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braverytaught · 5 years

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☯ + a Snape-shaped hole in the window.

send a canon scene for me to write from minerva’s perspective || accepting? i guess?

Minerva’s mind is reeling.

Her body is moving with calm purpose. This is a skill she has developed over many, many years as a professor and, dare she say it, occasional fighter – the ability to let a veneer of businesslike practicality run the show even when her brain is scrambling to catch up. She’s marching swiftly down the corridors, and to anyone else’s eye she would look like a solitary figure roused from her bed, still in her dressing gown. But she is keenly aware of the invisible footsteps pattering along behind her as she descends Ravenclaw tower and hurries through the castle.

She had not been sleeping, before Amycus’s yelling had drawn her from her quarters to investigate. How could she? After Terry Boot’s outburst about Potter and dragons at dinner, after the terse orders Snape and his pet Death Eaters had given to the rest of the staff, their manner somewhere between frightened and excited, warning them not to speak with the students…They were expecting something, clearly. Whether it had to do with Potter or not, whether those rumors about the dragon had any truth or not, Minerva didn’t know – but she could not rest on a night when Death Eaters were feeling anticipatory.

And yet the last thing she had expected was to have two fugitive teenagers trotting invisible at her heels, planning to make a stand against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself. The last thing she expected was to be planning siege tactics in her head, composing a list of the best defensive spells they can muster as her Patronuses streak away to tell Pomona, Filius, and Horace to prepare to fight.

To prepare to fight.

Even as alarm and fear hastens her footsteps, even as her body aches from the abuse it has taken over the past year, the thought puts a steel strength in her step, a fresh elation of defiance. She did not expect this. She did not dare hope or fear for it on this night. But she is ready for it. If this is truly the day when all things come to a head, if Potter says that his mission here is important enough to risk the wrath of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in person, then she is ready to put herself between them.

She is ready to take her home back.

A sound. A faint footstep apart from the invisible ones just behind her. Minerva draws in her breath as she draws out her wand, falling without thought into a dueling stance. “Who’s there?”

“It is I.” And Severus Snape’s dark eyes glitter in the light from her wand as he steps out from behind a suit of armor.

Minerva meets his gaze, and feels the usual swoop of cold anger in her gut. Unlike her, he is not in nightclothes; clearly he’s been ready and waiting for something to happen. His eyes bore into her, and she closes her mind at once, putting up the Occlumantic walls she’d learned to build long ago, during the first war. She is no great Occlumens, but she can put up enough resistance to make him work for it. There was a time I never hid my mind from you, Severus, she thinks bitterly.

“Where are the Carrows?”

“Wherever you told them to be, I expect, Severus,” she says with icy politeness. She does not lower her wand. Somewhere behind her are Potter and Lovegood; she prays they have the sense to stay silent.

But Severus, keen as always, is glancing around the corridor as if trying to sense the presence of the Cloak. Can you read a mind you cannot see, if you suspect it is there? she wonders suddenly. But no – Legilimency requires eye contact. Severus could discover Potter’s presence, but not without overt spellcasting. He only suspects; he cannot know.

“I was under the impression that Alecto had apprehended an intruder.”

“Really? And what gave you that impression?” But it’s a foolish question, as made clear as Severus flexes his arm slightly. Of course. He would have felt Alecto press her Mark, just as Amycus had – so he knows that, if Potter is not here, then Alecto at least believes him to be.

“Oh, but naturally.” Her voice drips with derision. “You Death Eaters have your own private means of communication, I forgot.”

His eyes are still flittering about the air around her. At the very least that means he isn’t focusing on her mind, little comfort that it is. Look at me, you snake. She’d rather his focus be on her, distracted from his attempts to divine Potter’s presence. Again she prays he has the sense to stay still and silent. He’s never been good at holding back, as his stunt with Amycus back there proved –

“I did not know it was your night to patrol the corridors, Minerva.”

“You have some objection?”

“I wonder what could have brought you out of bed at this late hour?” How long, she wonders, will they keep up this dance they’ve been doing all year? Pretending at civility. Pretending that they do not hate each other. I will not forgive you, Severus, for earning my trust and then betraying it. All year, she has treated him with the greatest disdain she can muster, while still deferring to his station as headmaster. Barely. Enough to keep her in the castle. Enough to keep her post, even while she takes swipes at him where she can and blocks him at all possible turns. It has been a months-long game of cat and mouse – or cat and snake – and she is ready to drop the pretense.

“I thought I heard a disturbance.” That is putting Amycus’s bellowing mildly.

“Really? But all seems calm.”

And now, now he is looking into her eyes, those black irises boring into hers, pressing against her walls. A skilled and delicate Legilimens such as Severus can slink into your mind without you ever knowing, but she is resisting, and so she can feel the weight of his magic beginning to drive itself through her defenses. She can resist, but she has never overstated her own power; Severus is a more skillful Legilimens than she is an Occlumens. If she stands here and does nothing, he will see Potter, not in the corridor behind her, but in her own mind.

“Have you seen Harry Potter, Minerva? Because if you have, I must insist–”

And she moves. Without warning, without hesitation, drawing on all her experience as a duelist, Minerva slashes her wand through the air, the spell a mere flash of intent in her mind. But he was prepared, of course – his Shield Charm blossoms with a force such that she feels the push of his magic scattering her own.

But she is already reacting. And in a terrible, visceral way, it feels good, meeting Severus’s narrowed eyes in the flamelight of the torch she pulls from its bracket. No more holding back her anger, her wrath. No more trying to protect her students with words or evasions or silent standoffs. No more watching her home and the people she loves suffer and wither under the brutal hand of a man she had once called an ally.

Finally, he will feel the true heat of her fury.

She sends the flames toward Severus in a lash of fire that he transforms into a serpent – of course a snake, does the man have no imagination – that she, quick as thought, dissipates into smoke, and she turns the smoke into knives, and this is why you should have paid attention in your lessons, Severus, because potions are revenge served cold, but this is what Transfiguration can do, it is precise and unforgiving and deadly, and she wields it like a master; her very wand is made for it.

The daggers fly too fast for him to Vanish or Transfigure, and Minerva takes brutal satisfaction in watching him avoid them only by hiding behind a suit of armor. Your chest next time, she does not have time to think but rather intends. There are many things she does not have time to think, but they are there anyway, in the swiftness of her arm, in the magic crackling beneath her skin, in the fierce line of her lips. This is for my students and my friends. This is for betraying my trust. This is for Albus. This is for Hogwarts.

