empatheticwizard

[empatheticwizard]

Title: The Walls Between Worlds Fandom: Harry Potter Rating: Gen Words: 2,966 Characters: Adrian Silvertree (OC), Anselma Silvertree (OC), Minerva McGonagall, Original Parents Genre: Family Drama, Coming-of-Age, Squib Perspective Summary:

Summer, 1998. Age eleven and in a half-blood household, Adrian Silvertree awaits a letter from Hogwarts. And if it fails to arrive? His sister has a plan.

Standalone vignette connected to a longer WIP, set seven years prior. Can be read on its own.

Read on AO3

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins Weekly - The Statute Edition

Let's begin with the obvious. The Statute of Secrecy is old. Not old in a charming way, like a family heirloom your mum brings out every summer to regale you about your someday inheritance. Not old in a rugged way, like our enduring Professor Binns. Not old in a reverent way, like a Roman ruin or the books Madam Pince'll hex you for touching. The Statute is the kind that was built for a world that doesn't exist anymore. The Statute, of course, insists that it still does. The Statute was built for doors. Time, as my Muggleborn friends keep trying to explain, is increasingly fond of Windows.

(If you know, you know.) There was a time when dipping into the backroom made sense. There is a certain roguish charm in dwelling behind the curtains, in the toilets, and beyond the back-alleys. Wizards were being hunted, in a time when magic was synonymous with heresy and fire and drowning in village ponds. Muggles aren't particularly proud of that time either, mind, as their doctors still thought in terms of draining pints of blood to cure melancholy, smearing powdered lead in their hair and calling it fashion, and designing pianos that played by poking cats in the tail. No one is proud of anything they did in the 1600s. Ask the French. That is not this time. It hasn't been for a very long time. Before I go further, let me be clear: this is not, strictly speaking, a condemnation of Muggle Studies, per se. It is more an observation that our curriculum rests somewhere between five decades and fifteen centuries out of date. Which is to say, we've managed to miss the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, vaccines, and the notion that the moon might be interesting for more than simply pointing telescopes at. The exact range depends on the professor, the weather, and how recently someone has reminded them that the telephone is not, in fact, required to be wired any longer. We live in a world of satellites, search engines, cyber security, and mass multiplayer online games. (Yes, those are all different things. No, I can't explain them here. Go ask a Muggleborn. Preferably one born after 1980.) The divide between magical and non-magical isn't a wall. Information leaks. People talk. Wizards fall in love with Muggles. Some Muggles are smart. Some Muggles are very smart. The idea that a globe full of Muggles paying attention could remain unaware of an entire parallel society is, frankly, the kind of fantasy that even Disney would consider too childish to commit screentime to. (And if you don't know what Disney is, please for the love of Merlin go make friends with a Muggleborn.) Look: I'm not advocating we dismantle the Statute overnight. I'm not naive. (Okay. I'm probably naive. But I'm not wrong.) The question isn't whether the world will notice us. It's whether we'll still be pretending not to notice them when it happens.

For more like this, see Widdershins Weekly on AO3

For the broader story, check out Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3

[empatheticwizard]

Title: Card Me If You Can Fandom: Harry Potter Rating: Gen Words: 2,832 Characters: Marius Mulford (OC), mentions of Kai (OC) Genre: Humor, Coming-of-Age, Pureblood vs Muggle Culture Summary:

Summer, 2004. Marius Mulford - pureblood, Slytherin, and fourteen years fabulous - has one goal: to find and watch a telly. The mission will involve bribery, hotels, identity issues, and potential betrayals. But Marius is prepared. Probably.

Standalone vignette connected to a longer WIP, set two years later. Can be read on its own.

Read on AO3

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins Weekly - The Statute Edition

Let's begin with the obvious. The Statute of Secrecy is old. Not old in a charming way, like a family heirloom your mum brings out every summer to regale you about your someday inheritance. Not old in a rugged way, like our enduring Professor Binns. Not old in a reverent way, like a Roman ruin or the books Madam Pince'll hex you for touching. The Statute is the kind that was built for a world that doesn't exist anymore. The Statute, of course, insists that it still does. The Statute was built for doors. Time, as my Muggleborn friends keep trying to explain, is increasingly fond of Windows.

