#Representative Ron Kind

[thenewdemocratus]

The New Democrat Coalition: U.S. Representative Ron Kind: The American Prosperity Agenda

Source:The New Democrat Coalition There’s a faction in the Democratic Party that I’m and this blog is part of that I believe at least represents most of America. We represent most Americans because we believe in things that tend to unite us as a country. The New Democrat Coalition and most of the Democrats that make it to the leadership of the party in and out of Congress and who tend to get…

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT, I hope you are doing well! who is your favorite Weasley?

Thank you! Absolute treat of a question. Oh, man. It's Ron, right? It was always going to be Ron.

So here's the thing: the Weasleys are a really well-characterized family in that you can kind of see a lot of character emerge through limited sketches and contextual information. Bill is Number One Boy, the best at everything, oldest child who was always confident and at peace with his indisputable place in the family; so he's a chill, cool, incredibly competent guy who naturally takes-charge. Charlie is a patented never-grew-out-of-your-middle-school-dragons-phase Weird Kid, but like, mindfully and enthusiastically so, because his parents probably still had plenty of time to support and nurture his interests; plus he's also different to Bill and excels in different ways, so they aren't too competitive (as we see). Percy is the first one to suffer from the pressure of mounting expectations, and he's very quickly followed by the twins, who do the classic "if I can't be the best I'll be the worst" late-sibling trick of acting up for attention, so he gets lost in the shuffle. (The fight between Ron and Percy in Chapter 58 is, hence, in substantially about the relationship between the two most-ignored members of the Weasley family, and that's why Ron is so much angrier at him than the rest of them. Like I've said before, Ron always thinks he's got it the worst, but he takes pride in being able to kinda "tough it out," and nothing pisses him off like other people's self-pity.) Ginny is obviously the baby of the family, a girl with everyone wrapped around her finger, and I love her, but I feel like we didn't get enough grit in her portrait— she's just really successful in everything she does, in a way that can read as flat to some people, and certainly read as flat to me my first time through the books. In fact, Ginny reminds me a lot of Bill: first daughter/first son, described often as "cool" and clever and good at basically everything, charming and generally liked by all. Which is lovely. A delight to read, just like the twins are. But my taste in characters ranges way more fucked-up and mean.

Ron is the last boy, "sixth son of a woman who wanted a daughter" (fascinating line that complicates everything we know about Molly's relationship with her kids — and BTW, how the hell does Ron know that, and how old was he when he learned it? And this also comes into play with Molly's cry of "not my daughter" to Bellatrix which like, as a moment obviously fucking rules, but also — there's a reason she says daughter, not "child," right? Do you see what I'm digging at? Anyway). Ron meets Harry and recognizes himself in how Harry defaults to thinking people don't care about him, or won't help him if he asks, because — although they come from very different circumstances, Ron's home was completely loving, just not as nurturing as he always needed it to be — Ron usually goes in assuming people don't care about him, too. So his first instinct is to go: "Alright. Well, I'll care about you, then, weird stranger. Do you want to share my horrible sandwich, and also my life, perhaps?" Goddamn! Sixth of seven in a house with never enough to go around, and he's immediately like: "fuck it, room for one more." Because he could have been Percy — and you can see it in the way that Ron is mean, sometimes, he's not careful with his words and he struggles with empathy and he's got a vengeful streak that comes out when he's pissed — but he isn't selfish enough, he loves too much and too easily, and it takes shockingly little to earn his loyalty. You just have to pay a little attention to him.

[margindoodles2407]

What was your parents’ view on Harry Potter?

So. Way back before I actually read the books they- especially my mom- were a little on the fence about it. However once I actually got into it they were fine with it, and I would even say approve of it and are actively encouraging my siblings to read it now.

I think it has a lot to do with the ability to distinguish fiction from reality- like, they know that the magic in the HP universe isn't actually tied to real-world practices of witchcraft, and I think they trusted me enough to be able to make that distinction too, especially since I've got a good relationship with them and they knew I'd come to them if I had any questions or if anything didn't sit right.

I know that, besides the whole magic thing, there were also complaints raised by a few parents about the kids doing too much rule-breaking, but again, I've always been a well-behaved kid who knew that if a rule was in place there was probably a reason that involved keeping me safe, so I don't think they were very worried about that, either. Especially since- and, again, this is where being able to separate fantasy from reality comes in clutch- the rules that Harry, Ron, and Hermione would break were situations I literally would never be in, ever, in my life, because I do not go to school in a magical castle, nor is there an evil noseless dark wizard trying to murder me.

[junezsq]

dance practice

harry potter x fem!reader

summary: professor mcgonagall’s dance class suddenly gets interesting when you have to dance with your best friend turned crush

warnings: none really? triwizard champion things

word count: 1.5k

a/n: p1 of this small 3 part yule ball storyline (within my storyline) i came up with,,, can you tell where it is leading after this part? hope you enjoy x

── ᵎᵎ ✦

the air was thick with a mixture of nervous energy and excitement as you sat in the hogwarts great hall, awaiting professor mcgonagall's instructions. the long tables had been pushed to the side to clear a space for whatever you and your housemates would undoubtedly have to practice. you were seated next to hermione, with the other gryffindor girls, on one side of the hall, while all the boys were seated opposite you.

the humongous horn stood in the middle of the hall had immediately caught your eye the moment you’d entered. the castle’s caretaker, mr. filch was fumbling with the sound while mcgonagall spoke, “the yule ball has been a tradition of the triwizard tournament since its inception.”

mr. filch stopped the static at professor mcgonagall’s sharp words, “on christmas eve night, we and our guests gather in the great hall for a night of well-mannered frivolity.”

“as representatives of the host school, i expect each and every one of you to put your best foot forward.” while hermione was listening eagerly you couldn’t help but let your thoughts drift.

your gaze flickered to harry, who was sat on the opposite side of the hall. he was still sporting a sling on his arm after his brush with the dragon in the first triwizard task; it made your heart twist a little.

“…and i mean this literally, because the yule ball is, first and foremost, a dance.” mcgonagall’s words immediately caused an uproar in chatter amongst your housemates. hermione nudged you, her lips curling into a grin, but before she could utter a word your professor’s voice rang throughout the hall, “silence!”

“the house of godric gryffindor has commanded the respect of the wizard world for nearly 10 centuries. i will not have you in the course of a single evening, besmirching that name by behaving like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons.”

mcgonagall had been one of your favorite professors ever since starting at hogwarts, and luckily enough she was your head of house too; she was one of the most strict professors at hogwarts, but she was also kind and caring. “now, to dance is to let the body breathe. inside every girl, a secret swan slumbers, longing to burst forth and take flight.”

you smiled at her words, she was an incredible storyteller also, “inside every boy a lordly lion prepared to prance.” from the other side of the hall, ron’s chuckles echoed and filled the room. you glanced at him and harry the moment professor mcgonagall turned towards him, “mr. weasley.”

“yes?”

“will you join me, please?”

your eyes widened, glancing to hermione at your side. she looked over at you with a knowing smile, her eyes twinkling with amusement. you both tried to suppress your laughter, but it was impossible not to find the idea of ron attempting to dance with professor mcgonagall particularly hilarious.

ron, who seemed blissfully unaware of your shared amusement, stood up awkwardly and followed mcgonagall to the center of the floor. “now, place your right hand on my waist.”

“where?” the redhead asked with wide eyes.

“my waist, and extend your arm.” one of the boys from your house whistled as professor mcgonagall tried to show ron the steps, “mr. filch, if you please.”

the caretaker turned on the music, which started playing through the horn, and you watched — trying your utmost best not to laugh — as professor mcgonagall and ron waltzed through the great hall. “one, two, three.”

you glanced across the hall, catching harry’s eye; he was watching his best friend with an amused look. when your gaze met his, you couldn’t help but smile, your stomach fluttering. harry raised an eyebrow at you, a knowing grin playing at the corners of his mouth, and for a second, it felt like you were the only two people in the room.

“everybody come together! boys, on your feet”

and just like that your view of harry was blocked by your housemates, all enthusiastic to find a boy to dance with. you groaned inwardly, dreading the process of finding a partner. after looking around the room and not being able to spot anyone who looked like they were itching to dance with you, you decided to stand up and take matters into your own hands.

why was this so complicated?

you walked around slowly, trying to keep your cool while you were still searching for a partner. you bumped into a few of your housemates, but no one seemed to be looking for a dance partner. the panic of not being able to find someone started to rise, but then you collided with someone.

“sorry!” you blurted, looking up to see none other than harry potter himself standing right in front of you. you felt your heart leap into your throat, and for a moment, you couldn’t find your voice. “oh, harry!”

