hpandcarbs

[hpandcarbs]

Soulmates in every universe btw

[hpandcarbs]

James Potter, a fascist? My brother in Christ, he broke wizard law to become emotional support venison.

[hpandcarbs]

I’m still reading this but it’s good enough that I’m already going to give a rec

Hide and Seek: A Series

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/MuRrt4W

by ArdenCallaway

Albus Potter is nothing like his father. He would be the first to tell you that. When he embarks on his journey to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he is accompanied by little more than feelings of isolation and frustration. The cold-eyed stranger and dark rumor he encounters on the train certainly don’t help.

After an unforeseen sorting and a society grappling with a faceless threat of extinction, Albus is forced to rethink everything he knows about his family, his world, and himself. Embarking on a journey of self discovery with an unexpected alliance, he must define the things that truly matter and how far he’ll go to protect them.

(See notes below)

Words: 5141, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: M/M

Characters: Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Rose Weasley, Craig Bowker Jr., Polly Chapman, Teddy Lupin, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, Merlin (Harry Potter), Delphi (Harry Potter), Theodore Nott, Sirius Black, Regulus Black, James Potter, James Sirius Potter, Remus Lupin, Lily Evans Potter, Lily Luna Potter, Hugo Weasley, Minerva McGonagall, Horace Slughorn, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Astoria Greengrass, Greengrass Family (Harry Potter), Andromeda Black Tonks, Nymphadora Tonks, Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, Filius Flitwick, Rolanda Hooch, Moaning Myrtle, Rubeus Hagrid, Argus Filch

Relationships: Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy & Albus Severus Potter & Rose Weasley, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Regulus Black/James Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Polly Chapman & Albus Severus Potter, Karl Jenkins & Rose Weasley

Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Harry Potter Next Generation, Not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Compliant, Canon Universe, Canonical Character Death, Canon Rewrite, Scorbus, For real it’s a slow burn, Grant Chapman is in this, Angst, Fluff, IT’S GOING TO GET HEAVY

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/MuRrt4W

[hpandcarbs]

honestly theres always been something really wrong with me but whatever

[hpandcarbs]

Could you please go more on Harry and Sirius and their relationship? I love them so much.

Honestly, yes. Like I think I already wrote most of what I think about them, (here, here, here, and here) but I love their dynamic so much and one of my pet peeves in fic is when Sirius is villainized for no reason and treated as a bad influence in Harry's life.

Like, Harry's life is lacking in competent adults he trusts, and I wanna talk about how much Harry trusts Sirius since I haven't covered that yet, I think.

Dumbledore is extremely competent, but Harry doesn't trust him. Snape is also extremely competent, but Harry would rather deal with whatever himself than tell Snape about it (except in life-and-death situations like at the end of OotP).

Then you have characters like Hagrid, who Harry trusts, and is definitely good intentioned, but not very competent. Molly and Arthur kinda fall into this category for the majority of the books.

Remus in book 3 came close. He's competent, and Harry likes him, but that trust and seeking of a relationship is one-sided. It's always Harry seeking Remus out, Remus doesn't want to be involved in Harry's life and keeps running away like Remus does. (There's a reason Harry keeps calling him "Lupin" in his head)

Then you have Barty/Fake Moody who is competent and Harry trusts and grows close to only to later be revealed to be a Death Eater during book 4.

Basically, Harry has a shitty track record with mentor figures in his life. Then comes Sirius, who loves him, wants to have a relationship with him, who is intelligent and competent (Especially during GoF), and who Harry feels he can trust.

Throughout GoF and OotP, whenever Harry has a problem, be it strange dreams from Voldemort, his scar hurting, the Triwizard Tournament, him just having a bad day, Umbridge, anything, the first person he goes to (or wants to go to), even before Ron and Hermione — is Sirius. And that is so important to me.

Like, growing up the way he grew up, Harry isn't the most trusting of kids. He often goes and acts heroic because he doesn't trust adults to do what needs to be done and so he feels like it's his responsibility. Sirius is the only adult in the books that when he tells Harry: "Stay away from it and let me check out what I can find out first", Harry listens. In GoF Sirius tells Harry not to leave school, and to watch out for Karkaroff, and Harry does so. He actually believes Sirius has his best interests and he lets him be a responsible adult in his life.