(If you know, you know.) There was a time when dipping into the backroom made sense. There is a certain roguish charm in dwelling behind the curtains, in the toilets, and beyond the back-alleys. Wizards were being hunted, in a time when magic was synonymous with heresy and fire and drowning in village ponds. Muggles aren't particularly proud of that time either, mind, as their doctors still thought in terms of draining pints of blood to cure melancholy, smearing powdered lead in their hair and calling it fashion, and designing pianos that played by poking cats in the tail. No one is proud of anything they did in the 1600s. Ask the French. That is not this time. It hasn't been for a very long time. Before I go further, let me be clear: this is not, strictly speaking, a condemnation of Muggle Studies, per se. It is more an observation that our curriculum rests somewhere between five decades and fifteen centuries out of date. Which is to say, we've managed to miss the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, vaccines, and the notion that the moon might be interesting for more than simply pointing telescopes at. The exact range depends on the professor, the weather, and how recently someone has reminded them that the telephone is not, in fact, required to be wired any longer. We live in a world of satellites, search engines, cyber security, and mass multiplayer online games. (Yes, those are all different things. No, I can't explain them here. Go ask a Muggleborn. Preferably one born after 1980.) The divide between magical and non-magical isn't a wall. Information leaks. People talk. Wizards fall in love with Muggles. Some Muggles are smart. Some Muggles are very smart. The idea that a globe full of Muggles paying attention could remain unaware of an entire parallel society is, frankly, the kind of fantasy that even Disney would consider too childish to commit screentime to. (And if you don't know what Disney is, please for the love of Merlin go make friends with a Muggleborn.) Look: I'm not advocating we dismantle the Statute overnight. I'm not naive. (Okay. I'm probably naive. But I'm not wrong.) The question isn't whether the world will notice us. It's whether we'll still be pretending not to notice them when it happens.

For more like this, see Widdershins Weekly on AO3

For the broader story, check out Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 16: Eyeliners & Enigmas

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 16 includes:

A Rosier child vs the unholy trinity of AMVs, eyeliner, and American slang

A Slytherin confronted with both moral complexity and My Chemical Romance

Several grammatical atrocities

Exactly zero eyeliner used, yet somehow still in the chapter title

Academic treason via squib research

One (1) Franz Schubert fan trying to live his best life

And Professor Slughorn having issues with teenage boys coming to ask him about research topics

If you enjoy:

Suffering politely

Dying institutions and teenagers trying hard very not to die with them

The eternal struggle of not writing like a Victorian cleric in a modern postal system

The tension between “I want to change the world” and “I don’t want anyone to perceive me while I do it”

And the slow, magical burn of “what if bureaucracy was the rebellion?”

…this is the chapter for you.

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 15: Deviations & Dragons

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 15 includes:

A completely reasonable plan involving Fred and George Weasley’s legacy, the internet, and Gryffindor labor

One (1) elegant Slytherin using flirtation, deflection, and moral relativity to avoid actual employment

An emotional support dragon, available in origami

Academic treason via squib research

The Prophet’s favorite column: Quincy Gets Ghosted (Again)

And Kai, breaking exactly zero rules and still somehow threatening the foundations of magical society

If you enjoy:

Long conversations where no one says what they mean but everyone understands anyway

The creeping suspicion that revolution might require retail

Found family formed via library table occupation

And the slow, magical burn of “what if we changed the world just to see the look on our parents’ faces?”

…this is the chapter for you.