“it’s alright,” harry offered you a smile. the sling on his arm shifted slightly and he winced, trying to adjust it without causing too much discomfort. “i guess we’re both a bit lost, huh?”

you blinked, the words coming back to you as you smiled. “yeah, looks like it. you’re, um, you’re sure you’re up for this? with the sling and all?”

harry glanced at his arm and shrugged, “i’m not exactly a dancing expert anyway. what’s the worst that could happen?” his grin was cheeky, and you couldn’t help but laugh. “well, you might trip on your own feet, but I’m sure you’ll manage.”

harry raised his eyebrows playfully, “i’ll try to avoid that, then,” he quickly stepped into position with you. his left arm rested a bit awkwardly, but he seemed determined to make it work. you, on the other hand, couldn’t help but notice how close you were to him now. his presence was comforting, though, and the awkwardness that had been gnawing at you slowly began to fade.

“alright, let’s do this,” harry spoke, his voice calm but just a little nervous. he held his left arm out so you could slip your hand into his, feeling the warmth of his touch. the music was still softly playing in the background as you both began to move, a bit clumsily at first. harry was trying his best to lead, but with one arm tied up in a sling, it was clear he was struggling.

when he stepped on your foot you giggled softly, “you know, you’re not really making this easy on yourself.”

harry grimaced, trying to shift his weight without jarring his injured arm, “i didn’t exactly have a choice. how am i supposed to dance like this?” he gave you a mock glare, but his eyes were sparkling with amusement. “you’re not going to hold it against me if i trip again, are you?”

“of course not,” you grinned. “i’m sure i’ll trip too.”

as you continued the dance, it became a little easier. you both stumbled through the steps, but it was definitely way more fun than either of you expected. you found yourself laughing at how ridiculous it was, and harry’s laughter, free and light, made everything feel a little less serious.

“so,” harry spoke up, pulling you out of your concentration, “yule ball, huh? got a date yet?”

you blinked, surprised by the question. your heart started racing in an entirely different way now. “no,” you answered, trying to keep it casual. “i haven’t really thought about it. to be honest, i’m not sure i could find someone who doesn’t make me want to run in the other direction,” you joked lightly, trying to mask the slight blush creeping up your neck.

harry chuckled, “fair enough. i haven’t exactly been rushing to find a date either.” he looked at you, his face thoughtful. “since, you know, it’s not just the ball that’s on my mind.“

you nodded sympathetically, “i understand, but maybe it won’t be so bad. you can at least relax for a bit, right?”

“i guess so. it’s just… weird, you know?

“you’ve been doing really great, harry.” your eyes gazed over his features as you spoke, “i’m proud of you, already, and it’s only been te first task.”

a grateful smile grew on the ravenette’s lips, “thanks.”

you continued to move through the steps, the conversation flowing easily. harry seemed more at ease now, and you were glad to be able to help.

when the music came to an end, so did your and harry’s slightly amateur dance moves. harry grinned, looking down at his sling. “well, i didn’t trip. that’s a win, right?”

you laughed, your chest light with amusement. “definitely a win, and hey, we didn’t break anything.”

“yet.” harry’s grin slightly turned into a small smirk, “we didn’t didn’t break anything, yet.”

you stepped away from each other, still chuckling, and you realized you’d had a lot more fun than you expected. maybe dancing wasn’t so terrible after all — especially when you were sharing it with someone like harry.

as you watched him join the other boys, you couldn’t help but feel that little flutter in your chest again. the yule ball, it seemed, might be a lot more interesting than you thought.

⊹₊ ˚‧︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹

SOUNDTRACK // close to you, gracie abrams

TAGLIST // @callsigncrushx @moonjellyfishie @pussyslayerhd @accio-mayachhiato @ezrafrss @iyskgd @bakugouswaif

[toxicanonymity]

Hello my beautiful Toxy 🖤 I wrote a letter using Resistbot to oppose my state governors use of DOGE to try and filter out important educational programming in my state of Florida. Ron DeSantis is a fucking coward and utilizing DOGE in our education system here would be incredibly harmful !

I was wondering if I could get a blurb for my main man Night Walks ? 🖤🍃 (I know you just did one!!! So if not that's ok!!)

I love that you are doing this btw, a really great incentive to get people to contact their representatives !!!

SAVE act | blorbos for democracy | 5calls | resistbot

Olivia, that's amazing 🖤 well done speaking up. We should all demand accountability and also ask our elected officials to vote no on the SAVE act.

In the park

Joel miller x f!reader | night walks au

WARNINGS: 18+ predator/prey type behavior, dubcon touching in public, PIV, 630 words of this filthy creep, coming in hot. . . and it continues here.

Fireflies were beginning to to dot the treeline and you knew you shouldn't be at the park alone at this hour. But you weren't *completely* alone. It wasn't deserted - you could still hear the tink of baseball on metal bat in the distance. That's where Joel had been. He’d come to sell weed to one of the little league coaches and got caught up in conversation with an old friend... Until he noticed you. By the time Joel caught up, you had taken your sweat soaked T-shirt over your head, getting ready to stretch before leaving. A humming coke machine was the only light nearby.

As Joel approached from behind, the hairs on the back of your neck stood up, sensing a presence. Before you could run, he grabbed hold of the sports bra between your shoulder blades, and pulled you back toward him. His hand covered your mouth before you could scream, and your heart jumped out of your chest.

“Hey, princess,” he greeted you in your ear, and you felt a wave of relief at the sound of his voice “it's just me.”

He spread his fingers enough for you to say “what the hell, Joel” And you kind of tried to pull away from him, but he held you in place and wrapped his arms around you from behind until you stopped your halfhearted struggling and just breathed. He didn't have to hold your mouth.

His hand glided up your dewy stomach and under your damp bra. “Walkin’ without me?” His voice was husky. “Dangerous” He cupped your breast and palmed your hardened nipple and his dick twitched against your back side. “But god damn, ya feel even better than ya look.”

With one hand still in your bra, he shoved his other hand down your shorts. He rubbed your clit rapidly, expertly, and sucked at your ear, then under your ear. Massaging your breast with one hand and rubbing your clit with the other, he had you like putty in his hands. When you let out a soft moan, he slid his fingers down your slit and murmured, “yeah, now she's ready for me.”

He slid his hand out of your shorts and licked his fingers, then took your keys out of your shorts pocket. He slid his other hand out of your bra and put his arm around you. “Gonna walk ya to your car.” You followed his lead in silence.

When the two of you got to your car, he opened the passenger door and instructed, “take your shorts off” as he sat down in your car. He pushed the seat back to make more room. When you didn't comply right away, he looked you in the eye and said ,”drop’em. Now.”

You stepped out of your shorts, and he freed his cock from his pj pants. “C’mere, beautiful,” he nodded you over, then looked down at his cock. “Right here, baby. Take a seat, c’mon.”

With your shorts in your hand, naked from the waist down, you straddled him.

“Attagirl,” he gushes as he helped you onto him. Didn't even close the car door. “Fuck,” he whispered, running the head of his cock through your dripping folds. “Fuck, yeah. Ohh” he moaned in a crescendo as you sank down on him. “Good girl,” he breathed, and kissed you as your body welcomed him, hugging his shaft with your soft walls. He peeled your sports bra off and took your tit into his mouth, then nosed your cleavage and smothered himself in your chest. “So goddamn sexy,” he gushed, and you lifted up just slightly on his shaft, then swallowed him whole again, filling yourself with his cock.

“Hell yeah, there she is.”

-

-

SMUT CONTINUES HERE.

Ty for reading 🖤 please consider commenting or sharing if you enjoyed.

[amillionideas]

Ginny Weasley

Ginny is such a fascinating character when you peel back her layers: beneath her bold, confident exterior is a girl fighting to carve out her own identity in a family where it’s easy to get lost. Being the youngest and the only girl in a family full of loud, opinionated boys? That’s a battle for space, for attention, for agency. And the way she navigates that pressure (sometimes through defiance, sometimes through sharpness) reveals both her strength and her wounds.

The Weight of Being "The Only Girl"

Ginny grows up in a household where gender roles, while never explicitly rigid, definitely shape how she is treated. Her mother dotes on her and clearly wants to protect her in a way she doesn’t with the boys. Molly’s love is fierce, but also stifling, especially for someone as independent as Ginny. Imagine how frustrating that must be when all your brothers are given more freedom while you’re constantly being watched.

This is a girl who grew up watching her brothers play Quidditch but was never invited to join them. She had to sneak out and practice on her own. Even from an early age, Ginny learned that if she wanted something, she had to take it for herself, no one was going to offer her a seat at the table.

And that kind of environment breeds a specific kind of defiance: I will not be ignored.

Why She’s So Sharp with Ron

Her relationship with Ron is especially charged because, in many ways, they’re both fighting for the same thing: respect. Ron feels like the overshadowed youngest brother, constantly compared to the successful older ones. Ginny feels like the invisible baby sister, struggling to be seen as more than a fragile little girl. When those frustrations collide? Fireworks.

• Ginny’s Insults to Ron: There’s a meanness in how Ginny talks to Ron sometimes, calling him immature, mocking his romantic failures. But isn’t that rooted in her own frustration? She sees herself as stronger and more mature because she’s had to grow up faster under the weight of being underestimated. To Ginny, Ron represents everything she’s trying not to be: uncertain, insecure, and overshadowed. Maybe tearing him down is her way of asserting her own independence.