At least, more than he lets anyone else.

I did mention it in the past, but Harry feels just as responsible for Sirius as Sirius feels for Harry. Harry never got to be a child, so he doesn't exactly act like one.

At the beginning of GoF he tries to lie to Sirius that his scar doesn't actually hurt so Sirius would stay safe and away from Britain. Sirius doesn't buy it and comes anyway because Harry's safety is always Sirius' number 1 priority.

Even when his mental/emotional state deteriorates in OotP, he is mostly talking about endangering himself, not Harry.

And with this behavior, it's easy to see why Harry comes to trust Sirius so fast. Sirius is a connection to Harry's parents (something Harry's always looking for), he says he loves Harry and would do a lot for him (including escaping Azkaban by swimming as a dog across the North Sea), and it's clear he's prioritizing Harry in a way no one else has before.

Is Sirius' fixation on Harry's well-being necessarily healthy? Not exactly, I mean, there is a reason in all the airplane safety instructions they tell you to put on your own oxygen mask before you help someone else, and Sirius would definitely put the mask on Harry first. But given both their circumstances, this is honestly what they both need to feel a semblance of family.

Like, their connection, for both of them, is a kind of lifeline.

Harry needs to be the most important person to someone after he has been treated like nothing for years. And Sirius, I think, needs to care for someone else, to feel he is helping and doing something good. If he's helping Harry, he feels his own life has a purpose.

It's so very visible with Harry just how much of a lifeline Sirius became to him after such a short time. Like, I reread books 5 and 6 recently, and at the end of OotP, after Sirius dies, there is a shift in Harry. He stops caring as much.

What I mean is, there is a reason Harry has his "there's no reason to call me sir, Professor" moment in HBP. After Sirius dies, Harry loses his last bits of self-preservation. At the end of OotP he starts sassing Snape:

Malfoy’s hand flew toward his wand, but Harry was too quick for him. He had drawn his own wand before Malfoy’s fingers had even entered the pocket of his robes. “Potter!” The voice rang across the entrance hall; Snape had emerged from the staircase leading down to his office, and at the sight of him Harry felt a great rush of hatred beyond anything he felt toward Malfoy. . . . Whatever Dumbledore said, he would never forgive Snape . . . never . . . “What are you doing, Potter?” said Snape coldly as ever, as he strode over to the four of them. “I’m trying to decide what curse to use on Malfoy, sir,” said Harry fiercely. Snape stared at him.

(OotP, 851)

Snape is shocked, he doesn't even know what to say to that because Harry doesn't speak to him like that before. Before, even during the Occlumancy lessons, Harry is mostly polite because he feels he has to be. After Sirius dies, there's none of that. He's sassier, snappier, and angrier, and he carries that with him through HBP and DH. Said anger isn't just towards Snape. He snaps at Ron and Hermione throughout DH even without the Horcrux, and he lifts up Mundungus by the throat in HBP. I think a lot of his focus on Malfoy is because of how lost he feels throughout HBP. He goes out at Remus with his worst in DH when he wants to join them in the Horcrux hunt. I mean, Remus needed someone to talk sense into him, but Harry didn't need to be that mean.

What I'm saying is that when Sirius died, one of Harry's major lifelines was cut and he's in a weird sort of lashing out throughout HBP and DH. Yes, he knew Sirius for a very short time, but he was the person Harry trusted most in his life — and then he was gone.

It's not to say he never got angry at Sirius, Harry did, and that's natural and healthy, honestly. But it doesn't change the fact that in GoF and OotP when Harry needs to rant, needs someone to talk to, wants advice, he first goes to Sirius, then to everyone else.

I just feel so much about these two.

[hpandcarbs]

Hi, I'm curious about why you think that voldemort wanted to recruit lily potter as a death eater. Is it because the prophecy said "thrice defied him"? (defy also means escape, defeat, challenge, disobey etc. but i dont think it means deny) I don't get why someone would try to recruit a muggleborn to commit a genocide against other muggleborns and muggles. Like, nobody asked hermione to join in the 2nd war. And how would the other pureblooded death eaters react to that? wouldn't voldemort lose a little bit credibility with that? Make it make sense?

Hi 👋

First of all, "defy" can 100% mean they chose not to join the Death Eaters:

As they resisted/disregarded Voldemort's offer, I think this is a valid usage of the word.

