#I know there’s no Draco but let’s be real he was a little shit in this book

[deadsnakey]

𝐁𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐓'𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐆𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐒

𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐄 ——> 𝐅𝐋𝐔𝐅𝐅

𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐬𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐝, 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲.

₊˚ ‿︵‿︵‿︵୨୧ · · ♡ · · ୨୧‿︵‿︵‿︵ ˚₊

₊˚ ୨୧ honestly, Theodore was so happy and proud when you got picked Slytherin by the hat

₊˚ ୨୧ he would've still been happy for you because you're his little sister and he'd be proud regardless of you got another house.

₊˚ ୨୧ but, he won't have to worry about not being able to be there for you when you need it most or if someone is picking on you, etc

₊˚ ୨୧ once his friends found out you're his sister, let alone had one to begin with, they instantly took you under their wing

₊˚ ୨୧ you now have six older brothers and one older sister (pansy).

₊˚ ୨୧ pansy definitely loves doing stuff with you, many sleepovers together

₊˚ ୨୧ I like to also think once you get a bit older maybe 14 or so you also become a huge shit talker from being around them so much, specifically Mattheo and Theo. (You three prob hung out a lot since Matty n him r really close.)

₊˚ ୨୧ he's very overprotective of you, it's sometimes suffocating but you know he just cares and worries about you.

₊˚ ୨୧ if he can't be there to help you or protect you or even watch over you, he'll have one or more of your other brothers to instead, he knows he can trust them.

₊˚ ୨୧ will gladly help you with your studies or homework even if he doesn't study himself. He knows there's some subjects you're not too great at.

₊˚ ୨୧ rather you're a Slytherin or not, he somehow finds a way to check up on you real quick. Always.

₊˚ ୨୧ "hey, wsp kid?" Bruh he's not even in this class??? Or worse when he sends Mattheo or sum to find and check up on you.

₊˚ ୨୧ "hey! Everything alright?" "Yeah? Why?" "Oh, just your brother, sent me here to check on you. See you around, kid!" And ruffles your hair before leaving.

₊˚ ୨୧ yeah, all his friends refer to you as kid, including Theo himself.

₊˚ ୨୧ refuses to let you date any of his friends, though if it came down to it he wouldn't be too mad since he knows them already, yk?

₊˚ ୨୧ draco is always there to snap back at anyone who's rude to you, it's like his sixth sense he just knows when youre in danger dude it's crazy. Defends you the most, corrects you in private.

₊˚ ୨୧ Blaise is pretty cool, y'all just chill, paints and listen to music, small talk here and there. It's just something to do to relax.

₊˚ ୨୧ Mattheo probably gets in the most trouble with you and mischief but will always take the blame if something genuinely bad does happen or if Theo finds out. Y'all are also really close, BSF!!

₊˚ ୨୧ pansy is like an older sister and will always be there when you need her, very funny n nice too.

₊˚ ୨୧ Lorenzo is pretty nice to you as well ofc, he makes sure you're taking care of yourself and check in on you often because he cares about you, he sees you as a cute little sister and just feels this overwhelming sense of protecting you. Brotherly instinct.

[rotthepoet]

GIRL the way I was re-reading your Enzo fics (and literally everything else lol) and ugh pathetic men!!!!! Like all men are pathetic but when they're so pathetic that they can't hide it ughh so fucking delicious!!

So I have a question in what ways do you think each of our boys would be pathetic?

We already know how Enzo is basically. And I do think all of them would get on their knees for us but like what other ways?????

LITERALLY HAVE ME GIGGLING AT WORK BRAINSTORMING FOR THIS

Because the boys being simps?? Omfg yes please.

So we’ve already covered Lorenzo but lets recap. He’s downright the definition of a simp. Won’t stop trying to do everything for you. Major acts of service bro. Carry your bag, do your homework, being you tea in the morning. He will literally tail you all day if he isn’t interrupted. Change his schedule so all his classes line up with yours? Absolutely. He just wants to spend all of his time with you making you love him like he loves you.

Draco will spoil you, naturally. But so extremely that it can become kinda… overbearing. I mean its back to back gifts, receiving a brand new pair of diamond earrings at breakfast only for him to present a matching necklace at dinner. And hes so smug about it because he knows no one else can spoil you like he does. Anytime you mention a certain interest, gifts ensue. He overheard you talking about your favorite band? He just bought you every one of their CD’s and a CD player along with it, because he didn’t know if you had one.

As always, being one of the most levelheaded(and most prideful) of the group, Blaise wouldn’t do anything grand or extravagant. He keeps his patheticness to himself, until he’s on substances, then he’s yapping to anyone who will listen. Blaise will compliment the shit out of uou. He loves to see you blush, and what better way than to constantly remind you how attractive, clever, and funny you are?! He saves this grin just for you, cracks it whenever you laugh, he thinks its just the cutest thing. Shots hate to see Blaise coming, because the second they hit, he will not shut up about how this minuscule thing you did one time 4 months ago was just to silly and cute to not tell someone about.

Theodore, another somewhat levelheaded boy, is not as subtle though. He’s very… openly romantic. Similar to Lorenzo, he wants to spend all day with you, and will try to do any task for you. Say the word and its done. Except, it feels like he’s straight up courting you. Flowers on the regular, so the kind of guy who keeps one just to know when he needs to replace your latest bouquet. Little gifts and romantic gestures. He lowkey tells everyone youre his and eventually everyone starts to assume youre an item, and its just easier to agree than not right??

Dear god Mattheo needs to take a chill pill. Second he has a crush who doesnt want him back?? Fuck. Just decides your his, and will violently beat the daylights out of anyone who dares attempt to flirt with you. Also will get onto you if you flirt with anyone else. Because obviously you cant be cheating on him? The fuck?? Wraps his arm around uou in the hallways, completely ignoring your protests. Little kiss on the forehead when he finally leaves you be, and he relishes the blush you cant hide. So many pictures of you, and im gonna be so reall. So so real with y’all. Hes a fuckin dog. Horny 24/7 if you wear your skirt an inch higher than usual he will notice and he will COMMENT about it. Good intentions, bad execution.

[strawbsstarz]

Late Night Snacks: Draco Malfoy x reader

this is my first time writing creatively outside of school so please be nice, I've read too many fanfics that I've run out TT. Anyways if this goes well maybe ill write again but for now :> thank you & enjoy!

~~

There was something about Draco Malfoy that was alluring, an invisible magnet that always pulled you. Maybe it was the way you wanted him to be put in his place? To let him know that no matter how hard he tries to prance around the room as if he owned the place, you won't give him the satisfaction of knowing that what he says and does, irks you. You'll simply brush it off as if it was nothing, maybe comeback with a remark to get under his nerves, let him know how it feels to be on the other end of the stick.

And that's how it was in your first couple of years. You two were known for the constant back and forth of bickering and teasing and annoying each other.

That's how it always was, him snickering something to his friends and pointing at you which then makes you roll your eyes at him, him sending you notes during class with the stupid charmed paper cranes that you rip up and throw at him whenever the teacher wasn't looking, then he'd shoot you a glare and you'd innocently smile to yourself pretending to focus on whatever was being taught in class, it was always like that, until fourth year.

Ever since he decided to ditch the hair gel, something in your heart fluttered upon seeing him and after catching yourself staring at him a little too long, you shoved whatever the hell you felt deep within you, somewhere hidden.

Your interactions with Malfoy remained the same, nothing ever changes between you two. Until you noticed that you began looking for him every time you entered a room, how every conversation with him had made you heart pulse a little faster than usual, how despite being on opposite sides of the classroom, you two would catch the other staring.

By the beginning of fifth year, you still found each other incredibly annoying, but something different had crept its way in there, whatever it was.