• Ron’s Dismissiveness of Ginny: On the flip side, Ron tends to treat Ginny like a child long after she’s proven she isn’t one. He’s protective in a way that’s both loving and condescending. From Ginny’s perspective, it must feel infuriating, especially when she’s lived through things (like the Chamber of Secrets) that none of them fully understand.

Their friction isn’t just sibling rivalry, it’s a fight for autonomy, for recognition. They’re both clawing to be seen as themselves, not as the roles their family casts them in.

Her Distance from the Older Brothers

Ginny’s relationship with Bill, Charlie, and Percy is more distant, partly because they were already grown or gone by the time she came into her own, but also because she probably felt like she had to perform around them.

• Bill and Charlie: They’re the “cool, successful” older brothers, and it’s easy to imagine Ginny hiding parts of herself when they’re around. She likely admires them but knows they don’t see her fully. With them, she probably leans into the role of the “feisty little sister”, a persona that is real, but not the whole truth.

• Percy: This relationship is particularly interesting because, in some ways, Ginny might understand Percy more than the others. Both of them want to be taken seriously in a family that doesn’t always make room for that. But where Percy chose rules and ambition to carve out his identity, Ginny chose rebellion and strength. You could imagine her feeling a mix of pity and judgment toward him, maybe she sees his rigidness as a cautionary tale.

Molly’s Suffocating Expectations

Molly’s love for Ginny is intense. As her only daughter, Ginny represents all of Molly’s hopes and all of her fears. There’s a sense that Molly wants to protect Ginny in a way that feels both maternal and controlling.

• Overprotection After the Chamber: After Ginny’s trauma in her first year, I imagine Molly becomes even more protective. But for someone as strong-willed as Ginny, that kind of coddling feels like a prison. It probably explains a lot about why Ginny pushes boundaries, dating older boys, joining the DA, fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts. She needs to reclaim her power after losing it so completely to Tom Riddle.

• The “Perfect Daughter” Ideal: Molly also likely has a vision of who Ginny should b (kind, ladylike, the future wife and mother) and Ginny pushes against that every chance she gets. Her boldness, her sarcasm, her refusal to be "sweet" in a conventional sense is a direct rejection of Molly’s expectations.

I imagine Ginny feels both loved and trapped by her mother. She’s proud to be a Weasley but unwilling to be defined by her family’s image.

Ginny’s Hard Edges – A Defense Mechanism

A lot of Ginny’s harshness, especially toward her brothers, can be read as self-defense. She’s had to be tough to survive:

• The Chamber of Secrets: Ginny’s first year is marked by profound isolation and violation. No one, not her family, not even Harry, really understands what she went through. That trauma likely shapes her fierce independence. She won’t let herself be vulnerable like that again.

• Living in the Shadows: Imagine being the seventh Weasley. By the time Ginny reaches Hogwarts, every teacher, every student has already met a Weasley sibling. She’s probably constantly compared: to Bill’s brilliance, Charlie’s bravery, Percy’s ambition, the twins’ humor, Ron’s friendship with Harry. Being tough, being bold, and refusing to conform is her way of saying: I am not just another Weasley.

Why This Makes Her Relationships More Complex

Ginny’s complexities make her relationships richer and more meaningful:

• Her Love for Harry: With Harry, Ginny starts as an infatuated child but grows into an equal partner. Part of why she doesn’t coddle or chase him is because she’s tired of being dismissed herself, she refuses to play the role of "adoring girlfriend." She demands to be seen as an equal, not a prize.

• Her Bond with Fred and George: They treat her with the most respect, maybe because they also reject the family’s rigid roles. But even here, Ginny’s wit is a weapon. She has to be sharp to survive their teasing. In some ways, her humor is an armor she learned from them.

• Her Loyalty to the Family: For all her rebellion, Ginny loves her family fiercely. She stays and fights in the DA. She risks her life in the Battle of Hogwarts. She pushes back against her family’s labels not because she doesn’t love them, but because she wants them to love the real her.

The Heart of Ginny’s Story

At its core, Ginny’s arc is about fighting to be herself in a family where it’s easy to be swallowed whole. She’s bold because she has to be. She’s sharp because the world won’t make space for her softness. And beneath all that fire? A girl who wants to be loved for who she truly is, not the image others impose on her.

And maybe that’s why she’s so fascinating because in her struggle to be heard, we see both her strength and her vulnerability

[astriiformes]

How did you see that your senators assisted Booker by asking questions? I'm trying to find a list of who joined in and failing.

Someone on Bluesky linked this senate website that has what essentially amount to minutes for each day they're in session. You'll have to go a page or two back to find the folks who spoke up with questions during Booker's filibuster, but it should be everyone.

For those uninterested in digging through the Senate minutes, however, I've done my best to put together a list. Forgive me if I managed to miss anyone though.

Arizona - Mark Kelly California - Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff Colorado - Michael Bennet Connecticut - Scott Murphy and Richard Blumenthal Delaware - Lisa Blunt Rochester and Christopher Coons Georgia - Raphael Warnock Hawaii - Mazie Hirono Illinois - Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin Maine - Angus King Maryland - Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks Massachusetts - Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren Minnesota - Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar New Hampshire - Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan New Jersey - Andy Kim New Mexico - Ben Ray Luján New York - Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer Nevada - Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen Oregon - Ron Wyden Rhode Island - Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed Vermont - Peter Welch Virginia - Mark Warner and Time Kaine Washington - Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell Wisconsin - Tammy Baldwin

I'm definitely planning on writing my senators to thank them, and would encourage anyone whose representatives were also involved to do the same. On the one hand, the filibuster itself hasn't materially changed anything, but on the other, it's still a more overt act of resistance to the current state of things than we've been seeing thus far, and I know it's the kind of thing I want to see more of from my representatives. I can only hope if we encourage this more aggressive stance from the Democrats, it will pay off in the long term.

[anzioraa0]

A Harry Potter Series. A Black Severus Snape – and How Human Hypocrisy Saddens Me

I just need to say a few words about this, because some people can be especially annoying.

(I don’t speak English, so if the text sounds awkward, I apologize in advance. 🤲)

Usually, when people talk about racism in the Harry Potter universe, they say there *isn’t* any. That’s how it’s always been — as long as we’ve been in the fandom, the topic just never comes up. Not in everyday conversation, not in the books. And it’s never been a problem. No one minds a Black Harry or Hermione. That’s totally fine.

But now — *now* — when a character who’s been harassed, insulted, humiliated, and discredited throughout the *entire damn saga* for the way he looks is suddenly reimagined as Black, suddenly everyone’s like, “uhhh…” And that “uhhh” really gets to me.

So — classism? Lookism? That's all fine, right? No one cares? But *racism*? Oh no. That’s an issue! “It completely changes the dynamics of the story!”

...But why would it? If there’s no racism in the wizarding world — which, as I recall, even Rowling has said — then what changes?

Assuming nothing changes about Severus except his appearance, that means his personality, his backstory, and how others treat him would all stay the same. So what’s the problem? Why is it so hard to believe that someone who acts like a bitter, adolescent jerk might not be loved by everyone? Why shouldn’t he be disliked, regardless of his race?

Does race grant someone a pass for behaving a certain way? No. It doesn’t.

And if we all supposedly don’t care about appearances, and the issue is with “the story’s dynamics” — what exactly is supposed to change?

He’d still be unbearable. He’d still be obsessed with the same things. He’d still hate everyone, just as before.

Harry hates *him*, Severus, because he’s a kid and this adult treats him like garbage.

“But Harry blames him for everything!”

Okay — and when Severus is white, that’s just... normal? But if he’s Black, suddenly it’s problematic?

I don’t get it. Again — *if* there’s no racism in the wizarding world, like Rowling said, then the dynamics of the relationships stay exactly the same.

So what, really, is the issue?

The thing is, this kind of setup makes almost everyone uncomfortable.

As the saying goes: if you want to see the solution to a problem, look at it from a different angle. And as it turns out, it works the other way around too.

A lot of what Severus represents — his story, his personality — often gets downplayed or viewed through a biased lens, usually through Harry’s or the Marauders’ perspective. Issues like bullying, the prejudice he faced because of his interests or appearance — those things became so normalized that people stopped seeing them as real problems.

And now, suddenly, those who used to enjoy mocking him are being forcefully dunked into cold reality. They’re being asked to accept a new version of the story — one that makes them uncomfortable. Suddenly, everything that happened to Severus becomes a nightmare, an embarrassment for those who used to justify how he was treated.

What changed? Why is this behavior now considered “unacceptable”?

Oh. He’s Black now.

Not because of some big story twist. Just his appearance.

And suddenly — bam — racism, a real and very loud issue in our world, completely recolors the narrative.

Now the loudest voices — the ones who used to shout things like:

“He deserved it for calling others ‘Mudbloods’!”

“He deserved the bullying because he wanted to be a Death Eater!”