Second, this idea came from this JKR interview:

MA: What about the three times-- The thrice-defying of Voldemort? JKR: Of James and Lily? MA: Of Neville's parents. Well, James and Lily, too. JKR: It depends how you take defying, doesn't it. I mean, if you're counting, which I do, anytime you arrested one of his henchmen, anytime you escaped him, anytime you thwarted him, that's what he's looking for. And both couples qualified because they were both fighting. Also, James and Lily turned him down, that was established in "Philosopher's Stone". He wanted them, and they wouldn't come over, so that's one strike against them before they were even out of their teens.

(Source)

Now, I tried to find the PS quote JKR referenced, and this is what I could find:

“Now, yer mum an’ dad were as good a witch an’ wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an’ girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst’ry is why You- Know-Who never tried to get ‘em on his side before…probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin’ ter do with the Dark Side. “Maybe he thought he could persuade ‘em…maybe he just wanted ‘em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an’ — an’ —”

(PS, Ch4)

So, we know Hagrid didn't know of any recruitment attempt, if it happened, or why Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow. And it's another case of JKR not remembering what she wrote in post-book interviews, and another thing she didn't really think through.

Because Hagrid really doesn't know much, his statment isn't all that relaiable, and even then, he suggests Voldemort would've wanted to recruit Lily if he thought he could, so really — it's up to personal headcanon and wheather you take JKR's word of god on the matter as canon or not.

All the "thrice defying" has a lot of space for headcanon and speculation to come in since JKR didn't really think it through. Personally, I am not a fan of the idea that "every arrest of a DE" counts as "defy", but I'm not opposed to the idea that Voldemort offered James and Lily to join him as teens (when they were still at school, probably).

What's important to note for further speculation is that Voldemort doesn't really believe in blood purity.

He's a half-blood, and he thinks he's better than all his followers. Voldemort repeatedly shows he doesn't actually care about implementing anti-Muggleborn laws, his followers are invested in no, is he interested in ruling at all (a. He wasn't in the UK when the ministry fell. b. He remained so unpresent that Umbridge could walk around with his Horcrux and claim it as her own family heirloom without dying. c. Lupin implies all the muggleborn registration laws from DH weren't around the first time, again, Voldemort isn't there, these are laws his followers made. He, personaly, doesn't give a shit and doesn't care if muggleorns, muggles, purebloods or whoever lives or dies. It doesn't concern him in the slightest. He actually personally kills more purebloods than muggleborns). If he found a muggleborn talented and powerful enough to be worth his time, he wouldn't mind that he's/she's a muggleborn. Voldemort cares first and foremost about power:

There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it…

(PS, Ch17)

If you have power, anything else doesn't really matter. And even power is optional if you're useful to him in some other way. Talking about PS, Quirrell was a weak wizard and the Muggle Studies Professor — but he was useful, and in the right place at the right time, so Voldemort recruited him.

Hagrid clearly believes in PS Voldemort would recruit muggleborns, and JKR mentioned it in other interviews, so she is pretty consistent about that:

‘Snape’s ancestry is hinted at. He was a Death Eater, so clearly he is no Muggle-born, because Muggle-borns are not allowed to be Death Eaters, except in rare circumstances.’

(Edinburgh Book Festival, 15 August 2004)

By the time he would be potentially recruiting super-talented muggleborns, he would have a lot of control over his followers. We see he has no problem torturing and punishing them, and from how Karkaroff and other DE respond to Voldemort in GoF, it's clear his treatment of them we see is nothing new.

So, if Voldemort says the muggleborn stays, some DE are definitely going to feel various ways about it — but none of them are going to question him, that would be suicide. It would cause some unrest, but the likes of Lucius Malfoy would shut up out of self-preservation, and the likes of Bellatrix Lestrange would justify Voldemort's behaviour in their head somehow.

So, I don't see that part as contradictory at all, actually.

And I don't think Hermione is a good analog here. Hermione is known to be good friends with Harry Potter, and she has done nothing to attract Voldemort’s attention besides being around Harry — Lily, as a young witch, probably didn't do anything noteworthy either, but my headcanon is that Snape vouched for her.

