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under-the-lake · 3 years

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‘I enjoyed the [DA] meetings, too. It was like having friends.’ - Luna, Friendship and Loyalty: Why She is NOT a Manic Pixie Dream Girl

This quote from Half-Blood Prince, Chapter Seven, is one of the blunt yet calm and non-judging statements Luna can come up with occasionally, and that usually startle people because of their accuracy and/or bold honesty. While Luna can be very Berkeleyan in her conception of reality, her friendship once given seems to be given forever. Contrary to many characters in the Harry Potter series, she’s loyal to people before being loyal to her House. Luna has also been deemed to meet the requirements for being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG). I beg to disagree with that statement. Maybe she ticks some of the boxes, but many of her traits and actions stand in opposition to that. So I’ll also explore that side of her here. These two short paragraphs already showcase Luna as ambiguous. Exciting, right?

Loyalty, Friendship, Empathy and MPDG

I’ve been asking people around me what they thought of Luna. Many put her loyalty, friendship and empathy forward. First it might be useful to define those terms. I know we all have some idea of what they are, but I was thinking of a more academic point of view (still wondering why Louhi was not sorted in Ravenclaw). I’ll try and make it short (I can hear you snort…).

Loyalty

Loyalty has been a theme running throughout the series from the very first chapter. Mr Dursley’s loyalty to the family principle of not mentioning the Potters is tested a few pages into the first book (Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter One). Dumbledore’s loyalty to the Potters is shown straight in as well (PS, Chapter One). I mean why would the headmaster bother bringing a baby to their foster parents himself if there was not a good reason? Harry’s loyalty to the Dursleys is settled rapidly as well, and further into the book (PS, Chapter Two), Hagrid’s loyalty to Dumbledore is stated by the gamekeeper very soon after he meets Harry (PS, Chapter Four). Loyalty as a virtue is associated with Gryffindor House by the Sorting Hat in each of its three songs (PS Chapter Seven; Goblet of Fire, Chapter Twelve; Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Eleven). It is therefore associated straightaway with the hero of the story, and by default, and tacitly, slyness and unreliability are associated with the ‘enemy’ that are Slytherins. None of these traits is mentioned in so many words, but Gryffindors are the ‘brave at heart’ whilst Slytherins ‘use any means to achieve their ends’ (PS, Chapter Seven) and that doesn’t change throughout the books.. Luna is a Ravenclaw. So what then?

What is loyalty? I mean we all have a sense of what it is, of course. Supporting our friends, our family, fly high the values we share with a society, support them whatever the circumstances, swearing allegiance to a master or an institution (sometimes even to social constructs). Loyalty is a virtue, albeit, as many point out, a complicated one, because it puts the person in front of hard choices, for instance telling their friends the truth or being bold, or honest, or doing things that they wouldn’t normally do, or acting against their own inclination. Some say loyalty is only a feeling because it’s always grounded in some sort of attachment for a person/institution/society. There’s no denying that loyalty cannot be affectless, but it doesn’t follow that the feeling is a positive one. You can be loyal out of fear, for instance. Take Wormtail. Of course one can question the very use of the term ‘loyalty’ in his case, but it ticks most of the boxes. What are the boxes, then? After reading the ‘loyalty’ entry of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Kleinig, 2017), I decided to make the boxes as follows: a) there needs to be some strong form of attachment that can go as far as devotion via professional commitment (like for a lawyer), b) this attachment makes the person want to secure (or at least not to jeopardize) the well-being/interests of the person/object/concept they are loyal to, c) this attachment makes the person put their interest and well-being after those of the object of loyalty, and d) there might be an interest for group survival (either genetic or other). That last one is one of the boxes that relate to family relationships, friendships, house loyalty etc…

The question is, how does Luna relate to loyalty? I reckon she’s one of the most loyal characters in the whole Harry Potter series, because she doesn’t question the concept. Her friendship, therefore her loyalty, once given, is given forever. Whilst she can be very Berkeleyan in many ways, Luna is full black or white when it comes to friends.

Friendship

Aristotle (him again) devoted a big part of his thinking to what friendship might be. Peoples (or some people among the peoples) have been discussing the topic of love and friendship as something fundamentally human (I don’t think I agree with that, but that’s not the point here). Ancient Greeks and Romans put friendship above romantic love in their scale of feelings (and I must say I do agree with that): it’s philia, friendship-love (Deavel & Deavel, 2010). That’s why there’s such a canyon of difference between the words ‘pal’ or ‘mate’, and ‘friend’. It has to do with the level of intimacy you share with the person (mentally and/or physically), but also with how much you embrace that person with all their qualities and faults, not trying to change them for your or their sake, but also being able to tell them truths in their face that nobody else would dare utter without fear of losing them.