“It was mutual hatred, not bullying!”

— have all suddenly fallen silent.

And instead, we get the same whining in both the Russian and English fandoms:

“This changes the dynamics of the story! The Marauders, Harry, Ron, Dumbledore — everyone! They all suddenly look racist! Harry constantly blames him and suspects him — this is a disaster!”

Different words, same excuses.

But has anything about Severus’s actions changed?

What’s different between white Severus and Black Severus?

Nothing — except now we, the audience, more used to seeing racism in the real world, notice the injustice. It becomes clearer. Easier to see.

And sadly, only under these circumstances do some people finally start to pay attention to the issue. It’s unfortunate, but what can you do?

Even a large portion of Snape’s own fanbase dislikes this casting choice. And — oh, the irony — I sometimes hear the same nonsense from them about how it “changes the dynamics” and all that.

But in 99 out of 100 cases, it’s just sadness. Sadness that they didn’t get to see the familiar image of their favorite character.

Massive respect to those who just come out and say, “I just wanted my greasy-haired bastard back” — without piling on all the nonsense about a rewritten plot, changed relationships, racial discrimination, and so on. Because that simply doesn’t reflect reality.

One more important point…

It really doesn’t reflect reality. For the simple reason that the show hasn’t even come out yet. We don’t know the rest of the cast.

What if Harry is cast as Black? Or Lily? Or James? Lupin? Peter?

What are those people — the ones currently screaming louder than a fire alarm about “wrong casting” — going to say then?

“Oh… well in that case, sure, it’s totally fine for them to insult and humiliate Snape like before. Because, uhh… he wanted to be a Death Eater! And he was mean to kids!”

I can already picture it.

We don’t know what the casting will be like, how the story will shift, whether the project will be well-made or an absolute disaster, whether it’ll succeed or flop completely — we just don’t know. So judging it all based on one actor is simply impossible.

But, like I said — this series is being made for a new audience. And whether we like it or not, it will bring something new to the saga. Whether that’s a good thing… we’ll see.

Those who want the canon, or Alan Rickman, know exactly where to go. And I’m one of those people. I was genuinely disappointed that Snape wouldn’t look canon — because I adore the books, and after being let down by the movies, I was hoping for someone who looked and felt more like book Severus — in appearance, in character, the full picture.

But this series isn’t being made for me. It’s looking for something different, and I’ll be happy if the directors really try and end up creating something genuinely good. Even if it’s not a copy of the books — the books already exist.

Rowling, despite all my personal negative feelings toward her, is involved in the production. And while that’s not a plus for me, for those who are especially worried about “violating canon,” maybe her involvement brings some peace of mind.

Considering the state of modern cinema… well.

We’ll see how it all turns out.

[witchthewriter]

𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦?

⤷ gender neutral, ambiguous race, and any size reader. Requests are open, thank you for reading!

a/n: thank you for the request anon!

ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ | ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ ᴵᴵ

𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑹𝒀 𝑷𝑶𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑹𝑯𝑨𝑬𝑮𝑨𝑳

・This pairing works because Rhaegal would provide Harry with emotional support during his struggles with loss and identity, much like Buckbeak did.

・Rhaegal’s loyal and compassionate nature would compliment Harry’s deep love for his friends (like Ron and Hermione) and his willingness to risk everything to protect them.

・Harry’s deep empathy and ability to understand others’ pain (thanks to his experiences and even his connection to Voldemort) align well with Rhaegal’s less aggressive, more introspective nature.

・Both Rhaegal and Harry have a natural instinct to protect those they care about.

・Rhaegal would respond to Harry’s courage and selflessness. For example, if Harry risked himself to defend the dragon or a vulnerable group of people, Rhaegal would recognise Harry as a worthy rider.

・Rhaegal’s balanced temperament would offer Harry stability and companionship in the chaos of his Hogwarts life.

・The green dragon would be an extension of Harry himself. He would feel so close to Rhaegal, that without him, he would feel like something is missing.

・They would have adventures together. Including daring flights around Hogwarts or defending the school from threats like Death Eaters.

𝑯𝑬𝑹𝑴𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑬 𝑮𝑹𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑹 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑺𝑰𝑳𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑾𝑰𝑵𝑮

・Silverwing’s gentle, loyal, and affectionate nature would align perfectly with Hermione’s compassionate and kind-hearted personality.

・Silverwing would be the perfect dragon for Hermione because of their shared values of loyalty, kindness, and a preference for reason over aggression.

・Hermione’s desire to protect and support her friends while also seeking justice aligns closely with Silverwing’s peaceful and noble disposition. Together, they would form a bond rooted in mutual respect, trust, and the pursuit of a better world.

・As a dragon who preferred peace and was known to approach humans without aggression, Silverwing would appeal to Hermione’s desire to resolve conflicts with reason rather than violence.

・Hermione would find comfort in Silverwing’s calm and steady presence, especially during stressful situations like facing the Triwizard Tournament or planning the Horcrux hunt.

・Silverwing could serve as a trusted companion during her intellectual pursuits, staying by her side as she researches spells and strategies to protect her friends.

𝑹𝑶𝑵 𝑾𝑬𝑨𝑺𝑳𝑬𝒀 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑽𝑬𝑹𝑴𝑰𝑻𝑯𝑶𝑹

・The Bronze Fury’s steady nature would provide the grounding and reassurance Ron needs sometimes, while his immense power and loyalty would inspire Ron to step into his own strength and confidence.

・Their bond represents Ron’s growth from an insecure sidekick into a capable and courageous hero.

・The bond between them would also allow Ron to grow into a stronger, more decisive version of himself.

・Vermithor embodies qualities that Ron admires: strength, power, fierceness, a commanding presence and intensity.

・The Bronze Fury would be Ron's absolute pride and joy; he would feel very important when first bonding with Vermithor. And then when he started to grow as a person, he would feel like he was worthy of the bond.

・Vermithor would be a comforting and protective presence for Ron, helping him stay grounded during stressful situations.

・Their bond could grow deeper as Vermithor encourages Ron to embrace his own inner strength and potential.

P.s., I also didn't realise I had given Hermione and Ron the two dragons who were mates <3

[justatypicalwizard]

Meta-isekai | K. Bakugo ✧ Act I Scene II

-`♡´- In which Bakugo gets isekaied into a shoyo romance. -`♡´-

Peak stupidity ⋆ ˚｡ ⋆୨♡୧⋆ ˚｡ ⋆

Act I 𓆩⚝𓆪

Scene II: Eijiro is a pro basketball player now

ʚɞ “So, first of all let me introduce you to everyone, quietly that is.” The cat tagged along Katsuki's commute to school. Apparently he still went to UA but instead of a hero-school it was now a higher class, yet normal highschool.

“You just do your morning routine and I'll tell you where to go and who is who. Just carry something that I can sit on.” The cat meowed and yawned, digging its nails into Katsuki's school bag. He had to pretend he didn't notice.

“Have you always been such a lil piece of shit?” The boy asked, checking over his shoulder to see if no one spotted him supposedly cursing to himself.

“Same as you. Why do you think we were paired up? Now into the school building!”

ʚɞ Some key information that Bakugo took mental notes of.

ʚɞ He was in second grade. All of his class members were the same with the exception of quirks. Looking at some of them made him shiver, especially Mineta's hairstyle. Somehow it resembled the purple balls of his superpower.

ʚɞ Eijiro was a rising star in basketball. He still dyed his hair and got shit from the teachers about it but since he was one of the school's most promising students they let it slide ultimately. He was loud and obnoxious as always, with a tight group of fanboys circling him and his manliness.

ʚɞ Racoon eyes still had eyes like a racoon. She was devoted to some weird merge of gyaru meets scene meets emo, with dark eyeshadow and contact lenses. Somehow, she also slid past the teachers, always looking down. Guess this world really was a shoyo dream with all the weird loopholes. Anyway, Mina spent most of her time around the basketball team as one of the managers. Also she was not pink, which was weird, but she still kept a pinkish colour, like she was constantly blushing all over her body. Maybe some kind of freaky body paint.

ʚɞ Denki was stupid, blonde and a perverted. No changes here.

ʚɞ Deku was the class nerd with test scores better than college students. He was knuckles down in study groups and tutoring.

ʚɞ The rest seemed to pursue interests that in Katsuki's hero world became secondary. Yaoyorozu was rich and trying to upkeep her appearances (and had a fine china fetish). Jirou played the guitar, Mr. Tight-Pants Fast Legs was school representative, Ochaco was the class (and ass) sweetheart while Icy-Hot still had daddy issues.

At least Katsuki didn’t fall too much out of the loop to draw unwanted attention.

ʚɞ Katsuki v2 (that's how he called him in his head) had a specific crush. It was a girl from a different class that the now Katsuki had yet to meet.

This girl has never held a proper conversation with Katsuki v2 and the Black Cat has no clue why v2 fell in love with her. The cat descended into v2's life when he already developed the crush but failed at achieving anything human-relations wise miserably.