The secrecy of glancing at the other no longer remained a secret, sometimes you found him openly staring at you in the middle of class or during dinner and all you offered was a smirk, sending him a wink before he scoffs and fixes his attention on something else, acting seemingly annoyed. The pounding you feel in your chest never leaves even after that, and you feel the corner of your lips curling into a smile. You had convinced yourself how you couldn't wait to tease him about it, but deep down you knew the real reason.

In the late hours of the night you began sneaking around the hallways of Hogwarts, wanting a snack from the kitchen despite past curfew. Trying not to get caught by any teachers or prefects doing patrol, you tip-toe your way to the kitchen until you hear footsteps tapping their way in your direction.

"Shit!" you whispered to yourself, frantically looking around for a hiding place. A hand suddenly grabbed you, pulling you around the corner and into a broom cupboard. Your mouth covered, your back pressed up against this person's chest. You bit the person's hand from your mouth, and almost punched the guy behind you. As you turn around you see the familiar blonde hiss in pain frantically waving his hand in the air trying to shake it away. When you opened your mouth to speak, his finger rushed to his lips and in a hush quiet voice he said,

"Shh! You're gonna get us caught!" You hear the footsteps from outside and unconsciously backed up into him, away from the door, holding your breath. After a couple of minutes the clacking had stopped, you turned to face Malfoy and gave him a slap on the arm.

He winces, holding the place where your hand had just been, "A thank you would have been nice.."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? You're sneaking around in the middle of the night past curfew to Merlin knows where, you were almost caught, you're lucky I saved you."

You glare at him, "I would've handled myself just fine without you!" And with that you turn around leaving the broom cupboard, he silently walks behind you. Annoyed, he whispers, "Oh please! I am not about to risk losing house points from your stupidity"

You roll your eyes and scoff, "I was just gonna grab a snack"

He walks faster and stands next to you, "Can't you do that in the morning?" You continue walking your way to the kitchen, "Malfoy, it is morning." He groans, "Smartass." You turn to him, "Why are you following me?"

"To make sure you don't get caught and embarrass our house," he grumbles. You roll your eyes no longer having the energy for the conversation, as you enter the kitchen you quickly grab a couple of cookies and set them on a handkerchief you brought. Draco waited by the door leaning on the wall with his arms folded to his chest, a look of irritation displayed on his face, as if he was forced to be there.

As you two continued to make your way back to the slytherin dorms, he continued to scold you about how stupid it was for you to sneak out past curfew to the kitchen just because you wanted a snack, and how you almost got caught, and blah blah blah. It went in one ear and out the other, you just drowned him out as you nibbled on your cookie.

"Are you even listening to me?" He asks and before you could answer you could hear voices from across the hallway, echoing along with the sound of their footsteps. You both look at one another panicked, you motion your head for him to follow. Hiding in the same broom cupboard you hid in the first time.

Your bodies faced one another and you didn't realize how small the room was until now. Were you two really that close when he pulled you in to hide earlier? The echoes of the voices continued to grow louder and you found yourself holding your breath in, to keep yourself from making any noise, or perhaps to keep yourself from leaning into his scent. You freeze as you wait for the echoes to fade, silently watching the door, and holding your handkerchief filled cookies to your chest, the only thing that was in between you and his body.

After a couple of minutes of silence you finally allowed yourself to breathe. You look down at your cookies to make sure they didn't get squashed. A sigh of relief escaping your lips as you then moved your head to look up. Your breath getting caught in your throat as you remembered the distance between you two.

You found him staring at you, like he does during class, except this time, when you had met his eyes, he didn't show any signs of annoyance. His gaze was soft, and you bit your lip nervously. You saw his eyes shift from your eyes to your lips and back again to your eyes, slightly leaning forward. You stared at his eyes, getting lost in the cold grey color, but, it wasn't cold like it usually was, it was warm, and the unfamiliar warmth made your heart flutter once again, like it did before. You weren't dumb, you knew something was about to happen. In a state of panic, you raise your hand that was clutching the sweet treats in between your faces, "Cookie?" You offered meekly. All the confidence you had whenever your eyes met with his was gone.

He stares at you, raising an eyebrow as a smirk crept its way to his face as he looks down on you. Your lips were inches away and you offered him a cookie? Really?

He lets out a laugh, and you stare at him as a blush hued your cheeks. "Is that a no?" You raised your eyebrow, trying to seem confident when in reality all you wanted to do was curl up and die from embarrassment.

"Merlin L/N, how long are you gonna be willingly daft?" He teases. You frowned and began making your way towards the door, turning the knob to leave. "No cookie then," you huff as you walk out, breaking a piece off and throwing it in your mouth, Draco swiftly following behind and giggling, continuing to tease you as you walked back to the slytherin dorms.

There was definitely something between you two, but for now, let's leave it as undiscovered territory, as it seems one of you still refuses to admit it.

[hp-hcs]

Lipstick part two when ??😭😭😭

when i work up the courage to write and post smut, lovely 😭😭

hate myself for writing this but yk wtv i’ll enjoy hell

this is filthy in my mind but i’m also ace so- this is probably prudish to y’all ngl

•smut• What Went On in the Supply Closet (Pt. 2 of lipstick) — yandere! Draco Malfoy x gender neutral! Gryffindor! reader x yandere! Enzo Berkshire

the boyos have a fwb thing going on fyi, thank you to the anon who suggested that. you’re a real one, homie ✊😔

gender neutral reader with no anatomical descriptions! YOU’RE WELCOME

(to my taglisters! i haven’t tagged anyone in this post because of its content. if you’d like to be tagged in any future smutty shit, send me an ask or dm or a comment or smth. i don’t wanna make anyone uncomfortable, so if i do end up making a smut taglist, it’ll be an opt-in kinda thing rather than opt-out. know your limits and triggers and stay safe 🩶)

[SMUT AHEAD. MDNI.]

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

“Shit, darlin’,” Draco gasped, pulling back from the kiss. He was breathless, his chest heaving with exertion.

Enzo’s eyes had gone dark and his breathing had gotten heavier. He barely waited for Draco to split apart from you before he took over, kissing you hard with reckless abandon.

Draco waited impatiently, barely giving Enzo a minute to kiss you before he was dragging him off by his collar.

“Not in the hallway, dipshit. Closet, right there.”

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d ever choose to go back into a closet, Dray,” Enzo mumbled under his breath, yanking open the door to the supply closet and guiding you inside with a firm hand.

Draco tugged the pull-chain of the single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, the dim light doing fuck all to illuminate the room.

After Enzo shut and locked the door, the three of you just stood in a tense silence, staring at each other. You were all daring each other to make the first move.

“So why- why now?” You asked, breaking the moment of silence.

“What?” Enzo murmured, a hungry look in his eye as he slowly took a step forward, then another, effectively backing you up against the wall.

“Why now?” You repeat, the pitch of your voice raising minutely as your adrenaline spiked. “I mean, why not ask me to the Yule Ball or something?”

“I thought you already had a date, love?”

“Yeah, but it’s just Harry.”

Draco practically growled.

You furrowed your eyebrows at his odd reaction, confused until he rested his hand on your hip, gripping your flesh tightly—possessively.

“Oh, I get it!” You gasped out with a sly grin as his grip tightened. “You’re both jealous of Harr-”

Draco clamped one hand firmly over your mouth.

“Get his damn name out of your mouth,” he hissed threateningly, crowding into your space further.

You gulped, your cheeks heating up under his hand.

“Enzy, think we oughtta show our darlin’ how much better we are than Potter?”

Enzo nodded in agreement, wasting no time before leaning forward to smack away Draco’s hold on your hips and grab them both for himself, quickly seizing your mouth with his own.