We know Voldemort recruited as young as 16-year-olds:

and when he was sixteen years old, Master Regulus joined the Dark Lord. So proud, so proud, so happy to serve . . .

(DH, Ch10)

So, it's possible, and likely, Snape and Mulciber, and others were already getting involved with Voldemort in their 5th year. By SWM (end of the Mauraders' 5th year), Snape would've already been 16 (born January 9th, 1960), and possibly already a Death Eater officially, or about to become one that summer. Lily's talents might have been vouched for by him, the fact that she was part of the Slug Club, which Voldemort would be familiar with, will be another mark on her talent.

(James is easier to explain why he would be a potential recruit as a rich pureblood who likes hexing people)

So, I can see it working, though I don't think it's super likely. But I like the idea that the first time James and Lily defied Voldemort was each on their own separately, before they were a couple — I don't know, I just like that as a concept. That they defied him on their own and not just together.

[hpandcarbs]

i don't know if it's been asked before so forgive me but how poor do you think the weasleys are? are they more lower middle class? cause ron didn't get his broken wand replaced immediately in the second year but got a new broomstick in the fifth?

and on a related note do you think arthur weasley is selfish for not going for a higher paying job? " i assume it would depend on how well of they are and if the family's needs are met?"

looove all your posts btw keep up the good work.

First of all, thank you! 💕

The Weasleys and money are interesting for sure.

See, they have enough money to always have food and clothes (second-hand, but all kids are dressed, fed, and well cared for). They have a house with 6 bedrooms:

Master bedroom

Fred & George's room

Ginny's room

Ron's room

Bill's room (which Charlie uses too when he comes over)

Percy's room

And a very large yard:

The garden was large, and in Harry’s eyes, exactly what a garden should be. The Dursleys wouldn’t have liked it — there were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting — but there were gnarled trees all around the walls, plants Harry had never seen spilling from every flower bed, and a big green pond full of frogs.

(CoS, Ch3)

The Weasleys read like a family that used to have money. They have land, they have many cousins and aunts and uncles who seem to be living well. The parents don't act like they grew up lacking in anything. And even now that the money has dried up, they still don't live badly. They seem to be poor, not because Arthur's job doesn't pay enough, but because both Arthur and Molly have no idea how to budget or handle money. They both act like people who grew up with plenty of money they can throw around, and therefore, don't know how to save it.

The fact that they don't have money to replace Ron's wand is proof that they don't know how to handle money. The smart thing to do when you struggle economically is save up surplus money you don't immediately need when you have it, so you'll have emergency funds. You will put some money aside for future hard times, but the Weasleys don't do that:

I couldn’t believe it when Dad won the Daily Prophet Draw. Seven hundred galleons! Most of it’s gone on this trip, but they’re going to buy me a new wand for next year.

(PoA, Ch1)

They win 700 galleons, spend 7 of them on a new wand for Ron and "most of it" on a long family trip to Egypt. Sure, I can understand wanting to visit Bill, but if they're strapped for cash, I'd expect they won't go all out on the trip, go for slightly cheaper lodging, or stay there for fewer days, maybe go to fewer restaurants — there are ways to go on a budget vacation. This economic decision makes no sense.

But what this shows us is that the Weasleys live paycheck to paycheck, not because Arthur isn't paid enough — they don't know how to save money.

Bill & Charlie don't live at home, and since CoS, all their other kids are at Hogwarts all year. The amount of money Arthur & Molly would need to pay for food during the year is much lower compared to when all their kids are there. So, I assume, they would have leftover money since they aren't feeding as many heads. Even since Bill & Charlie left home, they should have had more money to put aside, even just a few sickles a month, that, over time, can become a magnificent amount of money — and yet, they don't. Their vault is near empty when we see it.

They have land they can farm and sell products from (they have an orchard, they own):

“Come and have a game of Quidditch in the orchard, Harry,” said Ron. “Come on — three on three, Bill and Charlie and Fred and George will play. . . . You can try out the Wronski Feint. . . .”

(GoF, Ch10)

He spent most of his days playing two-a-side Quidditch in the Weasleys’ orchard

(HBP, Ch6)

They can rent out parts of their yard, and Arthur gets plenty of other perks from his job besides his salary (bribery):

“I like Ludo,” said Mr. Weasley mildly. “He was the one who got us such good tickets for the Cup. I did him a bit of a favor: His brother, Otto, got into a spot of trouble — a lawnmower with un- natural powers — I smoothed the whole thing over.”