Filius’s voice squeaks out from behind her, but Minerva doesn’t break her gaze, doesn’t let any of her focus leave Severus Snape. She raises her wand again, preparing to Transfigure the very metal Severus is cowering behind, but Filius beats her to it, and she hastily dispels the building magic as his own takes over, animating the armor. But Severus wriggles out of it, as he does everything, and sends it flying back toward them. And he does not stay and fight, he does not stand – he flees, as he always does.

Not this time.

Minerva chases after him, her tall frame pushing her ahead of her colleagues, but she is not as fast as a man thirty years her junior, and he skids into a classroom before she can raise her wand to bind him. Always running, always sneaking, always choosing survival over morals, over principle, over everything but his own worthless hide – she enters the classroom just in time to see him dive through the window, and her Stunning Spell shoots through the broken glass, hitting nothing.

“Coward!” she screams, and the hatred is raw in her throat, rage rasping against her vocal cords as she leans against the window frame to watch the dark shape speeding away into the night. “COWARD!” She knows it to be his least favorite word, the deepest insult one can wield against him, and she screams it in the hope that it will echo in his ears all the way off the grounds.

Very well, she thinks with furious resolve as her colleagues catch up to her, peering out the window with exclamations of anger and dismay. Very well. Severus Snape has left the castle.

She will make sure he never sets foot in it again.

#y'all ever think about how minerva mcgonagall straight up sent daggers flying at snape's heart #'then horace we duel to kill' she mEANT IT #under a cut bc it's long #and honestly i could have kept going but i had to. cut it off there or it would never end #this is eight months late but i stan a ruthless queen #what are my fucking tags #; owl post ( answered. )#v: snakes among us ( deathly hallows. )#anyway this prompt could've just meant the moment they saw snape jump through the window and what followed but #i could not resist the chance to write out that duel #it was an interesting challenge bc i think in action scenes like that shorter is better #it's so blinding-quick in the book and it's great that way #but at the same time i wanted to put some of minerva's introspection into it for y'all #so i hope i did a decent job of that without slowing the momentum of those few moments too much!!#nickyrp

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bibliophilicwitch · 5 years

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3 0 D A Y S O F D E V O T I O N | M O R P H E U S

D A Y F O U R | A favorite myth or myths of this deity

There is only one, but I’ll share the excerpt from Ovid’s Metamorphoses:

"[Hera commands the messenger Iris summon Dream :] ‘Iris (Rainbow), my voice’s trustiest messenger, hie quickly to the drowsy hall of Somnus (Sleep) [Hypnos], and bid him send a Dream of Ceyx drowned to break the tidings to [his wife] Alcyone.’

Then Iris, in her thousand hues enrobed traced through the sky her arching bow and reached the cloud-hid palace of the drowsy king [the God of Sleep] … Around him everywhere in various guise lie empty Somnia (Dreams) [Oneiroi], countless as ears of corn at harvest time or sands cast on the shore or leaves that fall upon the forest floor.

There Iris entered, brushing the Somnia (Dreams) aside, and the bright sudden radiance of her robe lit up the hallowed place; slowly the god his heavy eyelids raised, and sinking back time after time, his languid drooping head nodding upon his chest, at last he shook himself out of himself, and leaning up he recognized her and asked why she came, and she replied : ‘Somnus (Sleep) [Hypnos], quietest of the gods, Somnus, peace of all the world, balm of the soul, who drives care away, who gives ease to weary limbs after the hard day’s toil and strength renewed to meet the morrow’s tasks, bid now thy Dreams, whose perfect mimicry matches the truth, in Ceyx’s likeness formed appear in Trachis to Alcyone and feign the shipwreck and her dear love drowned. So Juno [Hera] orders.’

Then, her task performed, Iris departed, for she could no more endure the power of Somnus, as drowsiness stole seeping through her frame, and fled away back o'er the arching rainbow as she came. The father Somnus (Sleep) chose from among his sons, his thronging thousand sons, one who in skill excelled to imitate the human form; Morpheus his name, than whom none can present more cunningly the features, gait and speech of men, their wonted clothes and turn of phrase. He mirrors only men; another forms the beasts and birds and the long sliding snakes. The gods have named him Icelos; here below the tribe of mortals call him Phobetor. A third, excelling in an art diverse, is Phantasos; he wears the cheating shapes of earth, rocks, water, trees–inanimate things. To kings and chieftains these at night display their phantom features; other dreams will roam among the people, haunting common folk. All these dream-brothers the old god passed by and chose Morpheus alone to undertake Thaumantias’ [Iris’] commands; then in sweet drowsiness on his high couch he sank his head to sleep.

Soon through the dewy dark on noiseless wings flew Morpheus and with brief delay arrived at Trachis town and, laying his wings aside, took Ceyx’s [ghostly] form and face and, deathly pale and naked, stood beside the poor wife’s bed. His beard was wet and from his sodden hair the sea-drips flowed; then leaning over her, weeping, he said : ‘Poor, poor Alcyone! Do you know me, your Ceyx? Am I changed in death? Look! Now you see, you recognize–ah! Not your husband but your husband’s ghost. Your prayers availed me nothing. I am dead. Feed not your heart with hope, hope false and vain. A wild sou'wester in the Aegaeum sea, striking my ship, in its huge hurricane destroyed her. Over my lips, calling your name–calling in vain–the waters washed. These tidings no dubious courier brings, no vague report: myself, here, shipwrecked, my own fate reveal. Come, rise and weep! Put on your mourning! Weep! Nor unlamented suffer me to join the shadowy spirits of Tartara (the Underworld).’

So Morpheus spoke, spoke too in such a voice as she must think her husband’s (and his tears she took for true), and used her Ceyx’ gestures. Asleep, she moaned and wept and stretched her arms to hold him, but embraced the empty air. ‘Oh wait for me!’ she cried, ‘Why haste away? I will come too.’

Roused by her voice’s sound and by her husband’s ghost, now wide awake, she looked … but found him nowhere … She cried, ‘… He is dead, shipwrecked and drowned. I saw him, knew him, tried to hold him–as he vanished–in my arms. He was a ghost, but yet distinct and clear, truly my husband’s ghost, though to be sure his face was changed, his shining grace was gone. Naked and deathly pale, with dripping hair, I saw him–woe is me!’”

