#I can't remember but I think George was against fanfiction at some point but lol he always offers his own ones

[thesilverlady]

I love how Grrm made Aegon&Rhaenyra so similar, both are handsome/attractive,vain,cruel,proud, quick to anger, slow to forgive, driven to madness/paranoia by the loss of their children and dragons etc..

But nah grrm thought it wasn't enough so he made their dragons have similar color and start with the same letter as well Yellow/Gold, Syrax/Sunfyre ♡♡

It's just a good day to remember that Grrm has validated our delulu rhaegon agend♡

that man isn't afraid to play in the sandbox and I respect that 😂

i kinda get the vibe he enjoys toying with different possibilities that didn't happen but could have.

[pebblysand]

Helloo

So i just finished reading that ask about Harry as a wizard-cop, and i totally needed to read that. Like two days ago a friend told me she stopped reading HP when she found out that Harry wanted to be a cop (yeah she's dramatic like that, i love her). We talked about it a bit, and, like i always say to my friends "Yeah, JKR sucks, but fanfiction is awesome!" . And i remember mentioning castles to her, and one part that i can't find right now, it was very short, and it was harry working as part of the crowd-control team of people manifesting (is that how you say it?), he was in disguise i think (was that in castles? man! i read a lot of things at the same time and get confused ). And THAT was when the "WOW he's a cop" really sunk in, because, well i've been on the other side of that hittin-stick when i was a teenager (what's the name of that stick? you know, the stick that cops use to hit people) and well, i sort of wanted to burn all of my HP books after that (i didn't of course🫣).

Anyway i don't think i've ever read a canon compliant fic that adressed Harry's carreer choice the way you do, which i find sooo interesting and necessary. I have (i hope) grown up a bit since a was 16, and talked to a few cops (yeah teenage me is 😲), and some of them really start working in the police because they genuinely want to help. I didn't know what to say, because that's the same person who hits teenagers manifesting for more founds to public schooling, but also rescued a friend's mom from a violent relationship, which is, you know, a really good thing. I devoured those parts, when you describe this internal moral fight Harry has and the way he also grows up, from wanting to be an auror to "catch the bad guys", like a videogame, to facing all these dilemmas with it being a part of a goverment, with laws, regulations and obligations. Pffffff can you imagine dear Harry James following all those RULESSS?

ok so i've talked enough, love all your work!! i hope some of this makes sense lol. Have a great week!!

oh, i'm so glad you resonated with that! obviously, i have a lot of thoughts!

so, yes, that is in castles! it's chapter 11 after Kingsley's Ministry grants are handed out, thanks to the Blair loan:

Officially (and, for what it’s worth, even knowing his own feelings towards Kingsley, Harry honestly believes him on that one), most of the recovery grants were distributed to a selection of wizarding businesses deemed to have suffered the largest losses during the war. Applications were submitted in the month that followed the passing of the bill and the list of successful applications was compiled by Ministry staff on the basis of a complex matrix including the difference between pre-war and post-war turnovers, expenses incurred to repair the sometimes extensive damages suffered within the premises, the viability of their recovery plans, etc. It all sounded good - at least on paper. In actual fact, this thorough assessment led to an overwhelming number of grants being awarded to businesses owned by people generally known to have been on Kingsley and the Order’s so-called “side,” during the war. 

The moment the allocation decisions were made public, a wave of disgruntled Knockturn Alley shop owners found their way into the many offices of different press outlets across the country, soon expressing their innumerable grievances, and less-than-favourable opinions of the current government which, according to them, was operating under unconscionable biases. At the Burrow, this strategy enraged George (and, in her correspondence, Ginny, who’d spent hours with he and Ron going over Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes’ accounting and writing their application) who slammed The Prophet against the kitchen table and expressed what sounded like a rather fair point: ‘Their bloody shops weren’t torched, were they?’ 

In response to this latest wave of criticism, the Head of Kingsley’s new Money Matters Department, Bernardus Dee-Poquets, gave a rather unfortunate interview on Radio 5, attempting to ‘give more context’ on the decisions made. Instead of smoothing things over, this position only further enraged the opposition, prompting a spontaneous protest to take place in Knockturn Alley with placards that read: WE DON’T NEED CONTEXT WE NEED GALLEONS! (which, frankly, Harry also couldn’t help but think was a fair point). 