(GoF, Ch5)

And seems to be well-connected within the Ministry. Enough that everyone important knows him by name, and he is in a position to write laws:

“Well, dear, I think you’ll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if — er — he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. . . . There’s a loophole in the law, you’ll find. . . . As long as he wasn’t intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn’t—” “Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!” shouted Mrs. Weasley. “Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! And for your information, Harry arrived this morning in the car you weren’t intending to fly!”

(CoS, Ch3)

Arthur's position in the ministry is clearly more influential than the books lead us to believe. (I have some headcanons about that, but that's maybe for a different post). They have avenues they can earn money from, and would reasonably be able to save at least a little every month, especially after Bill and Charlie left home. We see Fred and George can save up much more than the Weasleys seem to have over a few years without having a stable job like their dad:

“We’ll bet thirty-seven Galleons, fifteen Sickles, three Knuts,” said Fred as he and George quickly pooled all their money [...] “Boys,” said Mr. Weasley under his breath, “I don’t want you betting. . . . That’s all your savings. . . . Your mother —”

(GoF, Ch7)

But the Weasleys have an empty bank vault:

Harry enjoyed the breakneck journey down to the Weasleys’ vault, but felt dreadful, far worse than he had in Knockturn Alley, when it was opened. There was a very small pile of silver Sickles inside, and just one gold Galleon.

(CoS, Ch4)

This is a vault of people who don't know how to save money, but more than that, this, to me, looks like a vault of people who are used to operating in debt.

When they go shopping, Molly takes everything out of the vault:

Mrs. Weasley felt right into the corners before sweeping the whole lot into her bag.

(CoS, Ch4)

And it's enough to buy everything 4 kids need for school for a whole year, btw. Sure, the robes are second-hand, but Harry always takes out a bunch of galleons. It's either everything is really cheap, way cheaper than it should be, and Harry carries around way too much money, or the Weasleys just always operate on debt.

As in, the single galleon is not have enough to actually buy everything, and Molly had to basically promise shops she'd pay them back later, basically paying with money she doesn't have. This could explain the Weasleys not having any emergency funds, since they're always running after various debts they owe.

And we know the Wizarding World allows people to make promises over debts, even the goblins:

A gang of them [goblins] cornered him [Bagman] in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn’t enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He’s lost everything gambling. Hasn’t got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?” “How?” said Harry. “He put a bet on you, mate,” said Fred. “Put a big bet on you to win the tournament. Bet against the goblins.”

(GoF, Ch37)

The goblins were willing to take Bagman's word he'd pay them back with his bet on Harry — it's very possible shops allow this too, especially if not everyone is carrying galleons everywhere. Say, even if you have money in your vault, but you only took out enough for X you wanted to buy, the shop could write your name down and what yoy owe for you to come by and pay them later (It makes sense for their society, that is very small and getting away with such a debt is hard and seems to be a very trusting of promises and other's words. The whole betting with Ludo thing was solely based on slips of paper and Bagman's word, so I can see something like this being common for them. After all, Wizarding Britain has the population of a very small town).

I still think they're bad with money, since, if debts are the problem, I'd use some of the 700 galleon prize money to get a headstart on that, but I think the Wealseys are comfortable living with a certain amount of debt. They're used to it.

As for the broom, that might've been on a day they got the salary/didn't have many debts to pay that month. The food at Grimmauld the summer before fifth year might not have been paid for by Arthur, which allowed them to have fewer debts and therefore the money for a broom.

At least, that's my headcanon/theory about it. They are poor not because of Arthur’s job, they could've made it work better — they are just bad at managing the funds and other resources at their disposal + got into a bunch of debts due to this tendency to not manage their funds properly.

[hpandcarbs]

Maybe if he was a little less fuckable we wouldn’t be in this mess

[hpandcarbs]

In HBP Harry actually saw a short redhead girl who could single-handedly kick ass at Quidditch to a whole team of grown men and thought "Fuck, that's hot. I'm going to spend the next 600 pages pining for her."

[hpandcarbs]

“i don’t ship jily” do not come to my town.