Ovid, Metamorphoses 11. 585 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) – Theoi.com

tag | credit

#text #personal #spiritual related #morpheus #morpheus*#30 days of morpheus #30 days of a devotion

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under-the-lake · 6 years

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It Has To Be You - Fantastic Beasts The Second: What we know (or don’t) so far

WARNING: SPOILERS (writing this 9-10th August 2018)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - The Crimes of Grindelwald, Second Film of the five-film franchise, coming out 16th November 2018… already there! Can’t wait, to be honest. However, there’s some clues that have been dropped by the Wizarding Community online and that can allow us some kind of anticipatory excitement. Here’s a sort of summary, along with some personal thoughts and dug out information, because why bother only summarize when you can actually think?

Let’s start with the trailers, shall we?

Teaser trailer from Pottermore (PM - posted 13th March 2018): https://www.pottermore.com/news/watch-the-first-trailer-for-fantastic-beasts-the-crimes-of-grindelwald

Second official trailer : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlCKOG9ut8g

Short ID

Warner Bros., Heyday Films, 2018, directed by David Yates, screenplay by Joanne K. Rowling, music by James N. Howard.

Setting: London, Hogwarts, Cliffs of Dover, Muggle and Wizarding Paris (we get to see the local equivalent of Diagon Alley - entrance via a statue), New York, (maybe Godric’s Hollow?), 1927, plus at least Hogwarts in the early 1900s.

Main Characters: Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), The Niffler, Pickett, Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), Tina and Queenie Goldstein (Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol), Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) and his Obscurus.

Secondary Characters: Leta Lestrange (Zoë Krawitz), Nicolas Flamel (Brontis Jodorowski), Seraphina Piquery (Carmen Ejogo), Theseus Scamander (Newt’s brother, Callum Turner), Maledictus (Claudia Kim), Skender (owner of the Circus Arcanus, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson), Abernathy (a Macusa supervisor, Kevin Guthrie), Vinda Rosier (Poppy Corby-Tuech), Spielman (Wolf Roth), Bunty (Newt’s assistant, Victoria Yeates), Torquil Travers (Derek Riddell), Arnold Guzman (Cornell S. John), Yusuf Kama (William Nadylam), Eulalie Hicks (Jessica Williams), Mrs Lestrange (Sabine Crossen), Laurena Kama (Isaura Barbé-Brown), Credence’s Aunt (Linda Santiago).

Rough plot outlines:

The series ranges from 1926 to 1945, when Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald and Tom Riddle graduated from Hogwarts. See… there’s no end to evil, only keeping it at bay.

The story of The Crimes of Grindelwald is set just after the first film. If you remember well, in 1926, Newt was in New York apparently buying an Appaloosa Puffskein and unofficially releasing his Thunderbird back in Arizona. He gets into trouble because of a 21-year old Obscurial, Credence Barebone, and is condemned to death along with his friend Porpentina Goldstein, by Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) supervisor Percival Graves. Miss Goldstein was at the time a dismissed Auror from MACUSA - she was investigating the New Salem Philanthropic Society - NSPS - against the orders of her superiors. They escape, along with Tina’s sister Queenie and a No-Maj (US word for Muggle), Jacob Kowalski. The group eventually confronts Percival Graves in the Subway tunnel, and in front of Seraphina Picquery (head of MACUSA) and her crew, they uncover Gellert Grindelwald under the traits of Graves. Grindelwald is taken into custody. Kowalski is Obliviated, along with apparently all the Muggles in New York, by some weird rain that raised a lot of questions, the Thunderbird flies to Arizona and Newt returns to the UK.

In 1927, Newt’s book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, has been published, Grindelwald has escaped MACUSA and is gathering followers. He wants to expose the Magical Community, and advocates Wizard supremacy over Muggles. Sounds familiar. Newt is sent to Paris by Dumbledore to track down the Dark Wizard, and the Ministry of Magic people don’t seem exactly ecstatic about that. Credence has survived and is becoming more powerful, apparently siding with a mysterious cursed woman called Maledictus who works for a non less mysterious circus called Arcanus. We can imagine that Tina, reinstated Auror for MACUSA, has been sent to track Grindelwald, and she and Newt meet again, together with Queenie and Jacob.

Apparently, from the trailers, we’ll be back at Hogwarts during Newt’s school years but also later.

What Has Been Disclosed So Far

‘Following the declassification of certain secret documents kept at the Ministry of Magic, the wizarding world has recently learned a little more about the creation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I am not yet in a position to tell the full story of my activities during the two decades that Gellert Grindelwald terrorised the wizarding world. As more documents become declassified over the coming years, I will be freer to speak openly about my role in that dark period of our history.

[...]

It is true that I was the first ever person to capture Gellert Grindelwald and also true that Albus Dumbledore was something more than a schoolteacher to me. More than this I cannot say without fear of breaching the Official Magical Secrets Act or, more importantly, the confidences that Dumbledore, most private of men, place in me.’

(Scamander, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2017, pp. x and xii)

A poster made by MinaLima for the Comic Con of San Diego this year reveals a lot (see picture below): People (Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Credence and Maledictus, Leta and Theseus), locations (Hogwarts, London, Paris), a Thestral-driven carriage, the Deathly Hallows and a Snake...

To start with, Grindelwald is free. That was pretty obvious though. It looks like Seraphina Picquery’s cells and measures of protection weren’t enough. In the trailer Grindelwald is seen in a thestral-drawn carriage (I thought the only tame ones were at Hogwarts, and only after Hagrid tamed them, so way later), wands pointing at him. The two men driving the carriage look like back-dressed Willy Wonkas :P and the carriage is followed by two people on broomsticks. What happened? Grindelwald is still with long hair and beard so when does this take place?

Once free, Grindelwald is making his point to a big crowd, trying to convince them to follow him. His inner wish is of course wizard supremacy over Muggles and other non-magical beings like Squibs. His ‘official’ version is that wizards shouldn’t be in hiding. He’s seen working with a woman holding a skull, who is Vinda Rosier (another ancestor to Death Eater Evan Rosier? Even the first names sound similar).

Grindelwald has his own logo, apparently, that looks like two letters ‘G’ put back to back, and that actually resemble a distorted swastika…. (see zoomed picture above). Well, the film takes place during one of the darkest periods of European history, namely the one during which rough extreme dictatorships rose... We don’t see it in the trailer (or I’m really blind), but we can assume that Grindelwald has already stolen the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch. The crew made Dumbledore’s first wand similar to the Elder one, though, as seen on a tweeted picture.. I am not sure if I like it yet.