If we go back to Aristotle, he defined three types of friendship (which, for him, is a kind of virtue, meaning people must constantly work on it): friendship for use, for pleasure, or complete friendship (Aristotle, in Mogg & Tully, 2012). It is easy to understand the first: the person whom the ‘friendship’ is bestowed on is only a means towards an end. For instance, take Peter Pettigrew. He never loved his three Marauder companions, but he used them to get protection. In the second type of ‘friendship’, the person who bestows his ‘friendship’ on someone wants to derive something pleasant out of it, still not considering the feelings of the other. That could be, for instance, the kind of relationship Romilda Vane would like to have with Harry, or again Pettigrew and the Marauders. A complete friendship means that the person desires positive things for their friend, for their sake and not their own. It’s valuing the friend for themselves, and not as a tool. Usually, in analysis of the Harry Potter series, only the friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione is viewed in this light (Mogg & Tully, 2012). That might be because it indeed develops over seven years, involves living together not only in the comfort of Hogwarts or the Burrow, but in a tent (granted, with all comforts as well), on the run, on a mission, not really knowing where they are going. As Mogg & Tully put it, the evolution of friendship in Harry, Ron and Hermione goes from being a working group of complementary units to sharing and learning from each other and supporting each other’s psychological development.

Yet, I question this exclusivity in the sense that Luna’s character makes her a good candidate for that kind of friendship. She might not tick each box, but I’ll explore the concept, as well as try and state that Luna is NOT a MPDG among other reasons because of her take on friendship and loyalty. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe not. That’s the excitement of research, isn’t it?

Empathy

Empathy is a fashionable word nowadays, so it tends to be used to convey many things. However, primarily, it means the ability one person has to feel ‘in the stead’ of another, to step into their shoes and feel ‘with’ them. It is a central concept to the building of human societies, because it allows people to create bonds with one another. Empathy can lead to altruistic motivation, meaning that one who feels empathy towards others might want to help them. In the Sandford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stueber (2019) says that according to one of the philosophers who currently studies empathy, Batson, the predominant trait of empaths is selfishness (sic), that the altruistic bit of empathy is not the most common, and what determines if a person will help another or not depends on how strong they are personally, and what the cost of helping the other would be. To be truly altruistic, moreover (and quite obviously), the helping behaviour must not be directed towards a personal goal. That’s sort of logical, given the name is ‘altruistic’, but again, there are different forms of help. Other researchers (Ciladini et al., in Stueber, 2019) state that when in extreme conditions, this altruistic behaviour stems from a sense of oneness between the actors, the emergency or extremity of the situation leading them to behave as one body, therefore saving limbs rather than individuals. Empathy could go that far.

Of course I chose to mention those bits of the article because they serve my purpose, my question being Luna and empathy. I guess one could write books about all those three topics, but what is given here will be enough to shed some light on Luna.

A Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

For those who are into sociology and pop culture, the term is familiar. For those who are not, it requires a definition. The phrase was coined in 2007 by Nathan Rabin (in Nilson, 2020) but this type of characters actually were always there in pop culture in various forms. However, Rabin said that since this character was growing more and more common in films, it might be useful to coin a concept, and so he did: a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a female character whose only role in the plot is to guide a soulful young male character towards embracing life and its mysteries. My inner feminism starts at such a phrase and all sorts of arguments come to mind to destroy it. After all, I am Louhi, The Witch Of Pohjola. However, it is true that MPDG characters exist and must be taken into account. Now the question is, what defines a MPDG?

A MPDG is a character who, at first, seems to have none. She stands out of the crowd, and represents something mythical or otherworldly at first, for the males around. That makes the MPDG attractive, along with some sort of dreaminess. Among the other ‘symptoms’ of the MPDG (Pasola, 2014) are innocent bluntness, lack of self-consciousness, and a propensity to desert conversations she doesn’t find interesting. There is even a ‘test’ (Bechdell-Wallace test) to assess MPDG-ness in a female character, and it consists of three statements: 1) the plot must contain at least two women, 2) who talk to each other and 3) discuss something else than men. This test has apparently been widely used to analyse films and culture (quick google scholar search… didn’t have time to read) since its appearance in 2005. Bechdell says that if a female character fails that test then she can be deemed a MPDG. I think it is a bit too straightforward.

Appearances… can be misleading. Therefore, while Luna fails the test (Pasola, 2014), there’s more to see than meets the eye, and Luna is worth the analysis. So, my stance is that Luna is NOT a MPDG, however much she looks the character at first sight.