[hpandcarbs]

”Snape was forced to be a teacher!” Yeah and the alternative was the torture prison he was pretty lucky all things considered with that

[hpandcarbs]

Knowing Lily

Read on A03

She hadn’t known Lily Potter…

That red-haired girl who smiled so widely in photographs that wrinkles appeared on the edges of her eyes. The woman said to have kindness stitched into her heart, with a sharp wit to match it. Tonks had been too young to know her—or her husband, James Potter—but she knew enough about them.

Everyone had heard of them, of course. They were legend…woven into the myth of The Boy Who Lived like a fairytale. Hogwarts sweethearts to their very core. Without the Potters, there would have been no Harry Potter. To the wider world, they were sacrificed for the greater good.

Tragic martyrs, while their son somehow vanquished the Dark Lord.

But to those in the Order of the Phoenix, Lily and James Potter had been real. Real people with real friends and real family… And the kind of emotional impact that lived long after they were gone.

Dumbledore had once said they were the best sort of parents—fun, adventurous, and utterly devoted. The kind who would have filled a house with six children and still had room for more. He hadn’t spoken of them with the cool, measured detachment he usually reserved for the fallen. No, there had been a softness in his voice then, the sort of fondness reserved for those long-missed.

He’d told Molly as much one evening—Almost years ago now, in the Burrow’s kitchen while stew bubbled gently on the hob. He’d stirred his tea and said Harry reminded him of his mother more than anyone.

Harry is thoughtful. Definitely quick-tempered, but so much quicker to forgive. He looks out for the low wizard and defended them even when they didn’t deserve his defense.

Harry is loyal, like James, fiercely so. “But somehow,” Dumbledore had added with a quiet smile, “Harry has inherited James’s grudge against Slytherins…as though it had passed through the blood rather than upbringing.”

Molly hadn’t looked surprised.

“I didn’t know James Potter—not well,” she’d said, “but I remember him from Marlene McKinnon’s wedding. Loud. Opinionated. Merlin, he hated the war.”

“Hated the war,” Sirius had repeated, ticking off fingers. “Hated the Death Eaters. Hated anyone who used dark magic.”

“He would’ve hated that Snape ended up in the Order,” Remus had muttered darkly—and Tonks knew why.

Snape had cost Remus his job at Hogwarts. A dream stolen out from under him, with a single whispered word. She’d reached out then, gently rubbing his arm beneath the table, waiting for the colour to return to his face as the others continued reminiscing.

“James? Oh, he’d have been furious,” Sirius had said, rolling his eyes. “But Lily—she’s the one who’d have thrown a proper tantrum. Would’ve marched herself right into Dumbledore’s office and threaten to kill him.”

Beside her, Remus had chuckled at that—one of those rare, honest laughs that made him look younger. When Tonks glanced his way, she caught a glimpse of his wolfish smile—until Sirius kicked his feet up onto Remus’s lap and ruined it.

“What I wouldn’t give to see Lily’s reaction to Snape teaching Harry Occlumency,” Sirius had said next, voice curling into a laugh. “Oh, she’d have hexed him into next week.”

“No,” Remus had said at once. “Lily would’ve listened to Dumbledore. James would’ve hexed Snape before she did.”

“Lily Potter? Our Lily? Listen to a man?” Sirius had scoffed. “You’ve always put her on a pedestal, Moony. You and James. That woman never followed orders—just asked forgiveness after she’d done it her way.”

“She was friends with my brothers,” Molly had added, ladling stew into bowls. “Stubborn as they come. But she had a good heart. When Fabian and Gideon died, she sent my mother the most beautiful tea roses—charmed to last all year. Brought them round herself.” She’d paused then, blinking hard. “Still the loveliest roses I’ve ever seen.”

“Aye,” Moody had grunted from the corner, cradling his flask. “She was known for her Charms, yes—but it was her skill in Herbology and Potions that pulled our arses out of the fire more than once. Antidotes. Burn salves. Polyjuice without boomslang skin—eighteen bloody vials of it. I told Albus, ‘You lose her, and we’re done.’”

“How do you brew Polyjuice Potion without all the ingredients?” Tonks had asked, amazed.

“She substituted the boomslang skin with Animagus blood.” Sirius had winked at her. “Took it right out of my arm. And James’s leg. James made more fuss, though. Hated the sight of blood.”

