jamessandlily

[jamessandlily]

can we get possessive james too, please?

Sure, anon! Here's some secret relationship possessiveness (for a good cause)! Consider it a precursor to the jealous Lily fic I wrote earlier.

I'll also post this to my AO3 collection if you rather read it there!

“My contract is for a reserve chaser until next Spring, but the coach says I’m good for the official team as soon as I can.”

“Right,” Lily says, taking a big gulp of her butterbeer. From behind the bar, Rosmerta snickers and shoots her a teasing wink. Having fun?

No, not at all.

The boy who had introduced himself as Corbin Landon continues to corner her at the end of the bar, rattling on in some quidditch speak she doesn’t much understand or care for. Beside him, two empty bottles of butterbeer and a tumbler of firewhiskey sit empty, their influence making his eyes glassy and roaming.

“You said you’re in sixth year, right? What does that make you? Sixteen? Seventeen?”

Lily frowns, narrowing her eyes. He couldn’t be much older himself—no, he can’t be because she knows for a fact he graduated two years ago as a Hufflepuff. 

“Seventeen,” Lily says in a clipped voice. 

Corbin smiles, his gaze raking down her body to the muggle jumper and skirt she’d thrown on as a fluke. His eyes stall at the short hemline and he seems to do some serious butterbeer-logged mental maths to measure the exact distance he’d find her knickers if he went looking.

“Y’know. I’m in Hogsmeade for the weekend,” he slurs, stepping forward and placing a hand on the side of her waist. “They put us up in the little inn at the end of High Street. If you were interested in some fun, I’m sure the rest of the team would be willing to make room…we could find a nice bottle of Ogden’s and—”

“Sorry to keep you waiting, darling.”

As soon as Corbin’s hand drops from her waist, a more familiar one replaces it. Her head whips around, heart giving that playful swoop she can’t seem to shake no matter how many broom closets they’ve stuffed themselves in in the past month. 

James Potter smiles down at her, a telling eyebrow arching up into his messy hair. 

“I’m sorry I took so long, Alfred over at Spintwitches loves to faff around showing me all the newest models.” 

As natural as gravity itself, James leans down and ghosts his lips against her hairline. It’s not even close to the kind of intimacy they’ve shared with each other in the past twenty four hours, but the fact that it’s in public makes her whole body rattle. 

“Made a new friend then?” 

James juts out a hand towards Corbin, his smile more hostile than anything else. 

“James Potter.”

Corbin looks at James’ hand and follows the arm to the quidditch jersey and captain's badge that gleams on his chest. He reaches for his butterbeer.

“Corbin Landon.”

Around her waist, James fingers wiggle, finding the edge of her jumper and slipping under to press hot into her skin. It should worry her how much it lights up every part of her nervous system—the classic James Potter balancing act between playful, sensual, and safe. 

“Landon…Landon….” James muses, leaning his cheek against the side of Lily’s head. Suddenly, he perks up, the action pressing Lily even deeper into his chest. 

“Oh, that’s right! Corbin Landon! Hufflepuff! You made that dismal shot in the House Cup final a few years back—must have felt like real shit handing the win to Slytherin like that.”

Corbin stiffens, his cheeks going from ruddy to bright red in a matter of seconds. He darts his eyes from Lily back to James, all the sloppy sleaze now missing.

“Yeah well—“ Corbin stutters, debating his next words. 

“You realize your bird’s tromping around like a bloody prick tease?” Corbin spits, face twisting into anger. On her waist, James’ hand tightens but his face remains calm. 

“Can’t imagine you have much of a prick to tease, mate,” James says cooly. “Obviously, since you’re putting moves on Hogwarts’ students. That Cannon’s contract not working on the ladies then?”

It hits both her and Corbin at the same time. He’d been listening. 

Corbin stares at James open-mouthed. After some consideration and sizing up, he mumbles something under his breath and stocks off with his butterbeer, disappearing into the haze of Hogwarts’ students. 

“Sorry about that,” James says once Corbin’s out of sight,  He gives a sort of bashful smile. “I know it’s none of my business but it seemed like an emergency—you really do seem to attract some knobheads don’t you—me included in that, obviously.”

Lily scowls which makes James’ grin grow wider. It doesn’t go unnoticed that his hand remains firm against her skin. 

“Hey Evans?” 

Lily looks up. For the tough, cool guy act he just put on Corbin, the flush on his cheeks makes him look rather meek. 

“Would you…want to have a butterbeer with me? I know you aren’t very keen to take things between us public but—” James’ eyes drop to the hand still around her waist. 

“It feels kinda nice being with you…here.”