You let out a tiny noise at the obsessive way he began to run his hands over your body; gripping your waist, your hips, your thighs. You held onto his shoulders for dear life as he stole your breath away with little regard.

You stifled a small moan. Draco must’ve joined back in at some point, because you could feel a second pair of lips sucking lazily on your neck and collarbone.

Whereas Draco seemed to prefer to go slow and casually, Enzo seemed frantic, his fingers fumbling and slipping on the buttons of your uniform shirt with how quickly he was moving.

Whereas Enzo was go, go, go! Draco took his time, savoring every second.

As if to illustrate that point exactly, Draco ghosted his fingers over your ribs, not quite making contact with your skin. At the exact same time, Enzo shoved his hand down the front of your uniform bottoms, grinding the heel of his hand against you.

You gasped into his mouth, your hands tightening on his shoulders and your fingers digging in at the two contradicting sensations.

When Enzo could feel your hips move, caught under the spell of those magical fingers of his, he smirked against your mouth, snickering at every little noise and gasp you made.

He pulled away from your mouth, ducking down to focus on a spot at the base of your throat. Draco swooped in, capturing your unoccupied mouth and smoothing a hand down the front of your chest.

Babbled pleas fell from your lips as Enzo’s movements sped up, his fingers knowing exactly where to twist and prod and massage.

“Pl- please- can I-”

“Ask Dray, sweetheart,” Enzo mumbled against your neck, a cheeky grin on his lips.

“Dray- D-Draco, ple-please!”

Draco pulled his hand away from where he’d been stroking your upper torso, pretending to think.

“I don’t know, have you really been that good?”

“Yes!”

His eyes sparkled with amusement under the weak lighting. “Say what I want to hear, doll. You know what I mean.”

You groan in frustration, ceding. “Merlin- yo-you’re b-better than Har-ry!”

“Come.”

At his permission you fall apart, your body all but going boneless as your eyes roll back in your head.

You panted for air, your eyes clamped shut, as the pair of boys drew back. Your skin was sticky with sweat, and you could feel the tacky texture of that damned lipstick everywhere.

Your eyes remained shut as you willed your legs to stop shaking. An odd noise broke you out of your reverie, and you slowly blinked, trying to make out shapes in the dimly lit closet.

You drew in a sharp breath when you saw Draco and Enzo sharing a kiss, smearing blue lipstick all over each other’s skin.

You blinked once more, trying to commit the image to memory, when you realized that the odd noise you’d heard had been a grunt from Draco, muffled by Enzo’s mouth. The latter had his hand down the former’s pants.

Draco yanked at the button of Enzo’s uniform pants, quickly diving his hand in to return the favor.

You watched through heavy-lidded eyes, your mouth hanging partially open as the two hot guys you’d just been making out with began jacking each other off.