Moody had chuckled, shaking his head. “Those two…” he’d said, gesturing vaguely as if Lily and James might stroll in at any moment, “were the only pair I ever saw mid-duel, looking like they were about two seconds away from tearing each other’s clothes off.”

Remus had visibly shuddered. “I’d forgotten that about them.”

Moody leaned in then, lowering his voice as though it were still some great secret. “First time I met Lily Potter, she was pressed against James in a Potions storeroom. I’d gone looking for powdered bicorn horn—found them instead. Tongues down each other’s throats… I couldn’t believe they’d been Head Boy and Head Girl.”

Tonks had felt Remus fidget knowingly beside her. “James only took that internship because he heard Lily would be there for the summer. His dad had to pull strings to get him in.”

“They swore up and down they were sorting ingredients for the department head,” Moody had grumbled, shaking his head. “Idiots got caught again a week later by the Minister of Magic at the time—her name is escaping me—but she got both of them written up.”

“Oh, they were insufferable sometimes,” Sirius had said with a grin. “So in sync. So bloody in love. You’d think they’d invented kissing the way they acted.” But then his voice had quietened into something tender edging in beneath the laughter. “They were trying for another kid before….you know. Lily wanted it so badly. She didn’t want Harry to be lonely….”

Of everyone in the Order who’d known the Potters, it was Sirius who missed Lily most.

Tonks had never doubted it.

She’d seen it in the way his expression softened when their orphaned son laughed—especially when Ginny Weasley was nearby. It was the same kind of unguarded, full-bellied laugh Sirius swore Lily had given James. The kind that was overly dramatic to flirt.

Sometimes she caught Sirius and Remus staring just a little too long at Harry’s eyes, or his crooked smile. She’d overheard Sirius slipping Lily’s name into conversation—not always when it was relevant, but because he needed to say it. To keep her near, even now.

“If Lily were here, she’d have sorted that burn properly,” he’d mutter. Or, “She had the neatest charm for mending seams—quicker than blinking.”

Even when he said, “She sang like a toad,” it was half-laughing, like the memory hurt him.

Remus had only really spoken of James Potter, Remus praised the man highly, and rather sparingly.

Once, he’d told Tonks that James reminded him of Bill Weasley: effortlessly cool, maddeningly gifted with a wand, the sort everyone assumed would grow up to be a Curse-Breaker or something equally daring. A photo of James Potter sat on Remus’s bedside table at home, one that Tonks often found herself staring at while she dressed. She could never quite understand how Harry could look so utterly like his father, and yet bear not a trace of Lily in his face.

“It’s the eyes,” Remus would murmur from bed. “And the smile.”

She’d heard the wistfulness in his voice. And just for a moment, she’d wondered how much Lily Potter had once meant to him.

But Sirius was already gone by then—there was no one left to ask—and Remus rarely spoke of Lily Potter. In truth, he spoke of Lily even less than he did of James.

And so, Tonks did not know Lily.

Not until now at least. But now Tonks was standing before Bellatrix Lestrange. Her aunt and, almost certainly, her executioner.

Aunt Bella’s eyes were wild, dark and glittering, and her smile was sharp and slanted…totally wrong. It was the same smile Tonks had once seen on her mother in old photographs. Not the woman Andromeda had become, but the girl she’d been before she fell in love with a Muggle-born and walked away from everything.

This was the evil version of her mother that might have been, had she chosen blood over love.

Tonks had chosen like her mother: love over blood.

After all, not just any woman would look at a werewolf and see someone to fall in love with. But Tonks looked at Remus and saw beyond the full moons. She’d ignored his tired eyes, and convinced the wise and funny older wizard to date her…marry her…have a kid with her.

But now Remus was gone.

He lay near her, no more than ten steps away, limp and still, the colour already fading from his skin. Just minutes ago, his hand had brushed hers, warm and steady. Now, the space between them felt infinite, a chasm that could not be crossed.

And Tonks stood there, suspended at the edge of it, trapped between two impossible pulls: run toward death… or run back to her son.

And she could feel it now, down to her bones—the ache Lily must have felt. Lily, who had stood in her cottage in the North, heart pounding, wandless and desperate, while death climbed the stairs with deliberate steps.

