs, there is not one Draco/Hermione, there is... might only be one Draco/Harry.

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry potter headcanon #harry potter shipping #anti harry potter #draco malfoy #anti draco malfoy #draco/harry #anti draco/harry #meta #headcanon #opinion

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theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin · 4 years

Note

I read your headcanons about James Potter and I’m really interested to hear your thoughts Sirius and regulus Black pls pls pls

Oh no.

Alright, strap in people, because I’m about to say some things that nobody will like.

Let’s start in alphabetical order with Regulus.

Fandom often sees Regulus as a reformed Death Eater, the redeemed villain, or else a cooler suaver version of Sirius steeped in pure blood culture, making him more palatable than many pureblood characters as a love interest. There’s a lot of fics of him having almost defeated Voldemort, coming back from the dead and actually defeating Voldemort, reconnecting with Sirius, showing Harry the cool pureblood ways without being racist, etc.

Well, I don’t really buy into any of that.

I think, even with his defection, Regulus was likely still a very racist character and never really disavowed the cause. True, he was young when he was sucked in, he had his whole family meltdown when Sirius was disowned and suddenly he was heir, but I do think he really did believe in blood purism and nothing from the books suggests that he died not believing in it. He just stopped believing in Voldemort.

Instead, I believe he discovered that Voldemort a) did not mean anything good for his culture and b) Voldemort was a fraud.

What do I mean by that?

Well, in the first case, I’ve always viewed Tom Riddle in that period in time as a hate filled nihilist who doesn’t really believe in what he preaches. It’s just convenient to him as the purebloods are the ones with the money and the power. There’s no point in him appealing to Dumbledore’s ilk as they’re far less likely to be able to make him king (also it would mean putting up with Dumbledore and his stupid speeches about love and friendship). Most of Voldemort’s actions throughout the books don’t make the muggle borns’ lives miserable (at least not until he gets into power) but makes hell of the purebloods’ lives and absolutely ruins them.

The Black family, in particular, he essentially wipes off the face of the Earth.

With that in mind, I imagine a young Regulus eventually came to realize that Voldemort was systematically destroying the great families from the inside to put himself in power. It was never about the muggleborns or the country, it was only ever about power.

Then we get to the other bit, Voldemort being a fraud. Unlike many, I believe the Death Eaters had no idea who Voldemort was. It’s too unbelievable to me that some guy named Tom Riddle, who their fathers all went to school with, who everyone knew as a muggle born impoverished orphan, could convince them all that he was the next Merlin who they should devote their lives (and their money) to. Tom’s charismatic, but he’s not that charismatic. Better for Tom Riddle to just disappear entirely and show up as the Count of Monte Cristo, descendent of Salazar Slytherin himself, impressing all the young heirs while their young, angry, and stupid.

With Regulus finding out that his great leader is actually just the halfblood son of a squib, the whole movement falls apart. Regulus is a pawn, fighting for nothing he believes in. Now, that said, I don’t think Regulus ever figured out who exactly, Tom was. He clearly knew the name, as we see from the locket, but just knowing that Riddle is a muggle last name would be enough to know that Voldemort was nothing he presented as.

Basically, Regulus becomes extremely disillusioned with the Death Eaters and Voldemort in a few short years. The change he wanted to see sweeping the country doesn’t happen. Instead the violence, which he was initially very excited for (guys, Regulus did join a domestic terrorist organization and I will not cut him slack for that, he was excited to blow up some muggle borns) is pointless and hurting their own people as opposed to the muggle borns.

During all of this we have Kreacher borrowed by Voldemort for the creepy horcrux placement. This certainly makes Regulus go “hm” and he’s clever enough to put together on his own that the locket must be a horcrux.

That said, I do not believe he knew enough about Tom Riddle to have been able to hunt down the rest or even know where or what they would be. Dumbledore had been paranoidly collecting memories of Tom Riddle’s entire goddamn life and relying on the plot convenient aspect that Tom was apparently so much of a romantic he never left his horcruxes anywhere but Britain and always left them in very noticeable sentimental objects. Regulus knew about the locket because of Kreacher, had he lived, he’d have no idea where the hell else to start.

So that’s Regulus for you, a fairly intelligent, yet youthfully stupid, extremist whose dream did not live up to the reality and probably still would have spat in Hermione’s face had the gang resurrected him from being a lake zombie.

As for Sirius, well, he’s James the asshole times a thousand to the point where he makes some “ha ha, very funny, but actually really this is horrifying” decisions.

I guess we’ll start back when he’s young.

We don’t see much of the young Sirius, and granted, what we do directly is given to us by a very bitter, resentful, and biased Severus Snape but his actions still read a lot like pretty much any Stephen King bully villain. The scene where they’re tormenting Snape (and Snape drops the slur, Lily abandoning him) is horrifying to read. And it’s clearly one of many moments over many years of this group of boys sexually harassing him (and yes, that was sexual harassment guys, let’s not pull out stops here).

Then we get to the joke with Lupin that... really wasn’t a joke.