Holy fuck. That’s hot.

~~~

Your trio eventually stumbled out of the supply closet, disheveled and stained with blue.

A familiar ghost was waiting for the three of you outside, bursting into raucous laughter as soon as he saw your rumpled clothes and lipstick-dyed necks.

“Naughty, naughty children! Naughty, naughty!”

Peeves let out another cackle, blowing a raspberry in your direction and immediately disappearing through the floor.

[shyinsunlight]

You call yourself a Regulus stan while you publicly hate talk about Jegulus? You don’t deserve him.

oh, anon.

the only reason i answer this is because i think i know who you are. and i think you sent me this because i pissed you off with an incest joke after you told me to seek therapy for shipping tomarry.

i don’t deserve him? why, you do? he’s a fictional character from a children’s book series where we have like 4 lines of canon about him. he’s. not. real. is it perhaps time to take a step back and ask yourself why you’re getting so worked up about an internet stranger’s interpretation of an imaginary person?

about regulus, jegulus, and why we need to touch grass

i don’t bash ships (publicly) because that’s not what fandom should be about. it should be a creative safe space where we can all enjoy our interests without getting annoying hate anons/harassment for it.

i have several fandom friends who are jegulus shippers, and—surprise—we get along amazingly. we respect each other’s preferences, don’t force our ships on each other, and can have intelligent discussions without losing our shit. they write their thing, i write mine, and somehow, the world’s still spinning. wild concept, i know.

it’s not a secret that i don't like jegulus. it means that i filter it out as a tag, and i don’t engage with jegulus content. i keep vibing in my corner of the internet, enjoying the interpretations i actually like. so why are you, and numerous other jegulus shippers so obsessed with forcing your interpretation on me and on others? what gives you the right to bash me for shipping tomarry while demanding that i accept jegulus as gospel truth?

it’s genuinely unfair how a vocal minority can taint the reputation of an entire ship community, especially when there are so many jegulus shippers who do nothing but quietly enjoy their content and respect others’ boundaries.

let’s be real here for a second. jegulus is the textbook definition of a crack ship. james, who canonically despised everything the black family stood for, who’s best friend is sirius (who literally ran away from that family), who fought against blood supremacy and everything regulus believed in… would he fall for his best friend’s baby brother who was actively choosing to be a death eater? 

and regulus, who thought blood traitors were beneath him, who probably saw james as the person who corrupted his brother and turned him against his family, who’s partly responsible for regulus losing sirius… would he want to date him? touch him, at all? 

these two would never even want to talk to each other, let alone be involved romantically. regulus most likely thought james wasn’t even worth being spat on—and james would’ve seen regulus as nothing but another blood purity-obsessed mini death eater who hurt his best friend.

making this ship work requires completely butchering both regulus’ and james’ characters into something that’s further away from canon than draco malfoy working in lululemon as a soft-spoken slam poetry major.

imagine having such a surface-level understanding of regulus’ character that you think the most interesting thing about him is his potential to be james’ boyfriend… regulus, who:

grew up believing he was superior to others 

was the spare heir until he suddenly had to shoulder all the family expectations after sirius left (and since we’re here, yes, he probably felt the need to overcompensate after this. i personally don’t see how it leads to him wanting to make out with james in broom closets, but you do you) 

had such a complicated relationship with his brother which deserves so much more exploration than reducing him to ending up dating his best friend

was so devoted to voldemort that he put up posters in his little fanboy lair

willingly joined a terrorist organisation

was kind to kreacher yet still gave him to voldemort for “testing”

made one single good decision in the end 

he wasn’t misunderstood, and that’s not what his story is about. it’s about choices, consequences, and what it means to finally do the right thing for once even when it costs you everything. (also, he failed even in that because he just made it all worse for everyone else later. he's a flop and i love him for that.)

listen, i get it. fanon is fun!! headcanons are fun!! i write many au fics, and i totally understand the appeal of playing with characterisation and what ifs. but there’s a “hey, this is my fun interpretation about this” and an “if you don’t accept my interpretation then fuck you, you’re fake, you don’t deserve him.”

SHIP AND LET SHIP

[baradorable]

Marvel is about to introduce a villain called the Krakoan, who is an X-Man gone rogue. It's pretty obvious that this villain is actually Hellion. And people are split on that. Some feel that it's out of character for him. Some prefer him as a hero, or don't want him to have his character ruined, ala Nature Girl or Beast.

But who IS Hellion? If you're willing to sit through my long-ass post about him, odds are you already know and love him. But let's pretend that you don't know who he is. I'll talk about where he started, what might have lead him to becoming a villain, and why everybody will be investing in #HellionWasRight stocks in a few months.

And if we're all wrong, and Hellion is not the Krakoan? Well, no one will give a shit about the Krakoan anymore anyway, so no big deal.

First off, what is a "Krakoan?"

We'll get to that. But for now, you just need to know that the X-Men had an island nation called Krakoa. Now it's gone and it's all because no one listened to Hellion, despite him being right about everything that has ever happened.

Who is Hellion?

I'm letting you all know right now: this is blatant Hellion propaganda. Everything I said is coming from a place of heavy, heavy bias. But there will be some objectivity, in that Hellion is objectively perfect.

It's tough to summarize Hellion, because who he is has changed over the years. Though some writers might forget this, he's actually a fairly nuanced mutant who has undergone notable shifts in his character.

Introduced in New Mutants (2003) #2, he basically starts off as Draco Malfoy, if Draco was trying to bang Harry Potter.

Julian Keller, AKA Hellion, was a spoiled rich kid from California with advanced telekinetic abilities. Something that will stick out immediate is that he was hilariously petty. Like he would take any opportunity to insult people he dislikes, often for no reason. Half of his dialogue is him choosing to be a jerk to anyone outside of his social group, starting drama, or otherwise being a generic early 2000's bully archetype.

And it was amazing. Seriously, he had some of the funniest lines in the book.

He was so over the top and crude that he ended up being hilarious. He was classist, exclusionist, and a little sexist. When presented with the option of Bullying Others, and Literally Anything Else, he would choose bullying.

Julian was Emma Frost's protege and star pupil, so naturally he shares a lot of that bitchy charisma. When the school was divided into Harry Potter house-style squads, Emma put Julian in charge of his own squad, the Hellions. She also let the Hellions pick their codenames. Guess which codename Julian picked.

Emma advised him to be humble after he and his squad won a school competition. What was the very first thing he did once he got the trophy?

You would hate him so much if he were real. He's every 13 year old boy in 2003. Look at him exposing Elixir's affair to Elixir's girlfriend, solely out of pettiness.

I'd post more, but I already hit the image limit. Which is a shame, because I wanted to share the panel of him making fun of Josh for his parents abandoning him.

Hellion's original creators had this to say about him.

Back when we were working on New X-Men, we had a message board called “The Grind Stone” on the site X-Fan. One of the fans there consistently referred to Julian as “shnasty.” That person defined it as a combination of sexy and nasty. Urban dictionary these days refers to it as shitty, hot and nasty. We think that works for Julian, except when we wrote him he didn’t look like shit - not ever. He just acted like it. Once we left, he got a little more disheveled for a while, and probably better embodied the full modern version of “shnasty.” Either way, we think that’s his secret. He can treat you like shit but then turn around and be a gentleman. He sometimes acts like hot garbage but looks fine doing it.

He's catchy, offensive, brutal and gross, but with youth appeal. And if his character was just that, then bravo. He's hilarious. He wouldn't need depth to be an icon. He'd just be this little gremlin of a being, showing up and delivering devastating one-liners like some proto-Chanel Oberlin. But that's not all to his character. Despite being a supporting character in a book about teen drama, he was actually a complex character.

He's a great leader and strategist. He could lead a team, he was willing to be pragmatic and bend the rules, and his plans helped his team beat out every other student during that aforementioned school competition. It was a team effort, but Hellion knew his friends' strengths and how to get them working well.

He has a natural charisma that draws people to him. He's the big man on campus for a reason. It's best exemplified in New X-Men (2004) #5, where he sees all the other students turning their backs on a mutant called Wither.

Wither had unintentionally killed his father when his death touch power first manifested. The authorities would come bearing down on the school, looking to arrest him and have him face the law for his actions. It was an accident, completely out of his control, and Wither has been wrestling with the guilt ever since. Now there was a chance that he would be thrown in jail for it.

Wither was vulnerable and in pain, but it seemed like so many people were turning against him. Hellion, who had previously been bullying Wither for his powers, saw the scorn, gossiping and scrutiny Wither had been getting from the rest of the student body. And he had to stand up and say something.

He gives a rousing speech to everyone in the cafeteria, pointing out how many of the people who were mocking him had caused others harm with their powers in the past. He derides them for not helping out of of their own, and that any one of them could be next on the chopping block if they let Wither go without a fight. If they're not willing to support each other, they're terrible mutants.