ʚɞ V2 was good at studying, one of the best in class. He also played the drums (good) and was a part of the martial arts club (fucking awsome). He worked-out regularly, ate well and lived with his parents.

ʚɞ He apparently kept close with Kirishima, Denki and Mina-

-who now swarmed him in the classroom.

“Have you heard the tea?” Denki leaned closer to Mina's ear.

“I swear if you stick a wet finger in my ear.”

“Good idea but no.” Dunceface smirked. “Jirou heard that Yaoyorozu went in on Ochaco talking over the phone about how much she crushes Midoriya.”

“And then Pat told Parvatti to tell Ron, whatever. Besides, it's common knowledge that these two belong together.” Mina slumped in her seat, pissed off that Denki's gossip was not juicy.

“Yeah, but I don’t see them getting together anytime soon so it's still spicy.” The (no longer electric) blonde shrugged.

“If you told me Yaoyorozu walked like in on them, then it would be spicy.”

“Kiri, tell her something! I'm supposed to be the perverted one.”

“Well it's not good to spread gossip or invade someone's privacy like that.” The redhead scratched his scalp.

“I need a comrade, not a mum!” Denki started whining. “Bakugo!”

“You're clutching at a straw here.” Mina laughed.

Katsuki wanted to open his mouth and tell them that there are more important things than Deku's miserable love life but then it hit him. For this lot, there weren't any more important things than goofing around, sliding through tests and having crushes. They had a totally normal highschool life without villain attacks, near-death experience and murderous training under Aizawa. And such v2 also had a normal highschool life. Maybe he was more invested in all these dramas?

“They should just fuck each other already.” Katsuki resorted to… something like this.

“Wow dude. So romantic.” Denki said and everyone gawked at Katsuki only blinking. “I always thought you didn't care about these things but I guess I was wrong, Mr. Bombastic. Maybe you'll become a heart-throb by the end of the year if you keep up this attitude.”

ʚɞ In the end Katsuki learned he should just act like himself. 

Tag list: @ita606 @blueberrysoaps

[kittykittycatnip]

can you make a list of all your sparklecare contributions?

yeah sure i'll put it all under a readmore because it's a lot. sorry this answer is so late, i was kind of debating on whether i should answer it but since there seems to be some confusion on who made what i figured i should

i made the composition for the v5 cover. here's the original sketches:

if i remember correctly i was mentioned as having made it in a patreon post, but i was no longer credited once it actually released

i made a lot of the update art for early v4, most of them are rushed because they were done last minute (there was no schedule for update art, if it happened it happened but the process was usually kittycorn saying "who wants to do tonight's update art" a few hours before it was due to be released). a few of them were collaborative between me and other zcp members and some also have easter eggs in them:

this one in specific was meant to foreshadow nightstars characters because we were all really excited about it at the time, it was my special interest while it was being developed. unfortunately it never came to fruition. the k, l and c were supposed to represent my ocs

i designed brigh's sister. she wasn't named by me, kittycorn named her. i'm pretty sure i named his parents though if i remember correctly? my old art is so bad i'm so sorry

i made shorbs too, i didn't even know these were being used until a couple weeks ago. they were supposed to cause an illness resulting in extreme fur growth all over the body that needed to be cut often if someone ingested their wool somehow but i guess that was changed? i think they were originally named by carmen and then i designed them afterwards

i was the one who asked for funfetti to be genderqueer, as that was the label i used at the time. my idea was that she used she/her pronouns but presented androgynously and preferred traditionally masc clothing like suits, but after kittycorn said yes to the gq label she was changed to use she/he/they with no further input from me

kittycorn made this character's design after i half jokingly came up with the allotpun. the pun is monophyly, i suggested it as a name for a barry/hemera kid because it's a science word and their love of science was like the only thing they had in common lol

i always wanted there to be a jay/hemera kid in cometcare, not as a romantic thing but from emem as a way to bring them together and become closer if that makes sense.

their name is memo r. philly, the allotpun is memorabilia. yes that allotpun fucking sucks but i avoided making anything ending with -philia because hemera is aroace and a word with a root relating to love didn't feel right with me. they used every pronoun and hoarded neos and were a smug bastard that spent most of their time making alt accounts on discord to fuck with levi and make him mad. idk why this art doesnt have pupils, i guess i forgot to add them or something? they weren't acknowledged by kittycorn as far as i can remember but they were canon in my Heart /lh

speaking of cometcare i'm the one who came up with the comet symbolism. i had no idea it was going to be used for a disgusting incest comic.

some things i have no proof of: i designed funfetti's parents, her mom was a stereotypical nice grandma who bakes cookies and her dad looked like a furry version of ron swanson from parks and rec. they were both cats. i don't have the art of them unfortunately since it was on my old hard drive that died. i made puppy's backstory with the neglectful dad as well, his name was spadezen harts if i remember correctly and looked similar to puppy but was black and red with a spade theme instead of a heart theme. i also don't have him anymore. i also was the one who asked for hemera to be less antagonistic and more easily sympathized with from v5 onwards, since i felt like a lot of the fandom hated her unfairly. i tried finding a way to make the perfect patient either survive or live on somehow but it didn't work narratively. i also made a post canon design for noah, which i can't find so i don't think i have it anymore.

i do have this though, this was a concept i made for v5 i think? to sorta imply noah's existence as a huge motivator for hemera's actions. noah was only brought up once in v2 and i thought it was odd that such an important character to hemera's story was mentioned Once

please don't steal these last few characters, i'm still actively using them in my own story completely unrelated to sparklecare

this is nerva, he was miley/hemera's kid in series 3, he was going to be jointly raised by caroline and doom. his deal was that he secretly knew about the hospital (he found out about it while researching because he knew something was being hidden from him) and was always stressed because of it and despised his parents for trying to keep it from him. kittycorn eventually decided to put him in cometcare to be introduced alongside miley's other kids like jolly and soob, but i left before then so he was removed. there might be an older version of this with worse colors floating around from when i first made him, but this is the final version. he's supposed to be around 14 or 15 but he looks like a kid here for some reason

and now a nightstars dump

brody was gonna be barry's friend. the joke was going to be that nobody knew what his actual name was and every time he showed up a new intro card would be shown with a different name. he was a huge nuisance and prankster and hated authority. he was strictly aro and was not up for shipping under any circumstances

he also had three parents who were poly. they owned a bakery together

this is carter, they were going to be another friend of barry's. they were very energetic and silly. they also had type 1 diabetes and generalized anxiety disorder and loved things like skating, aerobics and yoga

and this is justine. she was going to be uni's friend and helped her make lps roleplay videos on youtube. she loved hippie culture so she dressed like one and was super chill and laidback. she spent her free time foraging for herbs and mushrooms to use in cooking. she also had a girlfriend:

ellis' colors, name and outfit were chosen by emsody. all i made was the final design as a slow loris (emsody originally designed her as a cat but sparklecare has way too many cats so we changed her). her voiceclaim was mort

i also contributed to the worldbuilding of the town nightstars took place in, idk if the town's map has been leaked or not but a few of the landmarks were my idea like the forest and the lake

i think that's all, let me know if i missed anything or if you have questions ig. sorry if this is hard to follow or disjointed, it took over an hour to find all these in my files

[mytragedyperson]

So I've been thinking and I'm pretty sure, if cale does become a god and there's not already a god of hope (I'm still far behind so idk if there is one) Cale will become the god of hope. Because what does Cale represent if not hope?

First, in the first book, the god he's against is the god of Despair and Cale (hope) wins, not easily but he does win in the end.

And then there's Kim Rok Soo, the man he was before coming to this world. If he became the leader and after that, whenever he was at a battle none of his team members die, would that not give the team members hope? Kim Rok Soo's here, we might actually survive it. Its not enough to make them arrogant but it is enough that they don't simply give up

Then there's Choi Han. He's lost everything, and then he meets Cale. He's lost his family, his home, everyone he knew and cared about, and then there's Cale, offering him a safe place to stay, a family, friends, and helping him get revenge for those he lost. He inspires hope in him

Ron gets infected by dead mana, he's dying, he and Beacrox both believe he will due, but he doesn't, because Cale finds a way to save him, restores their hope that they too can get back what they lost.

Originally, all of Lock's family were killed, or at least believed to be killed, but this time Cale sent Choi Han so it can be assumed, everything happened just that little bit quicker, so Choi Han and Rosalyn got there a little bit earlier and we're able to help them, save them, and then Cale helped him through his first time turning berserk and gave them a new home.

This is just a few of the people he's given hope, there's many more, Raon, On, Hong, Alberu. He's given all of them some kind of hope

He was Original Cale Henituse's last hope.

Ugh, just Cale inspiring hope in so many people and defeating the god of despair only to become the god, the embodiment, of hope.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The enshittification of garage-door openers reveals a vast and deadly rot

I'll be at the Studio City branch of the LA Public Library on Monday, November 13 at 1830hPT to launch my new novel, The Lost Cause. There'll be a reading, a talk, a surprise guest (!!) and a signing, with books on sale. Tell your friends! Come on down!