Something warm and precious blooms inside Lily’s chest, the room suddenly so much brighter and spacious. Not letting herself think too hard, she stands on her toes and presses a kiss into his cheek. 

“I’d be glad to,” she says, face hovering close to his. When her lips graze the shell of his ear, the hand against her waist gives a squeeze. 

“But remind me to properly thank you later,” she says, skirting her lips lightly over the side of his neck. She feels him shiver, a soft oh wafting from his open mouth.

“I’m afraid it wouldn’t be appropriate in public no matter the circumstances.”

[jamessandlily]

JK Rowling & the Color Pink

So I'm working on a thing about queer coding in the Harry Potter books... and first I needed to do a sidebar on how the color pink is used. I’ve made a list of every time a character either wears pink, or is heavily associated with a pink object. We actually get some pretty clear categories that are unintentionally very revealing, and say a lot about how JKR sees "girly" femininity.

Let’s start off with the obvious: 

PINK = VILLAIN (FEMME) 

Petunia Dursley: “salmon-pink cocktail dress," "neat salmon-colored coat." Also paints her walls "a sickly peach color."

Gilderoy Lockhart: “lurid pink robes to match the decorations” 

Pansy Parkinson: “very frilly robes of pale pink” 

Rita Skeeter: “long nails were painted shocking pink” 

Aunt Muriel: “feathery pink hat gave her the look of a bad-tempered flamingo.” 

(Aunt Muriel only shows up briefly at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, but then proceeds to insult pretty much every other character, and give Harry an existential crisis by spilling the tea on Dumbledore)

Dolores Umbridge: “a horrible pink Alice band that matched the fluffy pink cardigan.” 

(Also: has pink stationary, and her pamphlet MUDBLOODS and the Dangers They Pose to a Peaceful Pure-Blood Society has a pink cover) 

Cho Chang

(Okay. Not a villain per se, BUT. Cho is the reason the mole gets into the DA in the books (and just is the mole in the films.) And given that she is a sort of Umbridge-aligned sub villain in book 5, at least structurally... it IS interesting that the place she brings Harry for a date has this very pink, Umbridge-coded description. 

It was a cramped, steamy little place where everything seemed to have been decorated with frills or bows. Harry was reminded unpleasantly of Umbridge’s office. “Cute, isn’t it?” said Cho happily. “Er . . . yeah,” said Harry untruthfully. “Look, she’s decorated it for Valentine’s Day!” said Cho, indicating a number of golden cherubs that were hovering over each of the small, circular tables, occasionally throwing pink confetti over the occupants.

Fleur Delacour: “[her wand] emitted a number of pink and gold sparks.” 

(Also not quite a villain, and I adore Fleur BUT… she’s written hyper-femme in an intimidating, borderline threatening way. She’s very opinionated, bordering on rude. She’s “full of herself” as Ginny puts it. And when she gets engaged to Bill and becomes an unambiguously good guy, she has this interesting moment of ~Pink Rejection~)

“. . . Bill and I ’ave almost decided on only two bridesmaids, Ginny and Gabrielle will look very sweet togezzer. I am theenking of dressing zem in pale gold — pink would of course be ’orrible with Ginny’s ’air —”

Hermione Granger: “Wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown”

(Hermione wears pink exactly one time, and it is at her most villainous… during Book 1, when she tries to stop Harry and Ron leaving in the middle of the night to go duel Malfoy.)

A voice spoke from the chair nearest them, “I can’t believe you’re going to do this, Harry.” A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown. “You!” said Ron furiously. “Go back to bed!” “I almost told your brother,” Hermione snapped, “Percy — he’s a prefect, he’d put a stop to this.” Harry couldn’t believe anyone could be so interfering.

(She literally does the sitting-in-the-dark, villain-lamp thing. Also, in case you were wondering, yes Hermione DOES get a moment of ~Pink Rejection~)

Near the window was an array of violently pink products around which a cluster of excited girls was giggling enthusiastically. Hermione and Ginny both hung back, looking wary.

Which brings us too: 

PINK = SILLY/FRIVOLOUS (FEMME) 

Sybill Trelawney: “after you’ve broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue-patterned ones? I’m rather attached to the pink.”

(She’s a fraud. Also hides empty bottles of sherry in the room of requirement. (I’m going to have to be uncharitable in this section, so am sorry.) 

Parvati Patil: “robes of shocking pink"

(Often described as “giggling,” thinks Professor Trelawney is amazing, the real deal.)

The Fat Lady: “a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.” 

(Often described as giggling. Drinks too much during the holidays. JRK is unfortunately well known for being fatphobic. Also the Fat Lady has a friend named Violet, and Parvati has a friend named Lavender. Not really going anywhere with that, just funny that they’re both shades of purple.)