Luna: what about her, then?

Luna is sort of vapoury, has a mythical or mystical je-ne-sais-quoi about her, conveyed by her waist-long blonde hair, protuberant eyes that give her ‘a permanently surprised look’ (OoP, Chapter Ten), and her rather peculiar choice of jewellery (butterbeer-cork necklace or radish-earrings). In the films, this effect is carried on further by Evanna Lynch’s voice, which gives Luna an ethereal quality. Therefore she physically sort of fits the MPDG trope. Moreover, according to literature, as said before, she fails the Bechdell test.

BUT. I don’t agree Luna is anywhere near a MPDG.

Let’s start with the definition of a MPDG. According to it, Luna should be a sort of muse to a man and guide him to embrace life and its mysteries. Well. Er… aha. There’s already a problem here. Because Luna guides nobody to embrace life and its mysteries. She sometimes says things that are just plain true and takes a rather original stance when it comes to relationships with others. She doesn’t guide anyone. She never seeks people to help them or offer any kind of advice. If she happens to be there at a moment when she can say something that seems relevant to her, then she’d do it. That’s not guiding. It’s a chance meeting. At least that’s how I see them. You could argue that she guides Harry. Why yes, but the bias is that we see the whole story from Harry’s point of view, so there’s no way we can be sure Luna doesn’t give the odd piece of her mind to anybody outside Harry’s presence. She doesn’t act like a muse either. Harry doesn’t daydream about her, his thoughts don’t get back to Luna every now and then. He basically doesn’t give a damn about her, at least at first, and if he occasionally does, it’s either by chance or for lack of a better option, like when he invites her to Slughorn’s Christmas party, or when he has no choice but to take her along to the Ministry. After that last adventure, though, his attitude towards Luna changes, she has grown on him, but in no respect is she a muse to him. He’s too much entangled with his love life, his loyalty to his parents, the Order and Dumbledore, and his need to save the world every now and then, to care much about others. To add to this, nowhere in papers analysing MPDGs do the words friendship, empathy and loyalty appear to describe the characters. And Luna can feel all three, and shows them throughout her appearances in the Potter saga.

Luna is empathetic, though in her own way. She can sense how others feel and offer comfort, yet it’s not the usual kind. ‘You’re just as sane as I am’ (OoP, Chapter Ten) is not exactly comforting at first to Harry, when he thinks he’s being mental, seeing the Hogwarts carriages being pulled by winged skeletal horses. He has just seen how unusual Luna is, reading the Quibbler upside down and believing the cock-and-bull stories her father prints about Fudge’s army of Heliopaths. However, at the end of the same book, they discuss Sirius’ and Luna’s mum’s deaths, and ‘as [Harry] watched her go, he found that the terrible weight in his stomach seemed to have lessened slightly’ (OoP, Chapter Thirty-Eight); Luna sort of comforts Harry in spite of herself with her optimism, and she couldn’t do that without being empathetic. In Deathly Hallows Luna is the one person who keeps Ollivander alive while both are imprisoned in the cellar at Malfoy Manor, as he acknowledges to her on leaving Shell Cottage: ‘I’m going to miss you, Mr Ollivander’, said Luna, approaching the old man. ‘And I you, my dear,’ said Ollivander, patting her on the shoulder. ‘You were an inexpressible comfort to me in that terrible place.’

Luna doesn’t seem to ‘need’ friends. As in, she’s not actively looking for friends. She probably has a whole world in her head that fills her. That doesn’t mean she’s not happy having some friends, as the mural in her bedroom at home is proof enough of. When she acknowledges friends, then she’s loyal to them. Had she not been so, she wouldn’t have stood alongside her dad and advocated Harry’s interview to be printed in the Quibbler. She wouldn’t have fought with Neville in the renewed Dumbledore’s Army in Deathly Hallows. She wouldn’t have stood to the Malfoys while being held captive. In return of her loyalty, one of the next offspring in the Potter family is called Lily Luna. I think we can reasonably say, along Aristotle in Mogg & Tully (2012), that when Luna bestows her friendship on someone, it is a complete one. She doesn’t want to change people, doesn’t want to use them, just wants the best for them, whatever the cost for her.

Luna doesn’t question her feelings. What she gives, she does fully. To the Trio, Neville, Ginny, and also Ollivander and Dobby. That leads her to not talk about her friendships, and therefore, maybe, people to think that she doesn’t have any. However, she expresses them in sometimes odd ways verbally, like when she agrees to go ‘as friends’ to Sulghorn’s Party with Harry (HBP, Chapter Fifteen), and sometimes in hidden ways, like in that ceiling painting she did in her room back home, and that the trio discovers when visiting Xenophilius during their hunt for clues about the Hallows (DH, Chapter Twenty-One).