His radical speech gets one person comparing him to Magneto. And that's not entirely wrong.

Hellion and the Hellions (along with another mutant, Wind Dancer) would work together to try and bust Wither out of police custody. It was a stupid plan that would only create more problems for them, and it would ultimately be worse than what actually happened: Wither would face trial, where he would be found innocent in the murder of his father. Wither would be free and no longer be in trouble with the authorities.

But that's the thing with Hellion: he's passionate. He might will think with his heart over his head when it comes to mutant rights. Especially when it comes to those he cares about. He's quick to take the hostile and violent path if he thinks it's right. Despite being an asshole, he's a bleeding heart who will go to the extremes for those he loves.

Wither and Hellion would go on to have a life-long friendship spanning months, as Wither would leave the school, get statutory raped by an immortal vampire witch, become a villain and die shortly after M-Day.

Hellion was always looking down on humans - and why shouldn't he? They're not part of his social group, he's not really one of them. But while he'd call them apemen and flatscans, he didn't believe in killing. In fact, he was opposed to killing even in self-defense.

That last part would change over time. But that's only because this cruel world stole every last bit of innocence and joy out of him.

Or how about the time the villainous Kingmaker offered him and his friends all their wishes, in exchange for working for him? He and his friends would eventually chose to give up their dreams and stop the Kingmaker's plans, because that was the right thing to do. Because the Hellions are heroes.

Over the years, Hellion would mature as a person. There would be less emphasis on him bullying others, and more emphasis on him enduring tragedies, fighting for the sake of others, struggling with anger and abandonment, and be forced to make more radical moves against the world. While he doesn't look that jerkish spark of his (and some writers would roll him back to a generic bully character whenever the plot called for it), he would become a lot more mature than he was at his debut. He was no longer a high school bully, but an anti-hero of young man with a talent for leadership, a lot of charisma, and big heart that got him into trouble.

Since we're on the subject of friends, let's delve more into some of his relationships. A key part of understanding his character is seeing how he treats others.

Hellion and the Hellions

So New Mutants (2003) and its sequel book, New X-Men (2004) primarily focused on the New Mutants squad. Hellion and the Hellions would be so popular that they would get their own mini and eventually become main characters. But the early books were centered around the New Mutants.

The Hellions are antagonists, the Slytherins to their Gryffindors. Except their dynamic is a lot more complicated than you'd think.

The New Mutants are lead by Wind Dancer, who is also Hellion's first love interest. While Wind Dancer has a huge heart and a knack for bringing out the best in others, the team would fall apart over personal drama. Bitterness, resentment and insecurity would bubble for a long time, culminating in the group briefly splitting up. It would take a lot of work getting them to resolve their issues and be friends again.

This is where the Hellions act as foils. Sure, they might antagonize the New Mutants. Hellion might tease some of them. But the group functions way better as a unit, and they don't have the same interpersonal drama as the New Mutants. They're a cohesive team of friends who support each other.

The Hellions got to star in their own mini, and it delivered on the friendship. In the first issue, we see Hellion picking a fight with airport security for his friends' sake. Instead of going for a more peaceful route, he's quick to order his team and bust out their powers. When Dust chases security down to try and reason with them, he's annoyed that she put herself at risk.

The series is peppered with moments between the various Hellions, which is really nice. I recommend it not just for Hellion, but for the whole Hellions squad. Every one of them is a unique character, and I think they deserve love. There's a reason why New X-Men would revolve more and more around the Hellions.

You won't be surprised to know that Hellion doesn't make fun of fellow Hellion, Mercury, when she's feeling some heartache. Without any sense of sarcasm or irony, he sits down with her and has a heart to heart. No ulterior motives, no gotcha - Hellion is there to support his friends.

One fun thing about Hellion is that he's a huge hypocrite. He will regularly insult others outside his group of friends. But he would rarely hurt his friends, and he'd be the first to defend him. This is most evident in New Mutants (2003) #8, Surge's introduction issue. He's quick to accept his friend Anole's strange mutation and chides Elixir for not being as accepting. In the next couple of pages, he insults a homeless girl, tells her she smells bad and refuses to offer any sort of help.

When M-Day happens and Prodigy got depowered, Hellion kicked him while he's down and belittled the guy. He mocked him for being human now. But when he found out that his beloved Wind Dancer is depowered, he tried to comfort her and disregarded everything he previously said about Prodigy. Because Julian holds his friends to a completely different standard than he does others.

He has an incredible amount of loyalty and empathy, but much of that is reserved for his own inner circle. He might be slow to warm up to someone, but once you're in, you're in for the long haul. Unless you really mess up or your name is Josh.

Mutants as a whole are part of that circle, in a way. He won't be friends with every mutant, but he would defend them all with his life. Even though a lot of them don't appreciate his efforts.

Emma Frost

His relationship with Emma is pretty good: she encourages his rowdy behavior because she sees potential in him. He has that same spark, attitude and guile she does. She recognizes that he has the potential to be a great leader, and he does everything he can to meet her expectations. She tends to be lenient on him. She'll bail him out of trouble. When others write him off or turn their backs on him, she's standing with him. But in return, she makes it clear that she expects nothing short of amazing out of him.

Boy, I sure hope nothing ruins this bond.

Prodigy

Speaking of people who don't appreciate Hellion. David Alleyne, AKA Prodigy, was a frequent target of Hellion's bullying. Julian would mock Prodigy for having a lame power [Being able to temporarily absorb skills and thoughts from others around him], and sometimes it would get under David's skin. He really knew how to dig into Prodigy's insecurities and hurt him with them. In turn, Prodigy was always ready to fight back against Hellion and put him in his place whenever he could.

Here's Prodigy's then-girlfriend kissing Hellion, right in front of him.

This is horribly out of context, I just thought it was funny to bring up.

The two would butt heads constantly. Over the years, more tragedies would be thrown at them. They'd mature and function better as a group, but there would always be tension between them, for one reason or another. Both of them are opinionated, and their opinions tend to differ.

Why am I bringing Prodigy up? Prodigy will be a main character in the upcoming NYX book, which is where the Krakoan will debut. The two don't have the most meaningful relationship, but it could easily come into play at some point in the book.

Wind Dancer (Sofia Mantega)

Sofia Mantega was the primary character of New Mutants (2003) and much of New X-Men (2004,) She was the Harry Potter that this Draco Malfoy wants to bang. Sofia was the newcomer to the world of mutants. She was confident, outgoing and stuck to her principals. Despite being very gentle, amiable and friendly, she was strong-willed. She knew how to stand up for herself and others.

Julian and Sofia flirted throughout New Mutants. There was an instant rapport between the two. But that doesn't mean it's all smooth sailings. One of my favorite examples of this comes from issue 3. Julian reached out to Sofia, and she says she liked dancing. As they made plans to go somewhere, Laurie Collins (Wallflower) passed by. While Sofia eagerly makes lunch plans with Laurie, Julian dismissed Laurie and called her a freak.

Sofia responds by hitting Julian's ear with compressed air, making him lose his balance. She and Laurie walked away, leaving him behind.

Sofia knew Julian was a bad boy and a jerk, and she'd stand up to him when she saw him doing something she disapproved of. But she still liked him. She was never afraid to give him a taste of his own medicine, and he loved her for it.

From their first meeting in issue 2, we saw what there were similarities between them. The most obvious would be their powers: they could both fly, and Sofia's power lets her manipulate objects with the same precision as a telekinetic's psychic force.

Like Julian, Sofia was great with people. Unlike Julian, she wasn't one to discriminate. While Julian was quick to brush off and demean Wallflower, Sofia was quick to befriend her.

During class, Julian was quick to tell newcomer David Alleyne (Prodigy) to stay away from Kevin Ford (Wither,) because his powers were dangerous. Meanwhile, when Wallflower worried about how lonely Wither was, Sofia invited him to hang out with them. She dismissed Wither's concerns about his powers. She wasn't afraid to be his friend.

Josh Foley (Elixir), a former Purifier recruit, came to the school after previously turning them down. While Prodigy iwa quick to turn against him, Sofia listened to how Elixir's own family turned against him for being a mutant. She related to him and gave him a second chance.

While Prodigy and Sofia would be co-leader of the New Mutants squad, Sofia was the glue that held them together. However, her caring side did get her into trouble: she followed Julian and the Hellions on a mission to bust Wither out of police custody; she wanted to help, but didn't know what to do and needed some guidance.

Speaking of the Wither incident, it briefly took a toll on Julian and Sofia's relationship. She at first helped the Hellions, but Sofia would ultimately side with her squad and turn against the Hellions, feeling like it was the right thing to do. Julian saw it as a betrayal. It soured their relationship for a bit, though the two would make up in a later arc, when a protective Hellion helped the New Mutants deal with a ghost. He was there for her, even when they were not on speaking terms.