Hepzibah Smith: “an immensely fat old lady wearing an elaborate ginger wig and a brilliant pink set of robes.” 

(So… almost identical description to the Fat Lady. And I think we should maybe talk about her more, maybe? Because the way she’s framed… I think she might be Tom Riddle’s sugar mamma?)

“I brought you flowers,” he said quietly, producing a bunch of roses from nowhere. “You naughty boy, you shouldn’t have!” squealed old Hepzibah, though Harry noticed that she had an empty vase standing ready on the nearest little table. “You do spoil this old lady, Tom. . . .” 

(Or maybe we… shouldn’t talk about that. Either way, Tom Riddle does kill her, steal her stuff, and frame her house elf so thats… not great.)

PINK = EMBARRASSING 

“Everyone take a pair of earmuffs,” said Professor Sprout. There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn’t pink and fluffy.

(Pink fluffy earmuffs are adorable.)

“Wash out your mouth,” said James coldly. “Scourgify!” Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape’s mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag.

(The next two example are 'pranks' as well, I think the pink-colored soap is there to add a kind of insult to injury.)

Shocking-pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter were whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers. 

(This is a bit from Fred and George’s farewell firework show, it's funny that they’re specifically pink fireworks that Umbridge can’t get rid of.)

“Headless Hats!” shouted George, as Fred waved a pointed hat decorated with a fluffy pink feather at the watching students. “Two Galleons each — watch Fred, now!” Fred swept the hat onto his head, beaming. For a second he merely looked rather stupid, then both hat and head vanished.

(also just, pumping up an embarrassing moment)

PINK = OUTSIDER, WEIRDO

Hagrid

Hagrid’s flowered pink umbrella, which contains his broken wand, is brought up a lot. In this case I think we’re meant to see it as a joke. Hagrid’s so big, and so masc, but the pink umbrella makes him non-threatening. However… the pink umbrella, it’s not a totally positive thing, is it? It doesn’t match, it isn’t *him.* Hagrid wouldn't have chosen to carry this around, totally on his own, if he'd had any other choice. It sets him apart, both visually and socially (because it's a constant reminder that he doesn't have a wand.)

Dobby

Dobby, once he is freed, gets pink-and-orange striped socks, and they’re meant to communicate that he’s… kind of a lot. “Yeh get weirdos in every breed,” as Hagrid puts it. JKR has a very strange, honestly antagonistic relationship with Dobby. He’s the victim of book 2, but structurally kind of the villain? He describes the house-elves situation as “enslavement,” but Hermione’s treated as overdramatic for calling house-elves slaves two books later. And then everything is ret-conned and Dobby is… just kind of weird for liking freedom (and socks) as much as he does.

Tonks

Book!Tonks defaults to “bubblegum-pink” hair. Her hair is described as pink a lot. (Movie!Tonks defaults to purple hair, because they were worried that pink would visually align her with Umbridge.) And this is the oddest one on the list to me, because Tonks is such a universally beloved, fan favorite character. But I really do think that *as written*... we’re supposed to put her in a category with Dobby. The two of them leave (unintentional) destruction in their wake. They’re loud, they’re a lot, they take up too much space. Harry thinks they’re both kind of annoying. (and yeah, Harry 100% thinks  Tonks is “a little annoying at times.”)

[jamessandlily]

this is the most beautiful piece of art i've seen in a long time oh my god

ac: likeafunerall

[jamessandlily]

What do you think about Harry owning Kreacher? Sinve I seen some people say it doesnt make sense for Harry to get a slave when he grew up being treated as one.

It's stupid, we all know it's stupid. The good-guy protagonist defined by his magical super-love ends the book owning a slave, and the last sentence of the main story is about him thinking he should ask his slave to go get him a sandwich. Harry goes from identifying with Dobby's situation and empathizing ("Can’t anyone help you? Can’t I?”) to hearing that Slughorn is using house-elves as poison testers and being all like Hermione is going to be so annoying if I tell her about this.

The house-elf weirdness comes from a few places.

1.I do not think the metaphor JKR originally had in mind for house-elves was american-style chattel slavery. I think she was thinking of Dobby as like... a victorian-style scullery maid, and house-elves as more a comment on class. Like that's the *british* touch stone (especially in fantasy, especially in children's fantasy.)

(JKR's American history just, isn't very good. The "Mercy Lewis" thing in Fantastic Beasts drives me insane.)

2. BUT her American fanbase started interpreting house elves as more of anti-racism thing (versus an anti-classism thing) and she just excepted the extra kudos. I think JKR may have liked/run with this interpretation because Fantastic Beasts 2 has a character who is *part* house elf, which is both incredibly disturbing and *does* make it explictly a race thing. The Fantastic Beasts films as a whole do start introducing race politics to the HP world, which is handled about as well as you'd expect.