Luna doesn’t forgive. She doesn’t need to. She’s so detached that it sounds like she’s not hurt by people being mean to her. A fine example of this is the finale of OoP, when Harry meets her on his non-way to the End-of-Year Feast, and Luna is looking for her possessions (OoP, Chapter Thirty-Eight). She doesn’t hold a grudge towards her fellow Ravenclaws for being mean to her. Therefore, she doesn’t need to forgive either.

Some people have suggested Luna could have autistic traits (Belcher & Stevenson, 2011; Guha, 2020). There are indeed traits that could lead into that direction, and the web is full of people discussing that possibility. However, Rowling has denied that (it’s all over the web, but I cannot get my hands on the place I read that bit of interview…). Luna is just… Luna, the moon girl, whose name is maybe only the moon, or, as Le Callet (2018) suggests, a tribute to an Assyrian satirist from the 2nd century AD, Lucian of Samosata, who wrote A True Story, a fantastic tale about creatures like tree-women, or Selenites living on the moon and grilling frogs (moonfrogs, ring a bell?), breathing the vapour that wafts from them. He was also a known critic of the belief in the paranormal and of religious superstitions. Then part of him stands in opposition to Luna’s: she does believe in weird stuff, has odd superstitions (Nargle infested mistletoe and all that), which she eventually has to give up (like Crumple-Horned Snorckacks). Luna’s name might also be a tribute to Cyrano de Bergerac, the French 17th century author of Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon which is a classic in the field of early French science-fiction (see illustration below, by Henriot, 1900, Cyrano in front of the Moon). After all, Rowling is learnt in French and French literature, so we cannot rule this hypothesis out. In this book, Cyrano travels to the Moon using rockets powered by firecrackers… The inhabitants of the Moon are four-legged creatures who have talking earrings which are used to teach children.

All in all, all well considered, there is not much to back up the idea of Luna being a MPDG, and I am quite relieved to see that my small researches and musings have led me to that conclusion. You could say I am biased, wanting my conclusions to fit my hypothesis. Who wouldn’t? However, it is reassuring to find that one’s mind goes not astray, somehow. I find, after all this thinking, that we can learn a huge lot from Luna, even if she appears only sporadically in the story: human values that make people strong in a moral sense: resilience, trust, loyalty, friendship, self-confidence.

Now this has been done, I want to delve further into Luna’s character by exploring the job of Magical Naturalist (that appeals to me a lot, being a biologist myself, with specialisations in botany, zoology and ecology), as well as exploring her relation to Death, comparing it to how the other characters embrace it (or not). But these are completely different stories.

Thanks to Little My, Purple, Andromeda, Kikimora, Dawn, and Thetis, for sharing their opinion of Luna with me.

Sources:

https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-original-forty

https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/thestrals

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2007/0730-bloomsbury-chat.html

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-resiliency-of-luna-lovegood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian

Belcher, C. L., & Stephenson, B. H. (2011). Entering the Forbidden Forest: Teaching Fiction and Fantasy in Urban Special Education. In Teaching Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. 121-142.

Chaillan, M. (2016). Harry Potter et Berkeley. In Harry Potter à l’école des philosophes, Philosophie Magazine, Hors série n°31, novembre - décembre 2016. 70-71.

Granger, J. & Bassham, G. (2016). Just in Your Head? J.K. Rowling on Separating Reality from Illusion. In Bassham, G. (2016, Eds.). The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy, Hogwarts for Muggles. Wiley Eds. 185-197

Guha, S. (2020). Luna Lovegood or Loony Lovegood? - Reading Luna Lovegood as a victim of Asperger’s Syndrome. In P Barry, N Pederson, L Kang (2020, Eds.) Proceedings of the Two-Day Conference: Questioning Attitudes and Labels: Mental Health Versus Madness, St. Mira’s College for Girls, Pune, 45-48.

Kleinig, J. (2017), “Loyalty”, in Zalta, E. N. (2017, Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/loyalty/

Le Callet, B. (2018), Le Monde Antique de Harry Potter, Stock, Paris.

Pasola, K. (2014). The Integrity of Luna Lovegood: How JK Rowling Subverts the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ Trope. In Martín Alegre, S. (2014, Ed.). Charming and Bewitching: Considering the Harry Potter Series. 153-161.

Mogg, J., & Tully, K. (2012). Harry gets by with a little help from his friends: An Aristotelian reading of virtue and friendship in harry Potter. Reasons Papers, 34(1), 77-88.