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 15: Deviations & Dragons

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 15 includes:

A completely reasonable plan involving Fred and George Weasley’s legacy, the internet, and Gryffindor labor

One (1) elegant Slytherin using flirtation, deflection, and moral relativity to avoid actual employment

An emotional support dragon, available in origami

Academic treason via squib research

The Prophet’s favorite column: Quincy Gets Ghosted (Again)

And Kai, breaking exactly zero rules and still somehow threatening the foundations of magical society

If you enjoy:

Long conversations where no one says what they mean but everyone understands anyway

The creeping suspicion that revolution might require retail

Found family formed via library table occupation

And the slow, magical burn of “what if we changed the world just to see the look on our parents’ faces?”

…this is the chapter for you.

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 14: Outsiders & Orbits

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 14 includes:

A biscuit-fueled conversation with the most formidable woman in magical education

Magical geopolitics disguised as four scrolls and a headache

Anselma, accidentally terrifying everyone (again)

Aurors and ethics professors eviscerating magical education behind a half-open door

And the Postscript Society’s first meeting, complete with questionable fashion and baby Slytherins

If you enjoy:

Existential dread by parchment

Deep lore, deep politics, and deeper character fractures

Students asking questions the adults aren't ready to answer

Found family, found surveillance, and the found horror of being taken seriously

And Hogwarts as a high-stakes slow burn where Wheezes merch is still a security threat

…this is the chapter for you.

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 14: Outsiders & Orbits

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 14 includes:

A biscuit-fueled conversation with the most formidable woman in magical education

Magical geopolitics disguised as four scrolls and a headache

Anselma, accidentally terrifying everyone (again)

Aurors and ethics professors eviscerating magical education behind a half-open door

And the Postscript Society’s first meeting, complete with questionable fashion and baby Slytherins

If you enjoy:

Existential dread by parchment

Deep lore, deep politics, and deeper character fractures

Students asking questions the adults aren't ready to answer

Found family, found surveillance, and the found horror of being taken seriously

And Hogwarts as a high-stakes slow burn where Wheezes merch is still a security threat

…this is the chapter for you.

[empatheticwizard]

I am writing a Harry Potter fanfic, but non-smut low-romance OCs-centric post-canon.

The four horsemen of the nichepocalypse have come.

I'm 13 chapters in on writing a post-war, next-gen fic involving five rotating student POVs.

Three male Two female Two introverts Three extroverts All Houses represented.

But no one is here just to represent. Well, except the Ravenclaw. The lack of blue at the table was bothering her.

Two Muggleborn, two pureblood, one half-blood.

Many play with or lightly reconsider various fan tropes, but that's not the first reason any are here.

In between academic/political drama, humor, and slice of life, the plot revolves around taking the Statute of Secrecy to the interrogation room.

So to speak.

Wizarding society itself also snuck into the interrogation room and is currently under the impression that if it stands very still, we won't see it.

The fic is set in 2006, with the budding age of the internet boom visible without quite being in full swing yet. But everyone's starting to wonder if the internet is going to ask the Statute to tango.

Also to be found within:

squibs

satirical newspapers

Star Trek references

a gratuitously enigmatic title

umbrellas

toast

introvert horror

paranoid teenagers

overconfident teenagers

people who are definitely doing homework

people who are definitely reading

people who definitely don't have ulterior motives

snakes as metaphors

snakes as non-metaphors

and platonic male-female superfriendships.

If you'd like to join my quest to hide from the gods of filters, algorithms and readership, the story can be found here on AO3.

[empatheticwizard]

I am writing a Harry Potter fanfic, but non-smut low-romance OCs-centric post-canon.

The four horsemen of the nichepocalypse have come.

I'm 13 chapters in on writing a post-war, next-gen fic involving five rotating student POVs.

Three male Two female Two introverts Three extroverts All Houses represented.

But no one is here just to represent. Well, except the Ravenclaw. The lack of blue at the table was bothering her.

Two Muggleborn, two pureblood, one half-blood.

Many play with or lightly reconsider various fan tropes, but that's not the first reason any are here.

In between academic/political drama, humor, and slice of life, the plot revolves around taking the Statute of Secrecy to the interrogation room.