3. House elves are very relevant to the plot, and especially to the mystery aspects of Book 2 and 4. So the needs of the mystery are going to dictate a lot of the house-elf centric world building. House-elves are based on brownies (or dobies) who do housework if they like you or if they feel like it, but get offended and leave if you try to imply that you have any ownership over them or their identity. Brownies leave if you give them names, religion, supervision, criticism, money... and clothes is of course the classic.

But you can't give Dobby that much agency, or he'd just tell Harry what was going on in Book 2. He needs to be stuck giving Harry cryptic riddles. Then in Book 4, a lot of the Barty Junior reveal revolves around Winky: her strange behavior, and Barty Senior's strange behavior when it comes to her. But, you can't make "intense loyalty to their master" just a Winky thing, that would make that part seem too suspicious. So it's just treated as normal. You also can't make it so only *bad guys* have house elves, because that would make it too obvious that Barty Senior is behind it all.

(also, the house-elf self harm punishment stuff? In Book 2, it's implied to be a magical compulsion Dobby is under. In Book 4 we learn that's not the case, house elves are just Like That. That's a call that makes a pretty clever clue work, but it's got crazy implications.)

So, you're left with a universe where owning a house-elf is morally neutral behavior, and most house elves are very loyal to their masters. And then JKR doesn't want to go into a whole house-elf liberation subplot (and I honestly don't think she initially meant to open that can of worms.) S0... she tries to put the subject to bed with the whole Sirius + Regulus + Kreacher lesson. Regulus sacrifices himself for Kreacher, which is treated as cool and awesome and redemptive. Then Kreacher lives on, supporting his cause and fighting in his memory. But Sirius is mean to Kreacher, and Kreacher gets him killed.

The problem is, I do not think JKR really thinks of house elves as slaves. She thinks of them as badly-treated servants or workers. And "be nice to your employees" is a great message! But she's missing the institutionalism of the system she's created. It doesn't matter if you are really really nice to your slave, they are still existing in a system that hurts them and helps you. And this lack of understanding of the power and reach of the system is one of the issues with JKR's worldbuilding... and her irl worldview.

[jamessandlily]

[jamessandlily]

J.K. Rowling is also a woman, I’m not trying to be that guy but I’m just saying you shouldn’t imply that you love every women.

[jamessandlily]

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE (2005) dir. Mike Newell

[jamessandlily]

The posts in the “Latino James Potter” tag keep talking about Indian/ Latino James and not in a mixed race way.

Do y’all know that Indian and Latino are not the same thing and there’s huge variation or religion, class, culture language etc. within those groups? And that homogenising people or characters based on race/ethnicity is actually how racism works.

Also it seems to be a combined in order to talk about his brown/ Tanned skin when in actuality there’s huge heterogeneity in skin/hair colour phenotype in these groups. And it’s super weird to hyper focus on someone’s skin tone (especially when that skin tone is subject to discrimination under systemically racist structures).

Once again, this self congratulatory ‘progressive’ fanon that is actually super regressive and uncomfortable.

[jamessandlily]

The beginning (Grimmauld Roommates AU)

[jamessandlily]

His sounds...

[jamessandlily]

[jamessandlily]

Question Time

Jily AU Week Day 2 Prompt: Muggle AU

Summary: Newly-elected Prime Minister Potter has his work cut out for him. If only a certain red-headed MP weren’t deliberately making life harder for him.

Length: ~11k

Rating: M

Acknowledgements: Three cheers for Katie and Lindsey, who held my hand as I ventured into new territory. Three more cheers for Nikki for correcting my British politics. This wouldn’t have been possible without your guys’ encouragement. :)

[jamessandlily]

saw this w another fandom n just had to do a jily version 😭 ik lily let out a relieved sigh when she saw the green eyes

(og idea: @/tonya1920021 on twt)

[jamessandlily]

I once again find myself needing to remind everyone that the spell James Potter uses to hang Severus Snape by his ankles in OoTP was a spell invented by... that's right, Severus Snape. The only way James would have learned the spell was if.... that's right, again, if Severus used the spell on someone else first.

And also, the scene might have been the first time that he called Lily a Mudblood, but to quote Lily, "you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"

James wasn't bullying some innocent kid. He was bullying a wannabe death eater with his own spells.

[jamessandlily]

Katie Leung (aka Cho Chang’s actress) said fuck the police and fuck JK Rowling

[jamessandlily]

Break-In #2

[jamessandlily]

I've rarely seen a more validating sentence in my entire life.