Nadal, C. (2014). Magical Science: Luna Lovegood’s Beliefs, Discoveries and Truth. In Martín Alegre, S., Arms, C., Blasco Solís, L., Calvo Zafra, L., Campos, R., Canals Sánchez, M., … & García Jordà, L. (2014). Charming and bewitching: considering the Harry Potter series. 148-153.

Nilson, M. (2020). A Magic Manic Pixie Dream Girl?: Luna Lovegood and the Concept of Postfeminism. In Jarazo-Alvarez, R. & Alderete-Diez, P. (2020, Eds.). Cultural Politics in Harry Potter: Life, Death and the Politics of Fear. 32-41. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bloomsbury, London.

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

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

Scamander, N. (2001; 2018; [1927][J.K. Rowling]). Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Bloomsbury, London, in association with Obscurus Books, 18a Diagon Alley, London.

Stueber, K. (2019) Empathy, in Zalta, E.N. (2019, Ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/empathy/

#Louhi #Luna #LunaLovegood #J.K. Rowling #Philosophy #Sociology #HarryPotter #Aristotle #Empathy #Friendship #Loyalty #MPDG

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remoonusarchive · 5 years

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18th March 1976 || Self-Para

So thank you for showing me, That best friends can not be trusted,

It had been three days. Three days since the moon was full. Three days since Remus had only barely avoided becoming a murderer. Three days since Snape had found out his secret. Three days since Remus had spoken.

He had been avoiding nearly everybody, curled up in his bed in the corner of the Hospital Wing, the curtains drawn around him as Madam Pomfrey shooed any visitors away with claims of his having dragon pox. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall had both visited to talk about The Incident and ask how he was recovering but even then Remus had stared at the ceiling and acted like he couldn’t hear them. When they had suggested he get back to lessons and try to find a normal routine, his eyes had snapped to Madam Pomfrey, who had insisted that his injuries from the particularly difficult night and the mental strain from the trauma meant she wouldn’t be discharging him from her care just yet.

That morning, however, he had lost his ally in Poppy Pomfrey. She had sighed down at him and admitted that she couldn’t let him hide there any longer. It had been three days and was now at the point where he was risking falling into a depression if he refused to do anything any longer. Besides, his injuries were nothing more than shining scars, now, that would bother him no longer except for the reminder of how terrible that night had been. Even the bruise down the right side of his body from where the wolf had thrown itself at a wall in its desperation to reach human blood had faded and no longer hurt.

“Do you want me to leave a bandage around your wrist?” Pomfrey asked, as Remus reluctantly dressed. He looked down at the scars. The skin was no longer raw but the scars didn’t look as old as they sometimes did after three days of werewolf speed-healing. Remus shook his head. It looked bad and somebody would surely jump to the conclusion his extended stay in the hospital was due to something much darker than dragon pox, but as it was he could pull the cuffs of his jumper or robes over the marks. A bandage would only draw attention.

“I wish there was a way to stop you chewing on yourself. The scratches are bad enough but—“ She trailed off with a pained expression and Remus knew she was thinking again of the state of his wrist when she had found him at dawn and how much worse it could have been. She shook her head and pressed a bottle of scar reducing cream into his hands. “Run along to breakfast, now, and I expect not to see you back here at all this weekend.”

“Can’t—“ Remus’ voice came out scratchy from disuse. He swallowed painfully. “Can’t I have breakfast here and go straight to Potions?” Or just skip Potions. He didn’t need to go to Potions, surely. He couldn’t deal with Slughorn on top of Snape and Black and Potter and Pettigrew. He couldn’t deal with the smells and fumes that always threatened to overwhelm him in the dungeons. He couldn’t deal with struggling through his worst subject and unwilling, unable to ask for help.

“Don’t be silly!” Pomfrey, the traitor, said. She handed him his cloak and pushed him towards the door.

He didn’t go to the Great Hall. Instead, his steps turned to the basement. House elves were buzzing with activity in the kitchens but with breakfast open upstairs Remus was the only human there. The elves didn’t seem to mind him weaving between the tables and plating up a breakfast for himself before the platters went up to the Hall.

He wouldn’t have long to run all the way upstairs, get his school bag, and return down to the dungeons before Potions but Remus couldn’t find the motivation to eat any faster. He was dreading seeing the boys who less than a week ago he would have called his best friends.

“Mr Lupin.”

Remus tensed at Professor McGonagall’s voice. It was still too early for them to be hunting him down for being late to Potions, so what—

They changed their minds, Remus concluded. He had been too dangerous. He had nearly hurt some of his fellow classmates and Snape didn’t want to share the castle with him and he had broken Dumbledore's trust in telling three of his dormmates how the passageway into the Whomping Willow worked and it had all been a huge mistake. Perhaps Padf—Black had said something, too. About how he had come to his senses and not known how else to break up a friendship with a monster.