So to speak.

Wizarding society itself also snuck into the interrogation room and is currently under the impression that if it stands very still, we won't see it.

The fic is set in 2006, with the budding age of the internet boom visible without quite being in full swing yet. But everyone's starting to wonder if the internet is going to ask the Statute to tango.

Also to be found within:

squibs

satirical newspapers

Star Trek references

a gratuitously enigmatic title

umbrellas

toast

introvert horror

paranoid teenagers

overconfident teenagers

people who are definitely doing homework

people who are definitely reading

people who definitely don't have ulterior motives

snakes as metaphors

snakes as non-metaphors

and platonic male-female superfriendships.

If you'd like to join my quest to hide from the gods of filters, algorithms and readership, the story can be found here on AO3.

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 13: Disclosures & Darlings

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 13 includes:

The most stressful club approval meeting in Hogwarts history

Cassian trying not to combust

Anselma bringing citations to an interrogation, like a polite suspect

Marius attempting to charm his way out of existential crisis (again)

And the creeping horror of realizing the Ministry reads your newsletter

If you enjoy:

Magical ethics disguised as extracurriculars

Post-war coming-of-age with a side of espionage

Teens talking their way into and out of government watchlists

And Hogwarts as a high-stakes academic slow burn

…this is the chapter for you.

[empatheticwizard]

What if a group like the Marauders, but if they processed their trauma through journalism instead of animal parties.

This post-canon fic has:

A Ravenclaw with a cataloguing complex

A Slytherin whose idea of rebellion is reading legal theory

A Hufflepuff who duels like a tactical memo

A Gryffindor with better boundaries than all four Marauders combined

And a second Slytherin who flirts like he's performing for a Wizengamot brunch

Together they do not prank. They publish. They investigate. They question everything.

No smut. No canon ships. Just a slow-building effort to ask, out loud, “What if we fix it?”

Come check it out if you want. Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3.

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 12: Parchments & Pretenses

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 12 includes:

Hogwarts breakfast politics

Student radicalism, politely worded

Slughorn shade and owl-delivered biscuits

Secret meetings, quiet dread

A possibly ill-advised interrogation

And just enough dread to know the calm is about to end

If you like:

Magical realism in the wizarding world

Post-war healing through friendship and bureaucracy

Hogwarts as a slowly shifting institution

…you’ll probably like this.

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus on AO3 update

Chapter 12: Parchments & Pretenses

The war is over. Hogwarts survived. But the magical world? Still built on secrecy, tradition, and enough Spellotape to make it hold - barely.

Enter Widdershins Weekly: an anonymous, enchanted satire zine quietly stirring up questions no one wants asked.

Now it's 2006, and a small group of students - “The Contraries” - are starting to realize: the Statute of Secrecy might not survive the 21st century. And neither might the wizarding world, unless something changes.

No Chosen Ones. Just one very broken system, a handful of sharp teenagers, and the slow, stubborn hope that maybe they can fix what the last war left behind.

Chapter 12 includes:

Hogwarts breakfast politics

Student radicalism, politely worded

Slughorn shade and owl-delivered biscuits

Secret meetings, quiet dread

A possibly ill-advised interrogation

And just enough dread to know the calm is about to end

If you like:

Magical realism in the wizarding world

Post-war healing through friendship and bureaucracy

Hogwarts as a slowly shifting institution

…you’ll probably like this.

[empatheticwizard]

Title: Card Me If You Can Fandom: Harry Potter Rating: Gen Words: 2,832 Characters: Marius Mulford (OC), mentions of Kai (OC) Genre: Humor, Coming-of-Age, Pureblood vs Muggle Culture Summary:

Summer, 2004. Marius Mulford - pureblood, Slytherin, and fourteen years fabulous - has one goal: to find and watch a telly. The mission will involve bribery, hotels, identity issues, and potential betrayals. But Marius is prepared. Probably.

Standalone vignette connected to a longer WIP, set two years later. Can be read on its own.