Did Lily know ? Did she truly know that if she stepped in front of the curse, her son would live? Did she understand the magic? The power of willing sacrifice?

Or had Lily Potter simply acted not only as a mother, but as a woman who could not fathom living in a world where James Potter no longer breathed?

And wasn’t Tonks just the same?

She loved her son, Teddy. Merlin knew it, she did. She loved the soft baby scent of his hair and the tiny weight of his fingers around hers. She loved the idea of watching him grow.

But her soul… her heart had chosen Remus Lupin long before it had ever known their son. She had fallen for Remus Lupin so completely, so irrevocably, that even her Patronus had changed to reflect Remus as a wolf.

Her magic was warped around him.

And now, in the ruins of Hogwarts, with smoke choking the air and screams echoing down broken corridors, Tonks understood. She understood Lily Potter’s decision despite not ever meeting her.

Tonks looked up just in time to see the flash of green erupt from Aunt Bella’s wand. It was over now, the fight, before it had even begun. She chose Remus, she would always choose Remus, in any lifetime.

She just hoped Teddy would forgive her.

[hpandcarbs]

i genuinely think that the shift from the old marauders to the new one where every straight ship even the canon and most important one (i.e jily) and that whole jegulus/all the other made up ships that make no sense come from a place of fetish. yall LOVE to turn characters into little stereotypes and that whole constant obsession w homosexuality is not helping any cause. most of view view homosexual/queer relationships as more angsty or interesting in a way that’s so strange to me. ships could follow the most standard plot line but still be considered angsty cus they’re queer and why is that? this fandom has taken such a strange turn.

you are making sexuality such a strong and central point in a character importance more than any other trait of their character. and those head canons just end up erasing the most important things about these characters

james potter was a strong and good man. he developed from his arrogant teenage self into a good man fighting for a good cause. but now you made him into a twink that is in love with a death eater/ a member of the family that abused his best friend all his life. james and sirius’s relationship was a central point of their characters. and james’s love for lily is a central point as well??????

sirius being turned into a overly feminine gay drama queen, even though what WAS important about him was his loyalty his strength and his honor??? but all of that was forgotten. HE CAN BE GAY WITHOUT ERASING HIS ORIGINAL PERSONALITY. stop painting him into a stereotype of a gay man.

regulus black is getting the recognition that is to be given to sirius. his character was not some brave rebel vigilante that fought for justice. he was a pureblood supremacist.he was a deatheater. yes he is important to the story but he was not what you made him.

lily evans is the most important character of the series. she’s the reason it exists. her and james’s love is the center point. but it was pushed away by you people to focus on your strange fetishized view of gay men. this MAJOR character whose love for her son and husband literally MADE the story got cast away as a secondary character.

important topics like sirius’sabusive family, lily and james’s courage and love….was remplaced by ridiculized view of characters

make characters gay cus we don’t know anything about them yes okay that’s why wolf star was a major part of the fandom. but the complete shift of every single characters identity is just bullshit.

[hpandcarbs]

Lily forgives Petunia for treating her like shes a freak. Lily forgives Snape for willingly sorting into the house he knows has a reputation for hating muggleborns, she forgives Snape for being friends with boys who’ve hexed her housemate, she forgives Snape for practicing dark magic, she forgives until he goes past the one line in the sand she drew, not calling her a mudblood.

Lily forgives James & Sirius for teasing her and tormenting her former friend for years.

Lily is written as the representation of the ideal in a piece of media that places a high emphasis on the power of forgiveness. But Snape fans still are trying to convince everyone that she’s willing to drop anyone who wrongs her once like a hot coal when nothing at all points to that idea

[hpandcarbs]

lily: i only watch gryffindor quidditch practices to support marlene

also lily: *spends the entire time staring at james doing push ups, james comforting a teammate, james instructing his team, james flying backwards, james laughing, james taking his shirt off to wipe his forehead, james grinning smugly as he notices her watching him*

[hpandcarbs]

Sometimes, in my opinion, James Potter can be a little bit evil. Not ‘evil’ evil. Like, ‘teenage boy’ evil. He can be a little conceited and cynical and say mean things without thinking, as a treat :3

And that’s OKAY because I’ll love him regardless <333

[hpandcarbs]

THE GOOD PLACE (2016 - 2020) I 3.07 - A Fractured Inheritance