“P-Professor?”

“Good morning, Remus. It’s good to see you out of the Hospital Wing.”

Remus glanced around the kitchens in confusion. Her tone was much too kind.

“I— I’m sorry I didn’t go to breakfast upstairs, Professor, but I—“

“As long as you aren’t making a habit of eating here, I think we can let this slide for today. Given the circumstances. In fact, I believe you will be joined by Misses Fawley and Frazer this evening if you still wish to eat away from the rest of your classmates. You won’t ask either of them what their extenuating circumstances for choosing to eat down here and they will not ask you, either.”

“Oh— okay? So I’m not being expelled?”

“Most certainly not, Mr Lupin. You were in no way at fault for the events of the other evening. Why, even Mr Black will not be expelled.”

Remus flinched. Professor McGonagall noticed — she must have done, because her eyes narrowed and she seemed to consider her next words very carefully before she spoke.

“Remus, whether you choose to forgive Mr Black or not is your decision and yours only. I will neither judge you nor try to tell you what to do. However, I will not be allowing any changes in dormitory arrangements, nor any more hiding in the Hospital Wing instead of returning to your common room while you are healthy. Now, you missed your careers meeting yesterday and I have told Professor Slughorn that you will be missing Potions this morning to make up for it, so finish your breakfast and meet me in my office.”

Remus stared at the door that closed behind her. He had forgotten all about the careers meetings in the chaos of the week — that they were happening now because the Paschal moon (and so Easter) was late this year and they wanted the fifth years to only be focused on OWLs after the holidays. He had no idea what he was going to say. His dreams were unattainable and his realistic plans non-existent.

***

She poured him a cup of tea when he arrived at her office and offered him a biscuit despite knowing he had only just had breakfast. Remus nibbled nervously around the edge of his ginger newt. Nobody else had mentioned tea and biscuits for their careers meeting but, admittedly, only a couple had gone to theirs on Monday before Remus fell ill and he hadn’t talked to anybody since.

“This meeting is supposed to be to talk about any career ideas you might have,” Professor McGonagall started and Remus tensed. She stopped in her flow and rested her hands on the table in front of her, observing him with keen eyes. “However, we might have to approach things a little differently with you.”

“You can say I’ve no chance of getting a job, Professor. I’ve made my peace with it.”

“It may be difficult for you to get a stable job, especially in the Wizarding world but I believe you have done some Muggle exams?”

Remus nodded. “I took my O Levels when I was sixteen. Most Muggles my age would take their A Levels this summer but as I’ve only had the holidays to study for them and the full moon falls in the middle of them this year, I’ll be taking them as soon as we go home after sixth year. That doesn’t change the fact that Muggles will still be suspicious of me missing work so regularly and I don’t want to have to use Obliviate or Confundus on my bosses.”

“That’s true,” Professor McGonagall conceded, “But whatever you choose to do, Remus, you can be sure you will have a stellar reference from me.”

Remus frowned. “Professor—”

“Remus Lupin, you are a good student and an even better person. If I had the power to appoint you as my teaching assistant I’d do it today but as it is you’ll have to apply through the proper channels when you have your NEWTs.” Her mouth twisted in sadness and Remus knew it was because that wasn’t possible. Even if Professor Dumbledore had let him come to school, how could he hire a teacher who would have to miss so many classes to turn into a dangerous monster? “Any employer who would turn you away just because you’re a werewolf would be missing out.”

It occurred to Remus that Professor McGonagall was the only teacher besides Madam Pomfrey who called him a werewolf. Professor Dumbledore had this habit of talking around the issue or referring to it as Remus’ lycanthropy, while most of the others avoided talking about it altogether or didn’t know. He preferred it when people just called him a werewolf. His mouth twitched into a smile but it fell when he looked into his still-full cup of tea and realised the meeting was far from over.

“Professor, I know you have to do these meetings with everybody, but I don’t think I can—” He trailed off and blinked against tears.

“I do hope the world will be kinder to you one day, Remus.” She looked up at the clock, then back to him with one of those rare McGonagall smiles. “We still have time so unless you really want to get to Potions—”

“No!” Remus blushed at how quickly his objection came out. “I mean—”

“Actually, the main reason we do careers advice in fifth year is to help narrow down NEWT options and whether you believe you’ll be able to secure a job that requires NEWTs or not, it would still be a good idea to think about your subjects. Perhaps we can talk about that?”