Read on AO3

[empatheticwizard]

Widdershins & the Eyes of Caduceus: Meet the Cast

Read on AO3; Chapter 11 up now; OC Ensemble set in 2006

Dramatis Personae

Some implied light spoilers if you haven't read to chapter 5.

Cassian Rosier 🐍

Yes, that family - with a little handwavey "cousin line" edge to it, because the social impact is more relevant to my needs than lining up with canon specificity.

Cassian, naturally, is a Slytherin. But he is not, despite what his own interiority may try to tell you, a redemption case. Cassian doesn't need redemption.

He was a child during the war, and he's never even had a detention.

Cassian is an exploration of what is it to be a decent person growing up under a friggin cursed name?

For him, it heavily involves careful containment, borderline-paranoid image-awareness, and an interest in legal tomes that we mutually agree to pretend is a hobby and not a coping mechanism.

Kairiel "Kai" Bosco 🦡

If that name sounds like it was given by a mother who was trying too hard to be creative, that's intentional.

Kai, as she prefers to be called, does play on some of the 'traditional' OC tropes: distanced American roots, quiet kid, Hufflepuff.

But the similarities start twisting soon after, because Kai isn't loyal and enduring because she's sweet and bubbly.

Kai is loyal and enduring because she's half-parentified at home and doesn't have the guidance to quite know how to be else.

Kairiel is an exploration of how healthy is it actually to be the kid who's seeing the world too clearly?

For her, it means her own kind of containment - unlike Cassian's, Kai's is containment against herself, not the outside.

She's unshowy, sometimes anxious, and duels like someone whose American dad has instilled firearms-morality in her… because he did.

Marlow Kade 🦁

Our obligate Gryffindor, and probably the most 'normal' person in this group.

Marlow, like Kai, is Muggleborn - but that's where most of the similarities end.

Marlow is the street-smarts in a group of absolute nerds and he knows it - and he doesn't mind, and often has his own smarts anyway, especially in conflict resolution and working with younger kids.

His struggles come largely in trying to internalize how he contributes.

Marlow's subtler exploration is a more pointed not losing sight of the ground when things get big.

He has the most roots in the wider Hogwarts sphere at outset - he tutors, he's been in detentions more than once, he played Quidditch in earlier years.

He's the one who tends to get it when the rest are in over their heads, even if he doesn't always know what to do about it.

Anselma Silvertree 🦅

Our resident Ravenclaw.

While yes, she has a mental and physical filing system that intimidates us all and is probably three steps ahead of the group at times, Anselma's roots are in her half-blood nature, and in having a Muggle brother who nonetheless conceptually tutored her by owl in her first year at Hogwarts.

Anselma struggles with things not making sense and with people pretending they do.

She is perhaps the most pointedly in line with the obvious themes of the fic in her exploration being: does telling the truth help if you don't do it well?

In broader scope, Anselma is truth-driven, occasionally/often nosy, subtly hot-tempered, and more than a little eager for everyone else to read her mind and get with the program.

She also takes History of Magic as a NEWT. Voluntarily.

Marius Mulford 🐍

Fifth, last, but definitely not least - though he will tell you he is on the inside, and tell you he isn't on the outside.

Our second Slytherin comes from a pureblood family of career bureaucrats and lobbyists and schmoozers, and Marius learned from early on to put up faces - even as he was subtly radicalized by his friends underneath his parents' noses.

Marius is, quite frankly, a mess: he's fed up with the wizarding world, he's exasperated with his parents, he feels trapped in a clown show with no off-ramp.

He doesn't quite hate himself, but it's a close thing - he's more afraid that he doesn't know how to be anything but the faces he puts forth.

Marius is our exploration of what story do you tell a world that doesn't think it's broken?

Both him, and his cause.

Marius clowns, plays, and quips, and is a fair bit brilliant in his own right, but he's also scrambling for meaning and story and truth in a world where he's been handed a script so bad it makes him want to burn it.