A second major news is that we’re going back to Hogwarts, on two distinct occurences in time, it seems. The first is 1927, while what seems like a delegation of the Ministry of Magic (MoM - that has a different logo then, more in the fashion of the times) comes to confront Dumbledore about his use of Newt Scamander on a mission in Paris. It makes sense to think they are MoM people because among them is Theseus Scamander, Newt’s brother, who is Head of the Auror Office at the time. Along with him on the MoM team is a bloke called Travers. Rings a bell? His family tree has a Death Eater on it, later in the 20th century. The lines from the trailer are the following:

MoM Official: ‘There’s a rumour that Newt Scamander is headed to Paris. I know that he’s working under your orders. What do you have to say for yourself, Dumbledore?’

Dumbledore: ‘Well, if you ever had the pleasure to teach him, you’d know Newt is not a great follower of orders.’

However, Dumbledore and Newt have a meeting that has to be secret (since it’s shot on the roof of St Paul’s cathedral, London), and that tends to back up the idea that Newt is working ‘for’ Dumbledore. Moreover, Newt owes Dumbledore, who made a strong case for Newt not to be expelled from Hogwarts, as we learnt in the first film.

The second occasion on which we visit Hogwarts is during Newt’s school years as a Hufflepuff boy there. Maybe we’ll have more details about his relationship with Leta Lestrange. We know he loved her, and shared her passion for creatures. When one of Leta’s experiments with a Jarvey went wrong, Newt took the blame to prevent her from being expelled. Dumbledore defended Newt, and we don’t know if the expulsion finally took place or not. However, Newt could keep his wand, which would tend to back up the theory according to which he could stay at Hogwarts and graduate. What also backs up this theory is the fact that he’s been working for the MoM, which wouldn’t have hired someone without top grades in N.E.W.T.s so... yeh. Not expelled, I believe. We also know that later, Leta fell for Newt’s brother Theseus and got engaged to him.

One of the trailer scenes pictures Newt taking over a Boggart. The film crew placed the same cupboard in the DADA classroom as in the Prisoner of Azkaban film, which is all right given the period, I mean on an antiques point of view. Why assume that Boggarts would be hidden in the same cupboard, though? Moreover, who is teaching DADA but Dumbledore. That doesn’t make sense at all. That being said, Newt’s Boggart is funny: a desk full of in-trays and papers (see picture above). Because his worst fear is to be made to work in an office (that’s what he says in the trailer).

To stay with Newt a bit longer, do you remember how he did not have a Wand Permit for the USA? Well, his travelling troubles seem to have no end. From some official documents, we can see that his MoM Travel Permit is pending, because ‘subject uncooperative and evasive on reasons for last trip’. If it had only been a trip to collect data for his book he would not have been evasive or uncooperative…. (picture below)

Among the latest news, we learn that Newt wanted to go back to New York once his book was launched. He didn’t seek celebrity, he wanted to find Tina. Unfortunately for his introvert self, his book is a success. Redmayne says ‘Newt has been grounded in London and unable to leave.’ (Buzzfeed, 10.8.2018). In the same post we learn that Newt has a basement to his London apartment, that Rowling intended as a creature hospital. It is actually an extension of Newt’s suitcase, and is apparently bottomless. The entrance is…. You’ll never guess…. Via a cupboard under the stairs! I’m NOT taking the mickey.

Something unexpected, maybe is the appearance of a well-known prop. The trailer shows lights being sucked from street lamps. That can mean only one thing: Dumbledore had already invented the Deluminator (aka Put-Outer) in 1927. Who’s using it though? The shadows won’t yet reveal the answer. Is the use Ron Weasley put it to going to be displayed too?

Another point that has been fantasised about is Credence. Credence has survived the blasting in the Subway tunnel, and is now more powerful and seems more angry than ever. At one point in the first trailer, he is in the circus and frees some kind of creatures from a glass ball, or so it looks like at least. He’s also seen intensely looking at the posters advertising the circus….

From one fishy character to another… Who is Maledictus? She is Credence’s companion as it appears. She is said to bear a blood curse that transforms her into a beast, and that she’s one of the attractions of the Circus Arcanus, owned by Skender, currently on tour in Paris. One of the posters says ‘Snake Girl’... and Maledictus means ‘cursed’ but also ‘ill spoken’. We also know that the Circus was on tour in New York late 1926, and left only at the beginning of January 1927 to cross the Pond to France. Hm….. could Credence and Maledictus have met before? Or is it a new acquaintance? Why would Credence be in Paris otherwise?

The most unexpected visit to the film might be that of Nicolas Flamel. It makes sense since he lives in Paris (or does he still? We know from the Dumbledore Frog Card from 1991 that he lives in Devon), but I wonder what is going to be his role. He meets Jacob, that’s sure, from the trailer. Will he be meeting Dumbledore? Some kind of alchemical discussion could be really nice, and offer a rest in the probably action-packed-CGI-ed film. It appears from pictures that Newt will at some point hold an alchemical symbol, which, if I remember well, is that of gold. It’s a circle with a dot in the middle. What significance to this? Link with the Hallows? Or the Philosopher’s Stone?

Another point is that there’s a hint, on Pottermore, that the film will show us younger versions of the main characters. Does that mean yet another flashback? Apparently. That fits the fact that we are to see Newt at school, in the early 1900s, but it also says that there is going to be a younger Grindelwald. Would that mean that maybe we could have a glimpse of that visit he payed to his great-aunt Bagshot in Godric’s Hollow the summer after Dumbledore graduated?

Let’s move to Creatures: the series is called Fantastic Beasts, after all. Pickett is back, and the Niffler. There’s all sorts of other creatures. In the trailer, Newt is seen riding an underwater creature. What could it be? A water dragon (he’s been training dragons for WW1, after all), a Kelpie (but it would likely eat him)? There’s also some sort of weird bird I’d say is an Augurey, and Thestrals. That bird appears to be sort of controversial in its determination: I mean that some people think it’s a Fwooper. Well, according to Scamander, in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the book, of course, Fwoopers are brightly coloured, which this bird is not. As a pet, it would be quite dangerous to have one, since it’s cry drives one mad. Moreover, It doesn’t match Rowling’s illustration for it at all. The bird from the trailer does, however, match the description of an Auguery a bit more: a vulture-like creature (all right it has feathers on its head, vultures, as scavengers, don’t), blueish grey, used as a home weather-forecaster.

Ok this kills me: there are going to be BABY NIFFLERS! FantasticBeasts retweeted a post about that and here’s the picture in there.

This is not a joke, There are really baby Nifflers. There are four different colours actually, as published by PM today 10th August. One adult Niffler was already some kind of a Weasley twin.... what about FOUR?