She seemed to be enjoying herself far too much. Remus was sure she wouldn’t normally encourage skipping a class. He had never told anybody of his feelings that the Potions master was prejudiced against him but he now suspected McGonagall knew. “Oh. Sure. I hadn’t thought about it at all, yet.”

“Looking over your class marks, you have the choice of any subject you desire. The only subject you would have to work particularly hard at to raise your grade would be Potions. You’re currently only just scraping an Acceptable and you would need an E to be eligible for the NEWT class.”

“I don’t want to take Potions. I’d definitely like to take Transfiguration and Charms and probably Defence Against the Dark Arts.”

Professor McGonagall nodded, looking over the notes in front of her. “All of which you have Outstanding marks and I know Professor Flitwick and I would both be delighted to have you in our classes. Only probably for Defence?”

“The changeover of teachers makes it harder to know. Some years I’ve loved it and others not so much.”

“Understandable. I trust you have kept up with the news of what is happening outside the castle?”

The war. For it was very much a war by now. “Yes, Professor. Defence might be useful, mightn’t it?”

She looked at him with the same prideful glint in her eye as she did when he got a question right in class. “You also have exemplary marks in Astronomy,” she added, looking down. “However—”

“I’m not sure about Astronomy,” Remus admitted. “Sorry, Professor, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Go on.”

“My parents taught me Astronomy before Hogwarts. I find the lessons easy but that’s because I already know a lot and it’s not useful in the same way as some subjects. So I won’t take it for NEWTs, I think. Maybe I’ll join Astronomy Club instead.”

“It’s probably for the best as the Ministry have a tendency to set the final practical exam on the night of a Full Moon.”

Remus sighed and nodded. He didn’t want to take Astronomy but hearing how he probably couldn’t because he wouldn’t be able to take the exam only made him feel more frustrated with the conversation about his job prospects fresh in his mind. Which led him to another subject he had been unsure about. “I like Herbology too, but wolfsbane is on the NEWT curriculum.”

“Does it affect you over a distance?”

“I honestly don’t know, Professor.”

Professor McGonagall hummed thoughtfully. “I will talk to Pomona and Poppy but I’m sure we can sort something out. You would be wearing gloves to handle it anyway.”

“I don’t have to be certain of my subjects now, do I, Professor?”

“No, I will confirm your subjects with you on the first day of your sixth year.”

Remus nodded, happy that he could have some time to think about it but not choose there and then. He slipped into silence, sipping his tea and wondering how long he could get away with staying there before he was dismissed.

Much too soon, the teacup was empty and Remus couldn’t avoid his teacher’s expectant gaze any longer.

“How about you go to your dorm before your classmates finish Potions and make sure you are ready to join them for Charms?”

Going back to lessons seemed so difficult but he had to. They had decided to keep him here after all their risks appeared to have flopped and Remus was now under even more pressure to excel and show he deserved his place there.

Professor McGonagall must have sensed his reluctance because she added, “I’m sure Mr Potter and Mr Pettigrew will be happy to see you.”

“I don’t want to see them.”

She looked shocked. “Remus, they didn’t do anything. Mr Potter is the reason nobody was hurt.”

“I don’t want to see them,” Remus snapped and he knew his eyes flashed amber. Pro—Potter was the only one Black listened to so he should have stopped it sooner. Pettigrew always went along with their plans, Remus knew, and if the teachers were convinced he didn’t know anything about it then he must have been hidden in rat form.

And if Prongs was there, you could have hurt him. You could have killed James.

The little voice in his head taunted him but anger was more natural than fear. He shouldn’t worry about Potter. Not now.

“Remus—” He wasn’t used to hearing such sadness and distress in Professor McGonagall’s voice.

“Thank you for the meeting, Professor,” he forced out before he fled the room. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, shouldn’t trust them. His father had warned him of this from such a young age. Don’t trust anybody. Even if they seem friendly, they could one day turn around and shove you into the mud. Werewolves couldn’t have friends, just as they couldn’t have jobs or lives or happiness. Remus should have been more careful.