How could this happen? Owners of Chamberlain MyQ automatic garage door openers just woke up to discover that the company had confiscated valuable features overnight, and that there was nothing they could do about it.

Oh, we know what happened, technically speaking. Chamberlain shut off the API for its garage-door openers, which breaks their integration with home automation systems like Home Assistant. The company even announced that it was doing this, calling the integration an "unauthorized usage" of its products, though the "unauthorized" parties in this case are the people who own Chamberlain products:

https://chamberlaingroup.com/press/a-message-about-our-decision-to-prevent-unauthorized-usage-of-myq

We even know why Chamberlain did this. As Ars Technica's Ron Amadeo points out, shutting off the API is a way for Chamberlain to force its customers to use its ad-beshitted, worst-of-breed app, so that it can make a few pennies by nonconsensually monetizing its customers' eyeballs:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/11/chamberlain-blocks-smart-garage-door-opener-from-working-with-smart-homes/

But how did this happen? How did a giant company like Chamberlain come to this enshittening juncture, in which it felt empowered to sabotage the products it had already sold to its customers? How can this be legal? How can it be good for business? How can the people who made this decision even look themselves in the mirror?

To answer these questions, we must first consider the forces that discipline companies, acting against the impulse to enshittify their products and services. There are four constraints on corporate conduct:

I. Competition. The fear of losing your business to a rival can stay even the most sociopathic corporate executive's hand.

II. Regulation. The fear of being fined, criminally sanctioned, or banned from doing business can check the greediest of leaders.

III. Capability. Corporate executives can dream up all kinds of awful ways to shift value from your side of the ledger to their own, but they can only do the things that are technically feasible.

IV. Self-help. The possibility of customers modifying, reconfiguring or altering their products to restore lost functionality or neutralize antifeatures carries an implied threat to vendors. If a printer company's anti-generic-ink measures drives a customer to jailbreak their printers, the original manufacturer's connection to that customer is permanently severed, as the customer creates a durable digital connection to a rival.

When companies act in obnoxious, dishonest, shitty ways, they aren't merely yielding to temptation – they are evading these disciplining forces. Thus, the Great Enshittening we are living through doesn't reflect an increase in the wickedness of corporate leadership. Rather, it represents a moment in which each of these disciplining factors have been gutted by specific policies.

This is good news, actually. We used to put down rat poison and we didn't have a rat problem. Then we stopped putting down rat poison and rats are eating us alive. That's not a nice feeling, but at least we know at least one way of addressing it – we can start putting down poison again. That is, we can start enforcing the rules that we stopped enforcing, in living memory. Having a terrible problem is no fun, but the best kind of terrible problem to have is one that you know a solution to.

As it happens, Chamberlain is a neat microcosm for all the bad policy choices that created the Era of Enshittification. Let's go through them:

Competition: Chamberlain doesn't have to worry about competition, because it is owned by a private equity fund that "rolled up" all of Chamberlain's major competitors into a single, giant firm. Most garage-door opener brands are actually Chamberlain, including "LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Merlin, and Grifco":

https://www.lakewoodgaragedoor.biz/blog/the-history-of-garage-door-openers

This is a pretty typical PE rollup, and it exploits a bug in US competition law called "Antitrust's Twilight Zone":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/16/schumpeterian-terrorism/#deliberately-broken

When companies buy each other, they are subject to "merger scrutiny," a set of guidelines that the FTC and DoJ Antitrust Division use to determine whether the outcome is likely to be bad for competition. These rules have been pretty lax since the Reagan administration, but they've currently being revised to make them substantially more strict:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-and-ftc-seek-comment-draft-merger-guidelines

One of the blind spots in these merger guidelines is an exemption for mergers valued at less than $101m. Under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, these fly under the radar, evading merger scrutiny. That means that canny PE companies can roll up dozens and dozens of standalone businesses, like funeral homes, hospital beds, magic mushrooms, youth addiction treatment centers, mobile home parks, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, local newspapers, or e-commerce sellers:

http://www.economicliberties.us/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Serial-Acquisitions-Working-Paper-R4-2.pdf

By titrating the purchase prices, PE companies – like Blackstone, owners of Chamberlain and all the other garage-door makers – can acquire a monopoly without ever raising a regulatory red flag.

But antitrust enforcers aren't helpless. Under (the long dormant) Section 7 of the Clayton Act, competition regulators can block mergers that lead to "incipient monopolization." The incipiency standard prevented monopolies from forming from 1914, when the Clayton Act passed, until the Reagan administration. We used to put down rat poison, and we didn't have rats. We stopped, and rats are gnawing our faces off. We still know where the rat poison is – maybe we should start putting it down again.

On to regulation. How is it possible for Chamberlain to sell you a garage-door opener that has an API and works with your chosen home automation system, and then unilaterally confiscate that valuable feature? Shouldn't regulation protect you from this kind of ripoff?

It should, but it doesn't. Instead, we have a bunch of regulations that protect Chamberlain from you. Think of binding arbitration, which allows Chamberlain to force you to click through an "agreement" that takes away your right to sue them or join a class-action suit:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/benevolent-dictators/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

But regulation could protect you from Chamberlain. Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act allows the FTC to ban any "unfair and deceptive" conduct. This law has been on the books since 1914, but Section 5 has been dormant, forgotten and unused, for decades. The FTC's new dynamo chair, Lina Khan, has revived it, and is use it like a can-opener to free Americans who've been trapped by abusive conduct:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

Khan's used Section 5 powers to challenge privacy invasions, noncompete clauses, and other corporate abuses – the bait-and-switch tactics of Chamberlain are ripe for a Section 5 case. If you buy a gadget because it has five features and then the vendor takes two of them away, they are clearly engaged in "unfair and deceptive" conduct.

On to capability. Since time immemorial, corporate leaders have fetishized "flexibility" in their business arrangements – like the ability to do "dynamic pricing" that changes how much you pay for something based on their guess about how much you are willing to pay. But this impulse to play shell games runs up against the hard limits of physical reality: grocers just can't send an army of rollerskated teenagers around the store to reprice everything as soon as a wealthy or desperate-looking customer comes through the door. They're stuck with crude tactics like doubling the price of a flight that doesn't include a Saturday stay as a way of gouging business travelers on an expense account.

With any shell-game, the quickness of the hand deceives the eye. Corporate crooks armed with computers aren't smarter or more wicked than their analog forebears, but they are faster. Digital tools allow companies to alter the "business logic" of their services from instant to instant, in highly automated ways:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

The monopoly coalition has successfully argued that this endless "twiddling" should not be constrained by privacy, labor or consumer protection law. Without these constraints, corporate twiddlers can engage in all kinds of ripoffs, like wage theft and algorithmic wage discrimination:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

Twiddling is key to the Darth Vader MBA ("I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further"), in which features are confiscated from moment to moment, without warning or recourse:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

There's no reason to accept the premise that violating your privacy, labor rights or consumer rights with a computer is so different from analog ripoffs that existing laws don't apply. The unconstrained twiddling of digital ripoff artists is a plague on billions of peoples' lives, and any enforcer who sticks up for our rights will have an army of supporters behind them.

Finally, there's the fear of self-help measures. All the digital flexibility that tech companies use to take value away can be used to take it back, too. The whole modern history of digital computers is the history of "adversarial interoperability," in which the sleazy antifeatures of established companies are banished through reverse-engineering, scraping, bots and other forms of technological guerrilla warfare:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

Adversarial interoperability represents a serious threat to established business. If you're a printer company gouging on toner, your customers might defect to a rival that jailbreaks your security measures. That's what happened to Lexmark, who lost a case against the toner-refilling company Static Controls, which went on to buy Lexmark:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/felony-contempt-business-model-lexmarks-anti-competitive-legacy

Sure, your customers are busy and inattentive and you can degrade the quality of your product a lot before they start looking for ways out. But once they cross that threshold, you can lose them forever. That's what happened to Microsoft: the company made the tactical decision to produce a substandard version of Office for the Mac in a drive to get Mac users to switch to Windows. Instead, Apple made Iwork (Pages, Numbers and Keynote), which could read and write every Office file, and Mac users threw away Office, the only Microsoft product they owned, permanently severing their relationship to the company:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

Today, companies can operate without worrying about this kind of self-help measure. There' a whole slew of IP rights that Chamberlain can enforce against you if you try to fix your garage-door opener yourself, or look to a competitor to sell you a product that restores the feature they took away:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

Jailbreaking your Chamberlain gadget in order to make it answer to a rival's app involves bypassing a digital lock. Trafficking in a tool to break a digital lock is a felony under Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright, carrying a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine.