Here they are:

And HA another of their tweets lists creatures. And the bird IS an Augurey, but there is also indeed a Kelpie (wondering why, and how Newt is going to escape). The weird thing walking in the streets at some point in the trailer is called a Zouwu, that seems, from what I saw on Twitter, to be a Chinese creature. In the trailer, there’s also a weird-looking crumpled-antlered stag/elk-like creature, that some people refer to as a Leucrotta, but the usual description doesn’t fit here, some think it might be a Crumple-Horned Snorkack. There’s no description matching the beast in Newt’s book, unfortunately.

That’s what I’ve dug out so far. There is new info coming out all the time, and I probably have missed some. If that’s the case, please comment under the text :)

Paris, London, New York and the Wizarding World in 1927: Short Description (more after the film is launched)

I wanted to do a tiny bit of research on 1927 in Paris and London, mostly, and have a more deeper go after having seen the film, to put things more into context.

As The Crimes of Grindelwald set in 1927 directly follows Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, set in 1926 New York, there’s not much point into dwelling into what New York looked like at that time. There are a couple of papers on this blog about that:

http://under-the-lake.tumblr.com/post/157988584836/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-the-film (first deeper impressions after the first film, mainly deeling with Speakeasies and Immigration Rules)

http://under-the-lake.tumblr.com/post/158268815626/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-the-film (first deeper impressions part 2: laws and death penalty)

http://under-the-lake.tumblr.com/post/159376016836/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-the-film (first deeper impressions part 3: the NSPS and Credence)

http://under-the-lake.tumblr.com/post/153419399321/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-first (Very first Impressions)

Paris in 1927

President of France at the time: Gaston Doumergue (1924-1931)

Here’s an 8-minute video of Paris in 1927. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QDmzfyqNJM It shows really how life was in the streets.

Among the artistic life of the 1920s in Paris were people like the Missouri-born Josephine Baker, who was spotted in New-York in 1925 by French producers who were looking for an all-black cast for their Parisian Revue Nègre. Josephine was chosen and she moved to the French capital in the same year. She was one of the stars of the nightlife there from then on (see picture above). She was not the only foreign artist to set quarters in Paris. They came from the USA but also from the whole of Europe, mainly the East and South: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Spain. The whole neighbourhood of Montmartre, with its Moulin Rouge and Bateau-Lavoir, and that of Montparnasse and the Quartier Latin, were exploding with modern artists from poets to painters and composers, trying things, often living on nothing, often collaborating, often also hating each other in peace. The 1925 Exposition of Decorative Arts had also launched the period of Art Deco. The Expo hosted works by artists like Lalique or Le Corbusier.

It was also the period of weird circuses. Fêtes foraines were travelling fun fairs with carrousels and other attractions, but also with displays of ‘monsters’ or other ‘unusual’ creatures, including humans. Famously, of course, bearded women and elephant men, or dwarves, were showed to the public. Audience were attracted via posters and even music, like barrel organ music, that could be heard up to 3 km (1.8 miles) around. From what the trailer of The Crimes of Grindelwald shows, the Circus Arcanus is exactly along those lines. The name itself should be enough for us to know that something fishy is coming, ‘arcanus’ meaning ‘mysterious’ or ‘secret’ in Latin. Plus there are snakes and that evil cloak-holding being on the poster.... and that phrase, Le musée des curiosités vivantes (the museum of living oddities, like a live curiosity shop). According to Wikia, the Circus was in New York for a fortnight in late 1926 and travelled to Paris, France, in early January 1927…

London in 1927

King: George V (reigned 1910-1936)

PM: Stanley Baldwin

There is footage from London in 1927, and Simon Smith has replicated the shots in 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kml92pPjx0

In 1927 the UK was recovering from the General Strike of 1926. The lower class had lost for many reasons, and the majority of the population was in a worse state then than before the strike.

The posh London society youngsters were known as the Bright Young Things. They were offspring of those who had gone through WW1 and were either fighting their parents’ values or taking life at face value, living carpe diem because of the war that had slaughtered so many young people. Maybe, for the young women, it was a way of showing their newly born independance. Maybe the reason was a mix of all. At any rate, it was a time of party, alcohol, drugs, freedom, jazz and a feeling of fighting the establishment. That latter was expressed, among other things, by the full acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships, which were, at the time, banned by the British laws.

Among them were people like photographer Cecil Beaton (see pic by him above), who is partly responsible for starting the cult of celebrity in the UK, via his portraying of the Bright Young Things. Since they were children of rich families, they had also connections with tabloids and could use them to spread their image, which they did. By the start of the 1930s, unemployment, Wall Street Black Thursday and global unhappiness were getting people bored by the growing excesses of that group.

On the cultural side, BBC (British Broadcasting Company) was created in 1927 (it was really founded in 1922 but was granted a Royal Charter in 1927). Authors who published in this year were among others Agatha Christie, Virginia Woolf and P. G. Wodehouse.

The Wizarding World in 1927-ish

In February 1927, Gellert Grindelwald, notorious Pureblood supremacist, makes an escape from MACUSA prisons in New York, while a month later, in March, Jacob opens his bakery, thanks to Newt’s Occamy Egg shells (Fantastic Beasts Screenplay, scene 123). Newt is doing well too, his book being published somewhere between January and March. The launch is set on 19th March 1927 at Flourish & Blotts, Diagon Alley, London.

By December, Seraphina Picquery has made the Thunderbird a protected species. She has instituted a Protective Order on it (While in the Muggle world Theodore Roosevelt had made Pelican Island a protected area in 1903, and the first protected list of species was used in 1918 jointly by Canada and the USA).

Dumbledore has been writing for Transfiguration Today for a year in 1927.

A French Ministry of Magic? Well, if the USA have their MACUSA and the UK have the MoM, why not a French Ministry. At any rate, the trailer gives us a glimpse of a glass dome with constellations and creature names written in pseudo-French: Le Niffleur, Hippocampe, Le Nundu, Le Doxy…. (there is even a typo because ‘centaur’ in French takes an ‘e’ at the end). I cannot vouch for this being the building of the French Ministry, but at least we know there is one, mentioned by J. K. Rowling in her writing about Beauxbâtons Academy on Pottermore. In French it is called Le Ministère des Affaires Magiques de France, which translates into ‘French Ministry for Magic Affairs’. According to Wikia, it was founded in 1790 during the French Revolution, and has ‘Incanté, Envoûté, Conjuré’ as a motto, which would translate into ‘Cast, Bewitched, Conjured’. The latest news from today tell us that the entrance is via one of the multiple public drinking fountains scattered all over Paris, called Wallace fountains. How can people enter via such a thing, search me. In London, you could either use Apparition, or the Visitor’s Entrance in the telephone box that you could actually enter, or later the public loo that you could get flushed in. The French thing is a fountain. Are people going to be suck via the plumbing after shrinking themselves or something? What about the Statute of Secrecy??