#i'm an emotional wreck #*sp #*flashback #that date might change that's what i had thought when i started writing it and idek now #so i just left it #self-harm tw #in his wolf form but then the scars are there #references to gore and body mutilation and the likes #and almost manslaughter but none of that is written out #remus is just obsessively thinking about it #some other things too i'm sure but #it's late #i'm crying #idk

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legatumrpg · 6 years

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full name: rodolphus lestrange

age: twenty-eight

gender and pronouns: male and he/him

blood status: pureblood

occupation: wizengamot judge and senior official of the department of magical law enforcement

affiliation: death eaters

i n t r o d u c t i o n »

Your family has always prided themselves with purity, taking their place among some of the most prestigious wizarding families, and you are everything a pureblood family wants out of a child. You are proud, intelligent, and loyal to the cause. Since coming into the world, you have proven your worth time and time again, and your efforts were not missed by the Dark Lord. You have become an example for the others, a perfect follower and general for His crusade. You make sure no one steps out of line, and you don’t hesitate to implement the consequences of betrayal and disorder. Your eyes show no mercy, no surrender, no care for what others think of you. Let them think what they will, they haven’t seen the worst from you yet.

b i o g r a p h y »

he was born with a silver spoon set upon his plate, the decadence of the lestrange name enough to seemingly tide the boy over. many would marvel at him from afar, wonder exactly how it was that such a beautiful boy had been brought into such a cruel world. hair of ravens black and cheeks pinched with the underlying tinge of pink, rodolphus himself soon realized how easy it was to capture the attention of the world around him. his words were used to harm, to manipulate, in the coldest of ways. as if he’d lacked a certain emotion, something to show that he himself was truly human. it had never bothered him, had never been a thought within his head. for, he thought as a politician would, and acted as calculated and distant as one would expect.

raised to be regal, rodolphus had always thought highly of himself and therefore had expected others to do the same. he was a lestrange, and damn anyone who’d try to convince him that he was anything less than pureblooded royalty. for, whilst his classmates suffered for lineage that proved itself unworthy, rodolphus shined brightly beneath the eyes of loyalists everywhere. his goal was not only to gain praise for who he was, and who he would grow up to be, but power as well. a hunger that arose within his stomach for more, always seeking for another taste. he’d describe it as pure ecstasy, the feeling that arose within him whenever he’d conquered, whenever he’d harmed. for, he may have been a gentleman of refined taste, but beneath every eloquent gesture and every lavish dressing robe, lay a monster ready to attack.

while he was able to control his impulse, he had never succumbed to quieting his bloodlust. it was with the dark lord himself that rodolphus had found the answers to every empty prayer he’d sent to the gods who’d never listened. a man with a cause, the devil himself. rodolphus, fully formed ideologies running rampant through his mind, sought indulgence with voldemort. in doing so, he’d released a demon that relished in worshipping the sins of a man who’d shown no mercy to those who needn’t deserve it. abominations, he’d proclaim, as every blood stained shirt had proven to be a memory to soothe his most volatile of senses.

it was thanks to his silver tongue and family name that rodolphus found himself gaining recognition at the ministry. his elegant disposition seemingly undeniable to those around him as he continued to manipulate his way to the top. a smooth talker of sorts, rodolphus had always had a grasp on when to speak and what to say. it wasn’t until his courtship with bellatrix black was announced that rodolphus truly felt as though the world was his, and his alone. a formality of sorts, their marriage came with expectations from the pair of them, and he wouldn’t have had it any other way. in bellatrix, rodolphus gained a confidant, a trusted ally and a companion with whom he could conquer with. in him, he’d hoped, she’d gained the same. the devil and his mistress, bringers of death, leaving nothing but destruction in their wake.

a man adorned in the world’s finest, fit to rule with an iron fist, rodolphus lestrange has never been underestimated. his calm demeanour only seems to make him more menacing. he punishes when necessary, allowing the beast to be released from it’s cage. gaining a reputation as the man who can kill a mothers son, only to turn around and wipe the blood off his shirt and allow a grieving mother to use his shoulder for support.

c o n n e c t i o n s »

bellatrix lestrange » A match made in pureblood heaven. A Black and a Lestrange marriage was written in the stars, and you had the pleasure in tying your bloodlines together. Though you do not love them the way fairy tales have told you to, you do have a great respect for them — and that is far greater than any romance. You do still have the issue of producing an heir before your sibling does, however, you would never force your spouse into something they do not want.

rabastan lestrange » The world was brought to its knees the day the Lestrange children were born, and you’ve both lived up to that reputation ever since. They are the constant wild card in your plans, the two of you working in tandem to bring about the chaos and order in which a war like this one needs. They are your sibling, your partner, the other side of the same coin, and nothing — not even death — could tear you apart.

peter pettigrew » You’ve made it a personal mission to get under their skin. You know there’s something that they want to prove, and you believe they would work exceedingly well for your cause. You have great plans for them; plans that you will only share if and when they finally cross over. They’ll be the perfect little Trojan Horse, it’s only a matter of time.

Rodolphus Lestrange is played by MATTHEW DADDARIO and is TAKEN

#hp rp #harry potter rp #marauders rp #marauders era rp #skeleton rp #*#de #rodolphusbio #rodolphus lestrange #t

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