He and the other Aurors were soon called in for ‘crowd control,’ an idea that began sounding terrible as soon as they were asked to put on their riot gear. On the way there, Robards added fuel to the fire by making it abundantly clear to whoever was willing to listen that this ‘peacekeeping’ operation had been forced upon him by the Head of the DMLE and was neither his choice, nor his idea, which in turn meant that no one in the Auror ranks actually wanted to go in. That day, Harry’s afternoon began with their unit chief whispering in his ear to make his hair blond and hide his scar with make-up again, ‘just-in-case,’ and ended with incapacitating shots being fired from all sides, fumigation potions thrown at a mob they’d kettled in on Burke Street, and a spell that sliced Harry’s arm open, landing him in the mediwizards’ tent for the second time in less than six months. Until he regained the full use of his fingers a couple days later, the letters he wrote to Ginny looked like they had been drafted by a six year old child. 

Since then, most of the office has been reluctant to do - well - anything beyond the bare minimum, doing nothing to help Robards’ staffing problems. Half the Aurors on Harry’s floor have now repeatedly called in sick for a few days at a time with increasingly more outrageous excuses ranging from ‘sleepiness,’ to ‘dragon pox,’ and even once: ‘wandrot’ - a wizarding disease that Harry unfortunately decided to ask about at lunchtime in the middle of the trainees’ table. Katie Bell almost choked on a piece of broccoli and Ron’s whole face turned scarlet. The resulting explanation made Harry feel irrationally protective of the most intimate parts of his body for the rest of the afternoon. 

---

and, like, yeah, it's funny, but it's also - not, you know? i think i want this moment to sound like a "fun" anecdote but i think it also feeds into what i was saying in the original post, about the post-war low-level "crime" that feels somewhat endemic and unsolvable. here, of course, it's knockturn alley shop owners, which i suppose we all don't have much sympathy for, but perhaps, we should? the thing about the post-war wizarding economy is that it's full of petty crime and black market stuff and disgruntled demonstrations - because these people have spent years trying to survive and make a living under the hold of an authoritative government, and now not only is democracy not really bringing in money, but it's also preventing them from operating the way they used to. and even if it's nothing at scale, i think the endlessness of it kind of wears down your morale, as a ministry employee.

as you very rightly say, i think most people who join police forces aren't horrible people. like, sure, a percentage of them just wants to beat people up and get paid to do it, but that's not the majority. i think for the most part, there's a lot of big-eyed kids like harry who just want to "save" people. and then, you get called in to these ops and you start realising that "crowd control" is a scam and that putting people in jail is a bit pointless when what is being held against them is just trying to survive and feeding their families. and, of course, there's also multiple aspects to this, because they also sometimes do intervene in stuff that is useful like domestics and stuff (although, there's this whole thing about how police often doesn't believe women, but that's a whole different debate). so, i think, with harry's "early" time at the ministry, i wanted to show the different layers to that.

and, it's funny cause i expected to get a lot of angry comments about harry becoming a hit wizard because of the sort of violence that is associated with those kinds of departments, but i actually didn't. i think the above is sort of the reason why he joins though. it's like: he wants to save people, and that's what they do. their operations are big enough, it's never petty crime, they have a lead (hawk) who knows what he's doing and who can make difficult decisions, and they get in, intervene, and get out. it's not about fighting disgruntled shop owners, you know? or pointless trafficking of magical objects. and, it’s also not detective-like investigative work which, frankly, i don’t think he has much patience or focus for. especially, feeling kind of like a nameless cog in the investigative machine. to me, the hit wizards was the only way to make auror!harry work within the "reality" of what the police force is.

(i think that stick is called a "baton?" i know the term to "baton charge". english speakers - please confirm 😆. in french, it's a matraque.)

but anyway, thank you so much for your kind words, i'm so glad you enjoyed those parts. i have a lot more in store for harry-as-an-auror throughout the fic, so it's lovely to see people enjoy it!