In other words, it's not just that tech isn't regulated, allowing for endless twiddling against your privacy, consumer rights and labor rights. It's that tech is badly regulated, to permit unlimited twiddling by tech companies to take away your rightsand to prohibit any twiddling by you to take them back. The US government thumbs the scales against you, creating a regime that Jay Freeman aptly dubbed "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/23/how-to-fix-cars-by-breaking-felony-contempt-of-business-model/

All kinds of companies have availed themselves of this government-backed superpower. There's DRM – digital locks, covered by DMCA 1201 – in powered wheelchairs:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/06/when-drm-comes-your-wheelchair

In dishwashers:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/03/cassette-rewinder/#disher-bob

In treadmills:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/22/vapescreen/#jane-get-me-off-this-crazy-thing

In tractors:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

It should come as no surprise to learn that Chamberlain has used DMCA 1201 to block interoperable garage door opener components:

https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1233&context=iplr

That's how we arrived at this juncture, where a company like Chamberlain can break functionality its customers value highly, solely to eke out a minuscule new line of revenue by selling ads on their own app.

Chamberlain bought all its competitors.

Chamberlain operates in a regulatory environment that is extremely tolerant of unfair and deceptive practices. Worse: they can unilaterally take away your right to sue them, which means that if regulators don't bestir themselves to police Chamberlain, you are shit out of luck.

Chamberlain has endless flexibility to unilaterally alter its products' functionality, in fine-grained ways, even after you've purchased them.

Chamberlain can sue you if you try to exercise some of that same flexibility to protect yourself from their bad practices.

Combine all four of those factors, and of course Chamberlain is going to enshittify its products. Every company has had that one weaselly asshole at the product-planning table who suggests a petty grift like breaking every one of the company's customers' property to sell a few ads. But historically, the weasel lost the argument to others, who argued that making every existing customer furious would affect the company's bottom line, costing it sales and/or fines, and prompting customers to permanently sever their relationship with the company by seeking out and installing alternative software. Take away all the constraints on a corporation's worst impulses, and this kind of conduct is inevitable:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

This isn't limited to Chamberlain. Without the discipline of competition, regulation, self-help measures or technological limitations, every industry in undergoing wholesale enshittification. It's not a coincidence that Chamberlain's grift involves a push to move users into its app. Because apps can't be reverse-engineered and modified without risking DMCA 1201 prosecution, forcing a user into an app is a tidy and reliable way to take away that user's rights.

Think about ad-blocking. One in four web users has installed an ad-blockers ("the biggest boycott in world history" -Doc Searls). Zero app users have installed app-blockers, because they don't exist, because making one is a felony. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a crime to defend yourself against corporate predation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/27/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse/

The temptation to enshitiffy isn't new, but the ability to do so without consequence is a modern phenomenon, the intersection of weak policy enforcement and powerful technology. Your car is autoenshittified, a rolling rent-seeking platform that spies on you and price-gouges you:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

Cars are in an uncontrolled skid over Enshittification Cliff. Honda, Toyota, VW and GM all sell cars with infotainment systems that harvest your connected phone's text-messages and send them to the corporation for data-mining. What's more, a judge in Washington state just ruled that this is legal:

https://therecord.media/class-action-lawsuit-cars-text-messages-privacy

While there's no excuse for this kind of sleazy conduct, we can reasonably anticipate that if our courts would punish companies for engaging in it, they might be able to resist the temptation. No wonder Mozilla's latest Privacy Not Included research report called cars "the worst product category we have ever reviewed":

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

I mean, Nissan tries to infer facts about your sex life and sells those inferences to marketing companies:

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/nissan/

But the OG digital companies are the masters of enshittification. Microsoft has been at this game for longer than anyone, and every day brings a fresh way that Microsoft has worsened its products without fear of consequence. The latest? You can't delete your OneDrive account until you provide an acceptable explanation for your disloyalty:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/8/23952878/microsoft-onedrive-windows-close-app-notification

It's tempting to think that the cruelty is the point, but it isn't. It's almost never the point. The point is power and money. Unscrupulous businesses have found ways to make money by making their products worse since the industrial revolution. Here's Jules Dupuis, writing about 19th century French railroads:

It is not because of the few thousand francs which would have to be spent to put a roof over the third-class carriages or to upholster the third-class seats that some company or other has open carriages with wooden benches. What the company is trying to do is to prevent the passengers who can pay the second class fare from traveling third class; it hits the poor, not because it wants to hurt them, but to frighten the rich. And it is again for the same reason that the companies, having proved almost cruel to the third-class passengers and mean to the second-class ones, become lavish in dealing with first-class passengers. Having refused the poor what is necessary, they give the rich what is superfluous.

https://www.tumblr.com/mostlysignssomeportents/731357317521719296/having-refused-the-poor-what-is-necessary-they

But as bad as all this is, let me remind you about the good part: we know how to stop companies from enshittifying their products. We know what disciplines their conduct: competition, regulation, capability and self-help measures. Yes, rats are gnawing our eyeballs, but we know which rat-poison to use, and where to put it to control those rats.

Competition, regulation, constraint and self-help measures all backstop one another, and while one or a few can make a difference, they are most powerful when they're all mobilized in concert. Think of the failure of the EU's landmark privacy law, the GDPR. While the GDPR proved very effective against bottom-feeding smaller ad-tech companies, the worse offenders, Meta and Google, have thumbed their noses at it.

This was enabled in part by the companies' flying an Irish flag of convenience, maintaining the pretense that they have to be regulated in a notorious corporate crime-haven:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

That let them get away with all kinds of shenanigans, like ignoring the GDPR's requirement that you should be able to easily opt out of data-collection without having to go through cumbersome "cookie consent" dialogs or losing access to the service as punishment for declining to be tracked.

As the noose has tightened around these surveillance giants, they're continuing to play games. Meta now says that the only way to opt out of data-collection in the EU is to pay for the service:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/30/markets-remaining-irrational/#steins-law

This is facially illegal under the GDPR. Not only are they prohibited from punishing you for opting out of collection, but the whole scheme ignores the nature of private data collection. If Facebook collects the fact that you and I are friends, but I never opted into data-collection, they have violated the GDPR, even if you were coerced into granting consent:

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/11/the-pay-or-consent-challenge-for-platform-regulators.html

The GDPR has been around since 2016 and Google and Meta are still invading 500 million Europeans' privacy. This latest delaying tactic could add years to their crime-spree before they are brought to justice.

But most of this surveillance is only possible because so much of how you interact with Google and Meta is via an app, and an app is just a web-page that's a felony to make an ad-blocker for. If the EU were to legalize breaking DRM – repealing Article 6 of the 2001 Copyright Directive – then we wouldn't have to wait for the European Commission to finally wrestle these two giant companies to the ground. Instead, EU companies could make alternative clients for all of Google and Meta's services that don't spy on you, without suffering the fate of OG App, which tried this last winter and was shut down by "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

Enshittification is demoralizing. To quote @wilwheaton, every update to the services we use inspires "dread of 'How will this complicate things as I try to maintain privacy and sanity in a world that demands I have this thing to operate?'"

https://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/698603648058556416/cory-doctorow-if-you-see-this-and-have-thoughts

But there are huge natural constituencies for the four disciplining forces that keep enshittification at bay.

Remember, Antitrust's Twilight Zone doesn't just allow rollups of garage-door opener companies – it's also poison for funeral homes, hospital beds, magic mushrooms, youth addiction treatment centers, mobile home parks, nursing homes, physicians’ practices, local newspapers, or e-commerce sellers.

The Binding Arbitration scam that stops Chamberlain customers from suing the company also stops Uber drivers from suing over stolen wages, Turbotax customers from suing over fraud, and many other victims of corporate crime from getting a day in court.

The failure to constrain twiddling to protect privacy, labor rights and consumer rights enables a host of abuses, from stalking, doxing and SWATting to wage theft and price gouging:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

And Felony Contempt of Business Model is used to screw you over every time you refill your printer, run your dishwasher, or get your Iphone's screen replaced.

The actions needed to halt and reverse this enshittification are well understood, and the partisans for taking those actions are too numerous to count. It's taken a long time for all those individuals suffering under corporate abuses to crystallize into a movement, but at long last, it's happening.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[wilwheaton]

The most generous analysis — the kind you might hope to see in mainstream media coverage — would focus on a Republican Party in disarray on a level conservatives have long falsely accused Democrats of but which no party has exhibited to this degree since before WWII. By comparison, the Democrats of 1968 look like they were cast for that iconic Coke commercial of the era. The Republican field sans Trump couldn’t agree on Trump, the Constitution, Jan. 6, Ukraine, climate change, or — unbelievably — abortion. Kumbaya. And yet that still doesn’t fully capture the dysfunction and self-delusion that the GOP exhibited last night. It’s not riven by factionalism or dueling power bases vying for supremacy. Chris Christie, Asa Hutchison, and Doug Burgum represent no one and had no place being on the debate stage. Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, and Tim Scott represent the last vestiges of the former GOP, and their anemic response to Trump even now exemplifies how the Republican Party got itself into this mess to begin with. Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy are explicit about wanting to be the next Trump and are soulless enough to pull it off but lack his skills and appeal. Ramaswamy was particularly horrifying to watch, a know-nothing who will say anything and do so convincingly. If this debate had an iconic moment it was the halting raising of hands captured in the photo above when the candidates were asked if they would support Trump as GOP nominee even if he were a convicted felon by then. All but Christie and Hutchison were down for Trump 2.0. No winners in this debate. Just losers.