I must acknowledge that I hadn’t thought about Voldemort when I started this piece of writing. However, since Grindelwald’s defeat is followed by Voldemort’s rise to power, it must be considered. Merope Gaunt eloped with Tom Riddle Sr. in 1925-1926, and Tom Riddle Jr. was born on 31st December 1926 at Wool’s Orphanage, London, after his father left Merope, probably due to her stopping to feed him on Love Potion. So if we put two and two together, Tom Riddle Jr. had a nice model to worship when he was at school...

UK Minister for Magic: Hector Fawley (1925-1939)

US President of MACUSA: Seraphina Picquery (1903-1928)

French Ministre des Affaires Magiques: Unknown yet

Grindelwald and the Deathly Hallows: Dusting Our Memories

According to Rowling in her writings for PM, Gellert Grindelwald was born somewhere around 1883, somewhere on planet Earth. However, he was sent to Durmstrang Institute, that is located somewhere in northern Norway or Sweden (according to J. K. Rowling, see report of her reading GoF). He was ‘as ‘precociously brilliant as Dumbledore’ (Deathly Hallows, ch. Eighteen). Grindelwald was expelled when he was sixteen. The official reason is that he was making ‘twisted experiments’. They must have been really nasty if he was expelled from a school that favours Dark Magic.

Grindelwald knew about the Deathly Hallows and believed they would give him limitless power once united. He stole the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch the wandmaker. He wanted the other two Hallows, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak, badly. We don’t know if he wanted to be Master of Death or just have power, but he was obsessed with overruling the Muggle world and put the non-magic people in their rightful place. He engraved the Hallows sign on one of the Durmstrang walls. Later Dumbledore draw it on the front page of his copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

How lucky then that Grindelwald’s great-aunt, Bathilda Bagshot, happened to live in Godric’s Hollow, which, apart from being the Potters’ and the Dumbledores’ family village, was the place where the Peverells had lived. Ignotus Peverell and his two brothers are said to be the Three Brothers of the tale, and thus the first owners of the Hallows.

After being expelled, Grindelwald went to visit his great-aunt. How very convenient… and there was Dumbledore, having to spend his summer looking after his family instead of taking his Grand Tour of the Wizarding World with Elphias Dodge. Bathilda introduced the two men, and it was like a bubble of fresh air to Dumbledore, according to Rowling. The two became inseparable, writing to each other about Wizard domination over Muggles for the Greater Good (that’s what Dumbledore thought) when they couldn’t talk about it. The relationship lasted two short months. Albus was besotted and that cast a gloom on his family, because he would not fulfill his obligations. His brother Aberforth eventually reacted, and the result was a three-way duel and Ariana’s, their sister, death. Needless to say, Grindelwald vanished. (Deathly Hallows, chapter Eighteen).

He travelled through Europe, gathering followers, and tracking down the Elder Wand, the easiest Hallow to trace, due to its bloody history. Apparently, he avoided Britain.

Europe having probably given out what it could, Grindelwald crossed the Atlantic and hired himself as MACUSA Auror Percival Graves. I guess he had heard about Obscuri and about Credence, because why go exactly there otherwise. Credence would be a wonderful weapon of destruction if he learnt to control his powers. Pottermore says that Grindelwald discovered Credence later, but I can’t think of any other reason for someone to go to the USA while the wizarding community there was so much more restrained than in Europe, and hopes of bringing it to the light were therefore so much smaller. Using an Obscurial to wreak havoc and thus expose the community would be a huge blow for his enemies. And of course we know that Grindelwald was already tracking down the Hallows, and knew of their existence, as proven by the necklace he gives Credence in the first film. Actually, I just read that according to Rowling, Grindelwald is a Seer… and had a vision about Credence’s immense power (see tweet).

During his stay in the USA, Grindelwald was discovered by Newt Scamander, and captured and imprisoned by MACUSA. Not for long, though. That’s what the second film is telling us.

Questions Raised by the Trailers and the Written Info

Some of these questions, together with the fact that since Rowling wrote the screenplays herself, make things that were canon from the Harry Potter series and Fantastic Beasts collide….

- Now were we hoodwinked in the first film? I mean drawn into thinking that Newt is an innocent Magizoologist, trying to gather information for his book? Was he actually already on a mission to track down Grindelwald? Because honestly, that’s what he does in the end. Nothing about collecting stuff for his book. Setting Frank the Thunderbird free seems like a nice cover story.

- If he was indeed on ‘innocent’ business in New York, then why are MoM officials monitoring his movements, and why is his current MoM travel authorization pending? Why are MoM officials coming to Dumbledore to inquire about Newt? Or are they actually investigating Dumbledore? And remember, MACUSA was already tracking Newt from the start of the first film...

- What are Queenie and Jacob doing in Europe? If Tina is probably on MACUSA duties or tailing Credence because she’s still on the NSPS trail, I can’t imagine why a baker would leave his flourishing new business and why a witch like Queenie would leave her makeup and brushes to travel to Europe.

- Who’s that bloke with long white hair and beard levitated by apparently officials in some kind of prison?

- Is Maledictus the Snake Lady? If she is, it would be clever for her to hide her curse in a circus, given the intolerance of the age for differences of any kind. Some rumours actually have it that she would become Nagini...

- How did Credence survive? And after recovering, did he join the circus? Otherwise it doesn’t make much sense that he’s in Paris, right? Nor that he knows Maledictus.

- From research done by SuperCarlinBrothers, Credence is related to Corvus Lestrange and is half-brother to Leta Lestrange, Corvus having had offspring by two women. It’s all here in their video, time 7.27 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3ChukSDGRU

Now how did Credence end up in the care of Marylou Barebone in the first place, please?? Or is that name a fake one?

- That family tree bears the name of Laurena Kama, a black witch. The film cast says that there’s going to be a character there called Yusuf Kama, played by William Nadylam. Family? And we know from cast that Credence has an aunt...

- And now we’re talking about Credence and his family tree... what about Modesty? Is she going to appear some time in this film or the next ones? What’s the point of developing her character so much in the first film if she has no role to play in the story later?