The flimsy excuse we’re given in canon is that a) it was all in good fun b) Snape was so much of a coward he’d never actually go to the Shrieking Shack because he’s a big chicken. Bawk bawk bawk, Snivellus the chicken. But, well, these excuses are flimsy.

When you get down to the bare bones of it what Sirius did there was attempted murder via his chronically ill best friend. It’s one of those actions that I simply cannot justify, even had Sirius not thought it all the way through, as boys will be boys. What was the good outcome there? Snape sees Lupin and shrieks in terror? (Only to probably run to some authority and try to get the uncontrolled werewolf the fuck off of campus, nice going Sirius) Snape gets infected with lycanthropy? Snape dies, Lupin wakes up covered in blood with the horror of knowing he ate a classmate?

Later, we do get Sirius sort of apologizing for his behavior. But it’s at best a ‘sort of’ apology. He never admits the full horror of what he did, just how relentlessly brutal he was to Snape, or what the werewolf thing really would have ended in. Instead he goes, “yeah, James and I were kind of assholes. He grew up though, Lily married him so he couldn’t be an ass anymore! And it was Snape, Come on, Harry, it was Snape.” And Harry, messed up asshole that he himself is goes, “Yeah, it was Snape! Stupid Snape!”

I also never got the feeling he ever fully apologized to Remus. Sirius used Remus in the worst of ways, made it clear he had no respect for Remus and no compassion for his condition, and continues to treat him as a sort of secondary friend to James. I think it says a lot that Remus was able and willing to believe Sirius was guilty of murdering James and Lily in cold blood.

Which probably gives you a hint that I think Remus/Sirius would never happen except in the most toxic of ways possible.

Basically, in a fair world, Sirius should have been expelled if not tried for the werewolf incident. However, Dumbledore plays favorites and chose the sons of two lords as opposed to the poor half blood (which I imagine cemented Snape’s path to becoming a Death Eater). And so there is some cruel irony in that Sirius was eventually jailed for something, even though it was something he didn’t do.

Now, after Azkaban, Sirius seems to have mellowed out a lot. While he’s a bit unhinged and thoughtless (his rescue attempt of Harry’s rescue attempt at the end of Order of the Phoenix) a lot of this can be seen as after effects of his stay in literally hell on Earth for over ten years.

That said, a lot of people see him as the cool uncle character who, if Harry had been able to live with him, all would have been well. I firmly disagree. Young Sirius was, well, god knows how warped Harry would have been growing up with a young and reckless Sirius Black. After prison he’s in no condition to take care of Harry, and even says as much multiple times. Sirius is cool to hang around at a distance, but up close and personal he’d be very messed up and not at all ready to be a father to a teenage boy.

Otherwise, Sirius was very very very gay for James Potter. Unfortunately for him, James Potter was straight and into Lily Evans. I’m sure it was a very sad day for Sirius when Lily actually said yes to James. Except not really, because James always strikes me as a “bros before hos” kind of dude. Not that I’m sure if Sirius ever admitted he was gay and in love with James, I’ve always been of the belief that pureblood culture is extremely homophobic and it just... wouldn’t come up.

So there it is, now excuse me while I go hide behind this barrier before I get eaten alive.

#harry potter #head canons #regulus black #sirius black #remus lupin #severus snape #ask #anon

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ilikefandom · 3 years

Text

A Midnight Waltz

Request: So I saw your one-shots about Sev, Can I request some fluff Snape x reader. BTW I love your writing skills and your one-shots <3 <3

Requested By: Anon

Genre: Fluff

Synopsis: (Y/n) arrives at Hogwarts the same year as Umbridge. After Dumbledore spills the beans about Sev and her relationship, they take to the halls near the Ravenclaw dorm.

Pairing(s): Severus Snape x Fem Reader

Warning: None

When the train arrived at the station, all of the Hogwarts students began to scramble on. September the first, traveling day, was exciting for all students and the Golden Trio was no different. Their fifth year at Hogwarts was about to start and Hermione was already seated on the train, a large text book on her lap.

Harry and Ron sat across from her having a thumb war, something that Harry had taught Ron while at 12 Grimmauld Place. The train was going to leave any minute and they could see parents waving at their children. Hermione closed her book and put it back into her trunk.

As Ron was pinning Harry’s thumb a slight knock on the compartment door made the teenagers jump. A pretty, young woman gave a smile and waved at them. Hermione opened the door after she regained her senses.

“Hello,” she said, “Might I come in? Everywhere else is full.”

“Absolutely.” Hermione said. “Are you in seventh year?”

“No, I’m a new teacher. My name is (Y/n), what are yours?” (Y/n) shook Hermione’s hand and took the seat next to her.

“It’s nice to meet you Professor (Y/n), I’m Hermione Granger.” Hermione kicked Harry’s leg.

“I’m Harry Potter.”

“Ron Weasley.”

“Well it’s nice to meet all of you! Are any of you in Ancient Runes?” (Y/n) asked her smile widening.