The Most Unsettling Presidential Debate Spectacle Ever

[maxdibert]

Omg now I'm also curious about what you think about the characters' political spectrum. I think Severus would be a centrist and the type of guy who would say "facts above feelings". His worldview is very isolated in the books, he only focuses on how the world impacts him and what benefits him the most, so he would be pro worker rights, but I doubt he would take things that don't touch him, like feminism, seriously. Would he be an incel? Lol idk. Lily would be a typical liberal feminist. James and Sirius would be centrists or just apathetic, because why would they actually care about politics when they have it all, but they would pretend to be liberal to safe face and attract girls. Peter would be right leaning and probably an incel too. Remus...I genuinely don't know.

Hermione would be a liberal but I can see her becoming more leftist with time. Ron a liberal, same as Harry. Dumbledore would be a leftist but do nothing to change the system, just like in the books.

I'm not an expert so I'm curious what'd you think? Do some of my guesses fit?

It always amuses me when people frame Severus as an incel when canonically he’s always gotten along better with women than with men. In his household, his father—the man—was the negative figure, while his mother’s world seemed to be what interested him most. His first friend (and apparently his only real one) was Lily, a girl, and he also hung out with Petunia, despite them not liking each other. At Hogwarts, his safe space was still with Lily, a girl, while boys represented the negative aspects of his life: on one side, the Marauders, all men, making his life miserable, and on the other, his housemates leading him down a dark path. As an adult, as a professor, despite the comment he makes to Hermione, he’s always shown to be much harsher and more aggressive with boys than with girls. In fact, his antipathy toward Hermione is significantly less intense than what he feels for any of her male classmates. His paternal figure, Dumbledore, is a gay man, and the only coworkers we know he had a cordial relationship with were McGonagall (a woman) and Charity Burbage, with whom it’s stated they were “friends,” another woman. Then there’s Narcissa, who apparently knows where his shabby Muggle house is in his poor Muggle neighborhood, and with whom he behaves unusually gently, considering his usual crappy personality. That’s not the behavior of an incel, nor is it the behavior of someone who hates women. In fact, given his history as a victim of violence, with all that violence being perpetuated by men, it’s not surprising that he might feel considerably more comfortable with women, who have not been negative figures in his life but rather the opposite.

I don’t see Severus as a feminist supporter, because I don’t think he’s someone who actively participates in political matters. After his flirtation with the far right and the way that blew up in his face, I see him as someone who stays on the sidelines of such things. But I absolutely do see him supporting laws against gender-based violence, for example, because he was a victim of a violent household. I don’t see him going to protests, but I don’t see him opposing them either. Politically, I imagine him as more of a centrist who might occasionally vote for more progressive parties on social issues he considers fair, given his life experiences and working-class origins, but never getting involved in those debates or sparking discussions because he’s pretty burned out from his own past.

Lily is a self-insert for Rowling, so yes, absolutely a neoliberal white feminist, the type who’s all about “I love Hillary Clinton,” with a perception of women’s rights that only considers the problems of white European women and doesn’t grasp intersectionality or dissident feminism. The kind who thinks some people “take things too far” or who says, “I’m a feminist, but the real kind, the kind who doesn’t hate men,” you know? She’d never have voted for Thatcher, but she’d probably see her as an excellent example of an empowered woman, if you catch my drift. That kind of person. Maybe progressive for her time, but a total relic by 21st-century standards. I see her as the type who starts out with more leftist ideas in her youth but gradually shifts to the right over the years, although always supporting basic social causes that won’t fix systemic issues but make her look good in a conversation.

James and Sirius are the typical rich boys who don’t understand the struggles of the poor but think they’re “not like other rich people,” so they claim to have a progressive mindset. Sirius, for example, is the type to bash the right but then treat waiters like crap if they don’t serve him quickly enough at a restaurant (ahemKreacherahem), and he’d get really defensive if someone called out his problematic comments because “I stood up to my fascist family; I know what it means to fight for my beliefs.” Zero self-criticism because zero fundamental political awareness. James is a bit like Lily: “I’m progressive, but let’s not go overboard because extremism doesn’t lead anywhere,” which is a very convenient way of saying he supports workers having vacations but doesn’t want them burning down factories because “that’s not politics; that’s terrorism.”

Remus is the kind of guy who votes for social-democratic left-wing parties with union leanings but doesn’t say so openly at a dinner party and always presents himself as more moderate because he cares more about what people think of him than about his own rights.

Hermione is the classic progressive who seems very leftist within her circle and stands out because, surrounded by a bunch of centrist and neoliberal idiots, she might almost pass for a Bolshevik. But real Bolsheviks would treat her like a system lackey. She’d be seen as too leftist for conservatives and too conservative for the left. She also has a pretty questionable white savior complex and could use a solid dose of deconstruction and some reading on the issues of Eurocentrism and colonial leftism.

Ron is the guy who votes for progressive parties because his whole family always has, and his family does it out of the same habit, so he doesn’t even know what he’s voting for; he just does it out of inertia. And Harry? Harry is a neoliberal with socially progressive tendencies, but social issues only matter to him if they directly affect him. Plus, he’s a system loyalist because he ends up as an Auror, which is the magical equivalent of being an MI5 agent, so… On this account, we’re ACAB; sorry, not sorry.

Dumbledore is the typical guy who was a fascist in his youth and later joined some far-left party but still approaches it the same way he approached the far right: all or nothing. His political vision isn’t ideological in itself but entirely militaristic. He wants to achieve the objective, and he doesn’t care who he steps on to get there, so he’d actually make a fantastic Stalinist.

[eddieredmayneargentinablog]

New post: "Eddie Redmayne to reprise Fantastic Beasts role in new scenes for Universal experience tying Beasts to Harry Potter films".

EW has confirmed Redmayne filmed new scenes as Newt Scamander, while Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint also appeared in Universal Epic Universe’s preview.

Have you ever dreamed of traveling the Floo Network like your favorite Harry Potter stars? What about taming a fantastic beast (or several) with the flick of a wand in Paris? Universal Orlando's upcoming theme park, Universal Epic Universe, is set to cast a spell that will turn that fantasy into a reality when its new Wizarding World of Harry Potter — Ministry of Magic land opens in 2025.

Entertainment Weekly has confirmed through a source that franchise star Eddie Redmayne will reprise his Fantastic Beasts role as Newt Scamander in the new land, with his new, already-filmed scenes set to appear throughout. Ministry of Magic is touted as the most elaborate of the planned park's five new themed areas, fusing timelines from the eight main Harry Potter films with the three Fantastic Beasts movies. The narratives will converge on a massive plot of land spanning 1920s Paris and 1990s London as guests travel to and from both destinations using the Métro Floo transportation network to dart back and forth.

Partially set within the British Ministry of Magic, the land's marquee attraction will be Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry, which will take travelers on a first-of-its-kind adventure using new omnidirectional technology that allows ride vehicles to travel through sprawling environments in vessels that move up, down, forward, backward, and sideways along one of the company's "most impressive attractions to date," according to a press release.

The ride's story puts guests on a journey from Paris to the British Ministry of Magic for the trial of Dolores Umbridge (played by Imelda Staunton in the films). Visitors enter through the organization's grand atrium (as seen in the Harry Potter movies) ahead of the trial until things go wrong when Umbridge attempts to escape. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and a house elf named Higgledy eventually accompany riders along the pursuit of Umbridge. (EW has reached out to representatives for Radcliffe, Watson, Grint, and Redmayne for comment on their potential return.)

Outside of the main ride, the Ministry of Magic section will feature a live show, Le Cirque Arcanus, billed as a full-scale theater experience with live performers and aerialists, puppetry, special effects, and fantastic beats appearing throughout the production, which follows Ringmaster Skender after he steals Newt Scamander's suitcase.

Consistent with Universal's other Harry Potter-themed parklands, the Ministry of Magic section includes merchandise locations that sell wands and other franchise materials, namely the focal wand location Cosme Acajor Baguettes Magique. Here, attendees can purchase wands and then use them to interact with fantastic beasts sprinkled throughout the Parisian locale.

Harry Potter characters are also set to roam the land, including exchange students from Hogwarts and Ilvermorny schools, an Auror from the Ministère des Affaires Magiques de la France, and even talking portraits.

Dining locations include Café L'Air De La Sirène, Le Gobelet Noir, Bar Moonshine, and a Bièraubeeurre Cart (translation: this is where you can get Butterbeer) — all joined by other smaller shops like Les Galeries Mirifiques, a sweets shop cleverly named K. Rammelle, and Tour En Floo, a gift store inspired by the magic of the Floo Network.

📷 Eddie Redmayne, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe in Universal Epic Universe preview. Universal Creative