- Tina looks dark. ‘We’ll all have to pick our side’.... ? And it appears like she feels the urge to look after Credence… and maybe she’s a bit jealous of Bunty, Newt’s assistant, who in turn might be a bit infatuated with Newt, from what Redmayne says.

- WHY the bloody hell is Dumbledore teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts (DADA)???? That is so not canon. He’s a Transfiguration teacher. By 1927 he had been writing regularly for Transfiguration Today for a year. He was never mentioned as a DADA teacher, and it sounds really wrong. I know some people argue that DADA didn’t exist then, and that maybe Care of Magical Creatures was merged with it, as well as Transfiguration, but that doesn’t make any sense. Dark Wizards have always existed, and bad curses, hexes, jinxes, and dangerous creatures, if not dark ones. It makes no sense to ‘invent’ DADA just because Voldy was on the loose, or after Grindy was sent to Nurmengard.

- What’s that orb the woman next to Grindelwald is holding in her hand? Looks like either a Crystal Ball or a big version of a Prophecy. That last would be ruled out since it is too big to be one, but again, tampering with canon stuff seems to be the fashion. Unless, since everything seems to happen in Paris, it is a French Prophecy. Actually, new theory: from pics where you can see the two protagonists from the front, it seems Vinda is actually holding a skull with glowing orange eyes.

- Who’s the woman walking with the three thestralish cats? I found out she’s called Melusine…. That could open a lot of speculation.

- What’s Grindelwald saying to Dumbledore in the Mirror of Erised? And why does Dumbledore see Grindelwald in the Mirror in the first place? While actually at the end of the HP books, it is hinted that he’d be seeing his family… If the deepest desire of his heart were to see Grindelwald finished, then the latter wouldn’t be alive in there.

- Why always ‘it has to be you’? Same with Harry Potter and Severus Snape. Reminds me of Lord of the Ring, where people with the Rings of Power (that is Galadriel, Gandalf and Elrond) can’t take over Sauron and it has to be a Hobbit. Or David and Goliath. Oh wells. Always puppets played by experienced puppeteers.

- Last but not least. Why is Jacob working with wizards? Is he a descendant of wizards himself? I’ve been giving this some thought myself, but haven’t had time to work out all the connections. HOWEVER, there IS a theory that he’d be a descendant of Helga Hufflepuff, and it’s really interesting how the blokes who thought this came to that conclusion. It would explain, for instance, why Jacob has not been totally Obliviated by that rain that was destined for Muggles only (he makes pastries in the shape of all the animals he saw in Newt’s case, for instance). If you are curious about this theory, check this video by SuperCarlinBrothers : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT7i4Lu55pg (for details about disagreements on some names used in the video, check the comments under it :P ) There’s further evidence to be read in the comments below the video, because one of the people mentioned a Quentin Kowalski playing Quidditch for the USA in 2014, which would mean there are Kowalskis in the wizarding world, maybe a descendent of Jacob?

- Ok not last. I just rewatched the trailer and here comes one more question: HOW COME those people can just APPARATE on the bridge at Hogwarts??? I thought you couldn’t Apparate on the premises. At least according to Hermione, Severus and Hogwarts: A History. However, it is possible that those protection measures were put on later than 1927. On the other hand, Rowling says, on PM, that the castle and ground have always been protected by Anti-Apparition charms…

Of course, more info will be released the closer we get the the launch, on 16th November. We will see if any of those theories are confirmed, any questions answered… - can’t wait!

Meanwhile, as all these questions, all these thoughts, are obviously only assumptions and ramblings of my own mind, sometimes backed up by others, sometimes not, feel very free and very welcome to discuss any point you might feel worth it! Either in the comment thread under the article, or on our facebook page!

Happy anticipation to everyone!

Sources

https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/beauxbatons-academy-of-magic

https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/durmstrang-institute

https://www.pottermore.com/features/gellert-grindelwald-the-story-so-far

https://www.pottermore.com/news/watch-the-first-trailer-for-fantastic-beasts-the-crimes-of-grindelwald

https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-hogwarts-express

https://www.pottermore.com/news/introducing-the-baby-nifflers-in-fantastic-beasts-the-crimes-of-grindelwald

http://www.redhotjazz.com/josephinebaker.html

https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Bright-Young-Things/

https://fromthebygone.wordpress.com/2017/12/30/the-bright-young-things-captured-by-cecil-beaton-1920s/

Full Credits currently available: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/fullcredits

Latest update, 10th August 2018: https://www.buzzfeed.com/eleanorbate/fantastic-beasts-crimes-of-grindelwald-set-secrets?utm_term=.cvKd2rJEw#.gnnJo7gP0

J. K. Rowling reading Goblet of Fire report: http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2000/1209-hpfgu-scruton.html

Scamander, N. (2017). Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Bloomsbury Publishing, London, in association with Obscurus Books, Diagon Alley, London.

Rowling, J. K., (1999). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K., (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K., (2007). The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Bloomsbury, London

Rowling, J. K., (2016). Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - The Original Screenplay. Bloomsbury, London.

#fantastic beasts and where to find them #the crimes of grindelwald #j. k. rowling #hogwarts #Albus Dumbledore #newt scamander #gellert grindelwald #what do we know so far #1927 #credence barebone #wizardingworld #film theory #Harry Potter #fantasticbeasts theories #louhi

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braverytaught · 7 years

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okay, because i like to suffer and it’s been a whole week since i posted a meta, let’s talk about minerva and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year, aka the 1997-1998 school year.

okay, jokes aside, this was. pretty much The Worst Year Ever, and she’s had some pretty rough years. in the late 1970s (through 1981) she was heavily involved in fighting a war while also teaching at the same time, and it was a losing war, too. in 1992 a damn basilisk was attacking her students throughout the year. in 1995 she was actively fighting umbridge’s awful reforms, which of course culminated in her being hit by four stunners and nearly dying.

but none of it holds a candle to 1997. at the end of the spring term, she loses albus dumbledore and, rather than having time to grieve, immediately takes up the mantle of headmistress, deals with the ministry, organizes the funeral, etc, etc. of course, she’s technically provisional headmistress, just as she was in 1993 and 1996 when dumbledore was forced to leave the school, but the expectation was that, as deputy headmistress, she would be appointed official headmistress during the summer.

that doesn’t happen. instead, voldemort takes over the ministry, and minerva is told that she is being ousted and replaced by the very man who murdered albus dumbledore. she is, most graciously, allowed to retain her position as head of gryffindor house, but she is no longer deputy headmistress either; that honor goes jointly to alecto and amycus carrow.