Imo, this was the crux of Julian and Sofia's relationship: they were both popular, charismatic and and good with people. They were passionate about helping those they care about. The difference was that Sofia opens her heart up to more people, while Julian cares more about his inner circle.

The relationship helped to humanize Julian and show that, despite his attitude, there was a lot of good in him. Even if most people couldn't see it. This girl saw that he was a good person and she stuck by him, but she also didn't let him get his way or take advantage of her kindness. And that helped make him a better person.

Conversely, Julian was a fun foil to Sofia. He could give her advice, be there when she needed someone to talk to, and he'd never treat her like he treated her squad. He was a jerk, but he had the purest intentions with her. He was the first student she met at the school, and he was there for her through the good and the bad.

Julian also has a pet name for her: Beautiful. He uses it a few times. And yes, it's important to mention this fact.

It was a very pure, wholesome relationship. Two high school sweethearts who were also on rival teams. Sofia brought the best out of Julian, and Julian bettered himself for her. They butted heads, had their ups and downs, and would let their emotions blind them. But in the end, they loved each other.

Gee, I hope some witch doesn't swoop in and ruin everything with a magic spell.

The two would end up falling out, but they weren't really over each other. After Sofia left the school, we'd see her still dream about being with her friends and kissing Hellion. Meanwhile, Laura would catch Julian muttering Sofia's name in his sleep.

Wolverine/X-23 (Laura Kinney)

"You were dead the second you touched Julian Keller." - Laura, to Lady Deathstrike

When it comes to Laura romances, there are two that are popular with fans: Jubilee/X-23, and Hellion/X-23. Opinions on Laura's other ships tend to range from decent-ish, to mid, to terrible. Hellion/Laura (also known by their combo name, Helix) is, by far, the most popular ship. To this day, 13 years after the pairing was torpedoed, it retains an active fanbase. And they were never officially a couple!

So when Laura first came to Xavier's School of Witchcraft and Mutantry, she wasn't in a good place. She was a former child soldier who was only taught to kill. She was a former teen prostitute who was constantly being abused by others. She had and lost friends. She was forced to kill her own mother. She was barely allowed to feel her own emotions. And right when she meets Wolverine - her father/the man she was cloned from - she's dropped off at a school full of strangers. In the middle of a crisis, where students were being hunted down and killed. Everyone treats her with suspicion and fear, and Emma Frost is doing everything in her power to get her out of the school entirely.

And then there's the school bully. Right off the bat, he was dismissive of her, cracked jokes at her expense, and even teased her a bit. He lets her hang out with his group, but he's not very sympathetic to her trauma. Of course, he wasn't projecting images of her dead mother into her head, so he was better than Emma here.

Things turned around when the students were asked to fight against each other, in order to determine who is strong enough to be on the New X-Men team after M-Day. Emma used this opportunity to try and have X-23 taken out of commission. She wanted Hellion to ensure she got hurt.

Instead, Hellion ended up protecting her. Emma was furious. She picked Surge as team leader over him out of spite, and made it clear that he was very disappointed in Hellion.

Over the course of New X-Men, their relationship would evolve into a close connection. Julian would be protective of her. He would risk his life for her. He pushed his powers to the absolute limits and had Emma break away any mental restraints on them, so he could use them to save her life.

Through her crush on Julian, Laura began to truly experience many of her emotions. All her friends at school helped her process and grow, but the growing romance between these two kids was especially endearing. Despite being partly scared of her, Hellion would stand by her. He'd even go on to call her his best friend. When everyone else treats her with suspicion, or they suspected her of falling back to her violent ways, he was the first one to jump to her defense and see the absolute best in her.

Let's not forget the time Laura was ready to kill her arch-enemy, Karima. She knew Karima was to dangerous to let live, and she told Hellion that they had to kill her. But Hellion declined. He wanted him and Laura to be better than that. Hellion wanted to help break her out of that way of thinking.

Their dynamic sort of shifted as things went on. In that Hellion becomes this sort of damsel in distress who gets horribly injured and needs to be saved by Laura. She even went to Hell with a demon in order to save him. The most notable example of Hellion's Tragic Love Interest-ification is the time Lady Deathstrike shanked Hellion.

Laura totally lost it and beat Lady Deathstrike's ass.

These were two broken people. They suffered so much throughout their short lives. But then they found each other. They were broken together, but they found happiness. They bought out the best in each other, and showed the other that they are more than the tragedies they've endured.

There are a lot more nuances to the relationship, such as Hellion being more accepting of Laura's quirks and insecurities, how some fans interpret their dynamic as a play on traditional gender roles, how Laura was portrayed in their dynamic, how it styles over every other Laura romance. You can ask pretty much any Helix fan about the relationship, and they'll all have different aspects on the pairing. Some I haven't listed or even considered. I'm really just covering the barest essentials.

I just hope no writer comes in and ruins their relationship.

Other Loves: Ships that Pass in the Night

Hellion dated Shark-Girl for a bit, and once flirted with Armor. He also took three of the surviving Stepford Cuckoos to the school dance, at the same time - though he immediately ditched them for Wind Dancer. However, years later, one panel had one of the girls casually mention that they were going on a date with him.

Remember Prodigy's blue-haired girlfriend? She was the homeless girl Hellion had previously bullied. The two would have some animosity over the years, largely due to them being two stubborn, strong-headed individuals. Neither of them liked to take the other's crap, though to be fair, Hellion was usually the one causing trouble. The two would eventually be the New X-Men team together, and they would come to respect and care for each other. While there wasn't an actual romance between them in the main continuity, the two were shown to be married in one future, in the non-canon Battle of the Atom mobile game.

There was also that time he and Diamondback briefly flirted.

Fun fact: Hellion has a thing for powerful women. Women who can take charge, or are outspoken, are in control, or otherwise strong. If they can kill him, he can bed them. While all of his love interests have different personalities, they're all powerful women in one way or another.

Also, Wind Dancer and Shark-Girl are both Latinas. Laura (at the time) and the Cuckoos were also clones, of Wolverine and Emma Frost, respectively. (Well, I SAY clones, but technically none of those characters are clones in the strictest sense. It's a whole thing, but oddly enough they still share that in common.) Point is, the man has a type.

Ready for yet another fun fact: Hellion went on a date with all three Cuckoos at once. At best, Quentin Quire got with only one of them. He managed to officially date that Cuckoo, as opposed to just going on dates. But Quire was also responsible for another one of the others Cuckoos dying, which I feel cancels it out.

My favorite Hellion ship, you ask? Thank you for asking, reader. And to be honest, I don't know. On paper, the tragic romance of Helix is compelling and dramatic. It's very easy to see why the ship endured nearly 20 years later. It'd be a slam dunk... if Hell-Dancer wasn't so compelling, charming and sweet. For me, these two ships are usually neck and neck.

I'm also partial to Surge/Hellion, and a bit of Hellion/Rockslide. There was also a fake leak going around back in the day, claiming something along the lines of Emma hooking up with Hellion and getting impregnated by him. Fans on Tumblr were going mental over it, even if no one took it seriously. I love that for us. I love that for them. Sometimes you don't want a good romance. Sometimes you want to see nuclear fallout. It's like watching MILF Manor, but it's even more gross. You know it's bad and it's not something you would even enjoy watching. But you still want to see the mess it creates.

The Keller Family

What kind of people would create Hellion? Looking at how their son turned out, they must have done a great job. Only super-parents could have crafted perfection, right?

Actually, no. It turned out that Hellion is perfect, amazing, and the best character in all of fiction, DESPITE them.

We got the first red flag when Parents Week rolled around. Julian manipulated his teacher Northstar into getting him out of work duty. He gave a sob story about how his parents don't want to see him, though as Anole pointed out, his parents really didn't come to see him. Julian casually waved this off, stating that his parents were busy skiing in the Alps.

Hellion was not only bragging about manipulating someone, but he was bragging about his parents blowing off their own son to have fun. He only focused on how they're doing something cool and elitist. At that point in time, they had likely not seen or spoken to their son in months. He was aware how the situation would be seen as unacceptable by others, but was seemingly incapable of recognizing it on a personal level.

In the past, his parents spent 10 thousand dollars on Julian's 12th birthday party. Hellion casually stated that L.A. parties hard to compete with, meaning that this type of excess was normal for people in the area. Considering he mentioned "competing" and his parents would be shown to care about their image, I wouldn't be surprised if all this attention was not just about Julian having a great birthday, but also making the Kellers could look good. Hell, when you get to know his parents more, you could argue that his parents only cared about looking good.