Harry, a bit taken aback by her disregard of his fame, gave her a huge smile.

“Hermione is.” Ron explained, Hermione shooting him an evil glare.

“That is excellent Ms. Granger, and I assume all of you are taking potions.” (Y/n) nodded her head. “As it is mandatory.”

“Professor Snape is the worst.” Harry said looking out the window as the train shifted and began to move towards Hogwarts.

“And why is that?” (Y/n) asked, her features growing cold, frosting over her optimism.

“He gives way too much homework and is always picking on students who mess up.” Ron spat as he picked at a fraying hem on his jumper.

“Oh I see,” (Y/n)’s sunshine came through the cloudiness of the sour look she had given Harry. “Should I leave you to yourselves? There is probably a teachers compartment somewhere.”

“That was rude!” Hermione said, crossing her arms and looking at her friends. “She could be Snape’s sister for all you know!”

“She’s too pretty to be related to him!” Ron scoffed.

Harry looked at the teacher in front of him. “I’m sorry professor, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“Mr. Potter you didn’t offend me. I didn’t realize that Severus made you that uncomfortable.”

“Professor did you go to Hogwarts?”

“Yes Mr. Potter. I was a (Y/h) and prefect.” She looked around, as if checking for bugs, “I was in the same year as Regulus.”

Harry looked at her in shock, “Are you an Order member?”

Ron and Hermione stopped bickering to look at the professor with wide eyes. “Harry!” Hermione gasped

“Yes, Mr. Potter I am.” (Y/n) smiled. “So is my husband. The order is a much larger organization than you think.”

“What does your husband do?” Ron asked curiosity, winning over his better judgement.

“He’s a Hogwarts professor as well.”

“What does he teach?” Hermione asked, and (Y/n) winked at her.

“That’s for me to know and you not to find out. Now that I’ve played this game of twenty questions with you, I’d better disapparate, trains make me motion sick.” (Y/n) took out her wand and made her way to the door. “It has been nice getting to know all of you.”

With that, she spun and, with a small crack, disappeared into thin air.

Harry smiled at his friends. This would be an interesting year.

“If she’s going to be teaching Ancient Runes, who do you think will be taking on the Defense Against the Dark Arts banner?” Harry asked, looking at his two friends.

“Can’t be worse than last year.” Ron said, continuing to pick at the loose thread. “A death eater in disguise,”

Hermione gave a chuckle and the train chugged forward to their school.

When the Hogwarts express pulled up to the station and the students disembarked, the group of Gryffindors exited the carriage began to walk toward the thestral coaches.

The feast was about to begin. The tables were lined with newly sorted students and the chatter grew quiet as Dumbledore stood.

“Good evening children, now we have three changes in staffing this year. I am pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank who will be taking Care of Magical Creatures, while Professor Hagrid is on temporary leave.” Professor Dumbledore nodded at the older woman.

“We also wish to welcome our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Delores Umbridge. And I’m sure you will all join me in wishing the Professor good luck. Finally…” Dubledore, continued until he was interrupted by a fake throat clearing.

Everyone turned to face the woman clad in pink sitting near the end of the table. She than made her way to the front of the room.

“Thank you, headmaster.” She began, “For those kind works welcome, and how lovely to see all of your bright happy faces smiling up at me. I’m sure that we’re all going to be very good friends.”

Nobody was smiling at her and (Y/n) wondered if this was going to be Umbridge’s schtick all year. The other woman continued, “The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance, although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school.”

Dumbledore looked just as annoyed with her as the rest of the school.

“Progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected and prune practices that ought to be prohibited.” Umbridge, obviously did not or could not read the room because the only person interested in her speech was Filch.

“Thank you Professor Umbridge. Now, as I was saying,” Dumbledore continued, “we must welcome our new Ancient Runes teacher, Hogwarts Alumni, Professor (Y/n) Snape.”

(Y/n) stood and smiled at the Golden Trio, winking at Ron who looked at her in shock.

“She is married to Professor Severus Snape, and I would advise that you treat all three of the new professors with the utmost respect.”

After the feast was over (Y/n) and Severus made their way back to the teacher dorms. “I love you.” She said, filling the silence with her sweet smile.

“And I love you, my dear.” Severus replied, taking her hand in his.

“How long has it been since we last waltzed?” (Y/n) asked her brooding husband, quoting one of her favorite characters.

Severus smiled at her, “Hours.”

He took her hand and, in the dark hallway, they began to sway to music that only the two of them could hear.

As the students made their way to their dorms, any and all Ravenclaws who went up one hallway too soon saw the bat and his bride, gliding over the floor, they only saw each other. The shadows that spread across the wizarding world could not touch their light. The war that lay in front of them could not frighten two adults so in love as them.

Author’s note: Some diolouge taken from the OOtP movie. Please send in requests. I hope all of you lovely readers enjoy.

#severus snape #severus snape x reader #severus snape x you #harry potter x reader #Harry Potter #fem reader #Reader is female #please request things #fluff

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