so minerva has, in a manner of weeks, lost her mentor and very close friend, taken up his position in the wake of his death, and then been ousted from it by the man she believes to have betrayed her and everything she stands for. she did, very briefly, consider resigning in protest - but only in a moment of frustration and despair; it was never a serious option. if anything, it was more important than ever that she remain at hogwarts, to protect her students from what was sure to be a terrible regime.

and so she does. she remains at hogwarts. she is there for snape’s start-of-term speech, where he discusses the changes in discipline the school can expect to see. she is there to see a much smaller group of first years be sorted; there are no muggleborns among them. when several gryffindors - harry potter and hermione granger among them - don’t show up, minerva is questioned for knowledge of their whereabouts.

the carrows are given full disciplinary authority. teachers who see misbehavior are to report it to the carrows, who will carry out their detentions - detentions that, it quickly becomes clear, are little less than torture.

so minerva stops giving detentions. she gives warnings, she takes points - but she does not report her students unless forced to. she refuses to contribute to their suffering.

when messages from dumbledore’s army start appearing - dumbledore’s army, still recruiting spray-painted on the walls, vandalism, pamphlets and rumors spreading like wildfire - minerva has little trouble picking out the ringleaders: neville longbottom, ginny weasley, and luna lovegood were the closest of potter’s group still left at hogwarts, and she doesn’t miss the way they congregate.

she is torn between pride and an awful, awful fear. they’re putting themselves in danger. they’re putting themselves directly in the path of the carrows, who have no qualms about causing pain. minerva tries to protect them. she tries to stand in the carrows’ way. she intervenes when she can, prevents the carrows from meting out detentions for offenses that can’t be proved, but her power to help is limited; she can’t always be there, and dumbledore’s army seem determined to take risks beyond the scope of her protection.

and minerva isn’t immune to the carrows’ displeasure. they can’t drive her from the school, because they know she is more dangerous outside of hogwarts and unsupervised than she is inside of it and half a prisoner. but they can hurt her.

when they first start forcing students to use the cruciatus curse on other students in amycus’s class, minerva storms into the headmaster’s office to demand a stop be put to it. snape orders her out without retribution, but amycus takes it upon himself to cruciate her for her trouble. she bears it without screaming, and returns to her office alone and shaking with fury and pain.

when she stands in the way of a second-year alecto is attempting to terrorize, alecto blasts her out of the way with such force that she breaks several ribs and spends the night in the hospital wing.

when neville longbottom mysteriously vanishes after minerva was told to escort him to the headmaster’s office, they curse her to such an extent that poppy has to call for st. mungo’s. (she wasn’t involved in his escape, but she does have a suspicion as to where he’s gone. she doesn’t tell them.)

out of all the teachers, she is the most vocal in her opposition to snape and the carrows. this isn’t to discount the other staff members, like pomona and filius and poppy, all of whom are doing their best for their students, all of whom are equally angry and scared - but minerva is the most rash, the most hot-headed, the most righteously angry, and she is head of gryffindor house, after all; her students are targeted more than any others. so she is the one who most often questions snape, most often antagonizes the carrows, who makes no attempt to treat them with anything other than haughty coldness.

but this means that when the punishments increase, when the carrows begin torturing students in the hallways and slashing their faces to ribbons when they speak out of turn, when snape makes it clear that any teacher who intervenes will face the same treatment - this means that she carries the most guilt. she is torn, constantly torn, between pride and fear, between anger and guilt. if she speaks, she risks bringing retribution down upon her own students and colleagues. if she is silent then she gives in to everything she hates.

and all the time her students are hurting. first years scuttle from class to class, meek and terrified. seventh years seethe silently for the slow death of the school that has seen them grow up. children come to her classes with bleeding cuts and mottled bruises and she has to teach them and pretend that nothing is wrong. she cannot comfort them. she cannot speak freely to them. she cannot hide them from the evil that has invaded her school. nothing she does is enough. for every student she saves from harm there are three more being cruciated. she doesn’t know whether to support the students who rebel or to beg them to stop, to keep themselves safe.

and slowly her students disappear. luna lovegood never returns after christmas break. ginny weasley doesn’t come back after easter. neville longbottom vanishes, and other sixth and seventh years slowly disappear after him. the castle grows quieter and quieter as students disappear and the ones who remain are cowed into silence. it feels like a prison. it feels like a graveyard.

she has very little contact with the order. she exchanges messages with remus lupin or kingsley shacklebolt when she can, but many of the order are on the run, forced into hiding, and she herself feels less and less safe leaving the castle as time goes on. in previous years, she would often slip away to attend meetings or carry out order business - now, she’s terrified that if she leaves her students alone for any length of time, she’ll come back to find that the carrows have done something more terrible than ever in her absence. so she resigns herself to isolation, and has very little knowledge of what is going on in the outside world - she gets copies of the quibbler when she can, until xenophilius lovegood is targeted and the magazine falls under the death eaters’ control; she gleans what news she can from the biased prattlings of the daily prophet; and she treasures any news she can get from the order. but it grows increasingly few and far between, and most of it is bad.

she doesn’t sleep enough, and what sleep she gets is often rife with nightmares. she is often in pain. she is nearly always angry, or scared, or despairing, or all three at once. she and pomona keep as constant checks on each other as they can manage; minerva often spends what free time she has in the greenhouse with pomona, raging or speaking anxiously or, occasionally, crying. the staff do what they can to support and encourage each other, all of them, but especially minerva, pomona, filius, and poppy. but there is no lightheartedness in their company now, and no laughter. they support each other because they are all they have left.

it is a relief, when harry returns and the dam breaks and the battle begins. as much as minerva fears the outcome, as much as she fears losing more lives, anything is better than remaining under snape’s reign any longer. when she lends harry her support, it is unquestioning; when she charges into battle, it is with all the anger of a year of watching her students suffer. when she says we duel to kill, she absolutely means it.

#; that explains a great deal ( headcanons. )#v: snakes among us ( deathly hallows. )#torture tw #( i....dk what else to tag this as but )#( THERE'S PROBABLY MORE I COULD SAY BUT THIS'LL DO FOR NOW )#( just a little snapshot )#( of how shitty hogwarts was that year h o n e s t l y )#( honestly i just think. about the number of times she was physically injured )#( and had to go to the hospital wing but just. kept right on teaching afterwards )#( and tried never to show to her students that she was hurt )#( ugh this verse just gives me a lot of feels )

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