They were powerful and had connections, to the point where Hellion was able to casually call up the Department of Homeland Security to help him out. Hellion clearly got his Trust Fund Baby attitude from.

Hellion's parents would debut in the 2004 mini, New X-Men: Hellions. (That's right. Hellion's Hellions book walked so Krakoa's Hellions book could run.) They were immensely disappointed in their son causing a scene at an airport, using their connections to get out of it, and bringing his friends to their house without telling them.

Julian's father was shown to dislike his son's mutation. He didn't like that his son had to go to the Xavier Institute, and he was glad that his son mutation was easy to hide. While he was angry at his son for using his powers and making a scene, it was clear that he only cared about how it affected the Kellers' image.

Hellion's mother was a little more understanding. She was softer spoken. While she compared him unfavorably to his older brother James, she was fine with her younger child walking his own path. But she also sided with Daddy Hellion, because they worked too hard and didn't want their son to risk their assets.

Hellion's parents had cut Hellion out of the will. The family business and all of their money would go to James. Hellion and his friends were welcome to stay at the house, and Hellion was still family. But no way were they letting their twerp kid make them look bad or endanger their comfy lifestyle.

Then they left Hellion and his friends to go on vacation.

The moment Mama and Daddy Hellion left, Julian enlisted the help of his friends to root through their personal belongings to find something to use against his parents. Despite originally telling his friends that his parents were self-made billionaires, he made his thoughts clear to them once they cut him off. No one could make so much money, so quickly.

We got a rough timeline how things went down: they were making about 30k a year, 18 months before Hellion turned 12. Around that time, their company went international and became incredibly profitable. Considering Hellion was stated to be 16 at this time, this means that they became international moguls and billionaires in less than a decade.

So what was the source of their success? It turned out that they used magic to perform a dark ritual, summoned an evil being known as the Kingmaker, and then formed a sort of Faustian bargain with him for all their wealth and power.

Hellion and the Hellions summoned the Kingmaker, at first not actually thinking it would work. But nah, it worked. Kingmaker would offer all of them their hearts desires. But as we covered earlier, the kids eventually chose to give up on their wishes to stop his evil plans.

Hellion's parents were extremely pissed at Julian for running afoul with their benefactor. Mama Hellion reminded her son that they couldn't protect him from someone as powerful as the Kingmaker. But Hellion dismissed him and pointed out how his parents were the ones who got in bed with a villain, and the Kingmaker would more likely go after them, since Hellion and his friends were strong enough to beat him up.

Yet despite being disinherited, being treated like the family shame for being born a mutant, and finding out his parents teamed up with bad people for their own personal gain, Hellion still wanted to be there for them.

Despite Hellion's loyalty, his family would never return it. In fact, this would be the last thing he would ever say to them. Because they would eventually cut him off completely, sell their house and not even tell him where they moved to. They would abandon their son when he needed them most.

At least the other guardians in Hellion's life weren't letting him down, right?

Abandoned!

We have a character who thrives through his connections with others. But what happens when we take them all away?

Just after the Hellions' big summer blow-out against the Kingmaker, M-Day happened. M-Day - also known as Decimation, which should give you a good idea of what it entailed - saw the Pretender (AKA the Scarlet Witch, AKA the Scarlet Bitch, AKA the Harlot Witch) saying, "Haha no more mutants, eunh 😜" and depowering the vast majority of mutants. Their numbers, previously in the thousands (being in around the millions before the Genosha genocide) were now in the very, very, very low hundreds. Cerebro clocked a 91.4% remaining reduction in the mutant population.

To be fair, Wanda was going through some things at the time, and it's not like she was in the right mindspace after others were taking advantage of her mental breakdown for their own personal gain. She was a victim. But to be unfair, it's also the start of everything going wrong for Hellion.

Xavier's school was absolutely wrecked by this. The vast majority of students were depowered, some of them dying as a consequence.

Among the depowered students was Prodigy, and Hellion was quick to swoop in and make fun of him for it. Including stating that Prodigy didn't belong with them at the school, now that he was human. He assumed Prodigy was ready to abandon the mutants now that he could be "normal."

Unfortunately, Wind Dancer overheard what Hellion said. As it turned out, she'd also been depowered by the Pretender. She turned the situation back around on Julian and asked if she was less "Beautiful" to him now, and not worthy of being loved in his eyes. Angry, Wind Dancer stormed off and stopped talking to Hellion.

Once again, hypocrisy. Julian would think that about Prodigy, and he was ready to make things harder for him. Hellion would never see Sofia as anything less, whether she be human or mutant. The thought wouldn't even occur to him. Julian loved Sofia. He'd never hurt her on purpose. But through his own attitude and carelessness, he ended up hurting her the most.

At that time, Wither was also going through some things. He accidentally mangled his crush's arm with his death power, and that drove her further into the arms of Wither's rival, Elixir. Already heartbroken that over the torment his powers had brought him, Wither became more withdrawn.

Hellion was stuck trying to reach out to both Wither and Wind Dancer, but he couldn't be fully there for both of them at the same time. He was unable to reach out to Wither and stop him from running away from the school. They would not see each other again until Necrosha, half a decade later in real time. By then, Wither would be their enemy.

Sofia also quietly left without telling Julian. The two would never even see or speak to her for over 14 years IRL.

But that wasn't the end of it. Tag, one of the Hellions and Julian's best friend, also felt hurt. Julian was so worried about Wither and especially Sofia, he completely neglected to see Tag's pain. He had also been depowered, and was worried he didn't belong with them anymore. Tag, along with most of the other depowered students, would leave the school. He and many other kids boarded a schoolbus and prepared to leave their old life behind.

And then a missile hit the bus, killing all inside. Hellion and his friends would get injured in the attack, trying and failing to save the other kids. Julian was just about to reach Tag and save him, only for the bus to explode and severely injure Hellion for his troubles.

42 children died in that attack. 15 of them were buried in the X-Men' own backyard because even their families didn't want them.

Well, at least the Marvel universe had a ton of heroes who could help out during these trying times. In fact, here comes Carol Danvers to... Oh no, wait. She's just here to try and get the mutants to help her side in the Civil War event. All the other heroes are too busy fighting each other to protect these kids. That's a shame.

At least the government stepped in with Sentinels, who would stand guard outside the mansion and protect the kids. And by that, I mean that they did absolutely nothing and completely failed at their jobs. Because assassins managed to sneak into the school and kill even more kids.

The remaining X-kids would go on to have several misadventures, including getting themselves involved in X-23's life when her old enemies come knocking, fighting a time-traveling Nimrod robot from the future, fighting alongside the adults to save a mutant messiah baby, and getting kidnapped by a demon (NOT the same demon that would go on to stab Hellion, who had already been stabbed by someone else before. Hellion wasn't even involved with this demon adventure.) I won't go into detail over all the horrible things that happened to Hellion and his friend, but know that a lot happened to them.

The kids were technically under the care of the X-Men, but the X-Men were too busy, were spread too thin, and were fighting the world from all fronts to focus on the kids. So the kid were largely left to defend themselves. This is best exemplified when, after the X-Men failed to protect the kids from several attacks, Surge dismisses their help. "We already know how to die."

One issue was dedicated to the kids trying to find out which among them was the youngest. They believed that the youngest of them would become a target, and therefore more likely to be killed. They singled out the youngest kid, but they truly believed that they were all going to die.

I bring this up because this was what the X-Men tragically considered a good day. At that point, a good day was one where nobody died, nobody was tortured, and nobody's soul was torn apart.

And this isn't me exaggerating. The X-Men were openly remorseful about how they failed these kids. They explicitly stated how the kids had serious emotional and psychological trauma. But despite everything, the X-Men cared for their students. They couldn't always be there for them like they should, but they were still their guardians. They would do anything in their power to make the world a better place for them.

So anyway, Cyclops disbanded the X-Men and shut down the school. The kids they previously failed were now scattered to the wind.

Emma left Hellion. As much as she loved him and wanted to keep him safe, she knew she had to keep him away from the X-Men. He needed to be kept away from the fighting and wars for as long as he could. Maybe now he could find some semblance of a normal life and keep himself safe? At the very least, Angel paid for his hotel and food for the time being.

Anyway, Hellion found out that his parents abandoned him, so he had nowhere to go. He was now homeless and had no support system, putting him in more danger than ever.

Hellion would seek out Magneto (not in hero mode at the time) to team up with him. Magneto calls him arrogant, but desperate to please. He refused to take him in and went on to say this:

"Everything you thought you were is gone, and the only thing you had left, the only thing you held on to so tightly was that you were an X-Man. Your teachers abandoned you. Your friends died. Your heart broke. Your beliefs shattered. The X-Men failed you. So, you find me, their greatest enemy. You love them so much that you want to hurt them. But I won't use you, and I won't kill you."

He says that Cyclops had given Hellion the gift of time. He had a moment of peace and a chance to be away from all the trouble, before war would come for mutants once again. At least for now, Hellion was safe.

Then Hellion was injected with the Legacy Virus (mutant AIDS) and used as a hostage in a wicked supervillain plot. Don't worry about it, it was just a small addition to the tapestry of suffering that is his life.

Hellion Was Right

After the X-Men disassembled and anti-mutant sentiment was on the rise, Hellion took a more radical approach to dealing with issues. He'd openly protest on the street, belittle and even attack mutant bigots and haters. He had enough of the X-Men kowtowing and trying to create peace with people who wanted them dead. No more worrying about the silent majority minority of well-meaning humans, no more trying to police their own or trying to achieve co-existence. Hellion was coming more radicalized.

Hellion's radicalization was bad. He resorted to extremes, violence and anger to hurt anyone who got in his way. His actions, while meant to help mutants, were sabotaging relationships between humans and mutants.

But let's be real: there will never, ever be co-existence between humans and mutants. In real life, the drama, threat and isolation mutants face are a big part of the mutant narrative. Take that away, and the franchise seems a lot less viable.

So Marvel will constantly throw in threats of violence and extinction at mutants. It ramped up to insane degrees by the 2000's, to the point where mutants were facing extinction for over 20 years real time, and things have only been escalating. Society will only grow to hate mutants more and more.

While Hellion's radicalism isn't necessarily right, Xavier's dreams of peace are objectively wrong. If anything, the X-Men are indirectly upholding the status quo. Yeah, they also prevent things from getting worse (Days of Future Past), but much of their strides end up being undone.

Mutants would almost achieve coexistence with mutants via their nation of Krakoa, in that the mutants basically bribed the world into tolerating them and attacking them less. While Krakoa would reach out and help humans with various matters, and the books would rely much less on extinction events for stories, things were nowhere close to perfect.

I'm going to say it: Hellion was right. The X-Men were wrong. Humans can't be reasoned with so easily. They need to force their view onto others. They need to fight humans for their rights. The only reasons why they don't? Aside from status quo, it's because the X-Men and other superheroes would step in and give some speech about peaceful co-existence being the right path, even though it's hard. Not knowing that things will objectively never get better because Marvel civilians are irredeemable.

Hellion wouldn't have helped mutants with his actions. But he couldn't make things any worse at that point, because the world turned against him long before he was even alive. No matter what, mutants were fucked.

But hey, it's not like mutants can live without humans. Coexistence is necessary for their survival. It's not like they have proof that mutants would thrive without the presence of humans. Yet.

Anyway, Hellion protested and Emma & her Dark X-Men arrested them. Emma betrayed the evil fascist government run by Norman Osborn, blah blah blah, it was all cool because Emma helped him. She also punched him in the face and put him through a lot of shit, but let's ignore that. It's island time.

The Hands Job

So the X-Men decided to make an island nation, where they gathered all the stray mutants they could and offered them sanctuary. This time, was Utopia. Next time, it would be Krakoa.

Hellion would return to the field. He'd fight the good fight alongside the X-Men, protecting mutants and humanity because it's the right thing to do. Despite everything that had happened to him, he still believed in the X-Men's cause. Or at the very least, he wanted to protect those he loved.

Anyway, a Nimrod Sentinel ended up blowing off his hands.

It really messed him up. Hellion got metal prosthetic hands to and made due by puppeting them with his telekinesis. He had the option of getting mechanized hands he could control more easily, but since he was deeply traumatized by machines, having little robots at the end of his forearms was the last thing he wanted.

To be fair on Rogue, she reached out to Hellion to try and help him. She'd offer to have him go on a trip with her and others to India, though he'd decline. He wasn't in the mood to have people gawk at his missing body parts. Which, fair.

Also, Hellion got stabbed by a demon-possessed Wolverine and Laura had to save him. It's only worth mentioning because Laura peaced out after this.

He was pretty pissed off that the X-Men could always come back from the dead one way or another, yet they couldn't fix his hands. He lashed out at the mutant messiah, Hope, for doing jack shit when it came to miracles. Really busting her balls.

So the X-Men got involved with rebuilding San Fransisco after the whole... everything that had been happening these last several paragraphs. Rogue decided that Hellion should come along and help them with reconstruction. And let's get something out of the way: the X-Men were sending Hellion on a mission while he is was, self-admitted, still on painkillers following his double-amputation. Rogue meant well; it was meant to be a safe, no-action mission where Hellion could get some fresh air and put his troubles aside. And hell, maybe he could have refused the mission at any time. But like??? This child, trained to be a soldier by the X-Men, just had his hands chopped off and was thrown into work while hopped up on drugs.

Just keep this in mind. Hellion had no business being there, but the X-Men thought it was a good idea.

So Hellion was pissed off, bullied Hope for being a shitty messiah, and wantonly blew up debris, endangering everyone around him. Before he could accidentally hit anyone, Omega Sentinel (some human lady with evil robot programming that makes her turn evil sometimes, whatever who the hell cares) turned evil and started beating up all of the X-Men. Just absolutely wrecking them. They had no chance.

She would turn on Hope and a little human girl in the area. Just as Omega Sentinel was about to kill them, Hellion intervened. A miracle happened, and he got a powerup (implied, but never stated or followed up on, from Hope.) He was strong enough beat the robot lady's ass.

And he did. Repeatedly. He lost his temper and just kept viciously attacking her, all while yelling about his hatred of the machines who ruined his life and took his hands. Omega would return to her senses, but she knew it wouldn't last. She begged Hellion to finish her off. She asked him to kill her, before she could turn against her friends and harm them. She wanted to die human.

And Hellion obliged. Omega Sentinel would be left comatose.

At any rate, he saved Hope's life. Considering she would be integral to the very foundation of Krakoa, Krakoa would not exist if Hellion were not around. Hope was also the key to saving the mutant species multiple times. Mutants would have been doomed to extinction if not for Hellion. Yeah, others saved Hope and had way more of a direct impact in restoring their species. But still.

It was a tragic affair, and as Julian recounted the events of the mission to Cyclops, he was clearly shaken up and unsteady. He insisted that he had no regrets and said that he wasn't going to apologize for what he did. But he was clearly not doing well.

Cyclops was pissed because he felt that Julian's level of violence was unacceptable. Also Omega was still a good person, despite being overwritten at the time. She was a victim in all this, too. Yet Hellion didn't even consider any other option but violence and death.

Though it's not like he actually had the luxury of options, considering Omega was annihilating senior X-Men, he only had a split second to save Hope and the girl from danger, and even his victim supported his actions with her dying breath. Hellion lost his temper and was flippant about his actions, but he did the right thing.

Hellion then delivered this take-down to Cyclops, basically saying how Cyclops is a hypocrite who did shit (including killing people!), but apparently it was okay when he did it? Things aren't all black and white, it's not like Cyclops was some crazy psycho who killed and always got away with it. But like... Hellion was right. Cyclops had a very "ends-justify-the-means" attitude at the time. He was a revolutionary who was fed up with the way mutants had been treated. It's just that Cyclops had main character privilege and Hellion didn't.

So yeah, the X-Men were shitting all over Hellion for saving them, an innocent child and the fucking mutant messiah, because he wasn't sad enough about it.

But wait, it gets better.

Hellion Was Right: Omega Sentinel

Hey, remember how everyone shat on Hellion for killing Omega Sentinel? How he refused to apologize for doing what needed to be done, when no one else would? Yeah, the X-Men really chewed him out for being so cool with killing for the sake of protecting innocent lives.

Anyway, Karima would come back as a major antagonist in the Krakoa era, after a future, fully-roboticized version of herself would travel to the past, take over her body and dedicate her life to ending the mutants and humanity. Something she nearly succeeded in, when she helped create the terrorist organization known as Orchis.

Rogue especially took this hard. She crapped all over Hellion for attacking Omega Sentinel in a fit of rage while she was down. She would later assault him over it.

Here's Rogue in 2024, after the X-Men finally defeated Omega Sentinel.

Hellion's only mistake was not finishing the job.

But despite all this, Hellion had morals. He would spend some time debating if he felt sorry for what he did to Omega Sentinel. Which goes against him confidentally telling Cyclops that he wasn't sorry about it. Coupled with this, Rogue going on to say that Hellion felt guilty and wanted to atone, and later stories showing him wrestling with the incident and verbally trying to justify his actions to himself, it's implied that Hellion did, in fact, feel guilty after all.

Also, Hellion would not talk to his friends and classmates about what had happened. After his battle with Omega Sentinel, he briefly passed by his friends. He didn't reach out to them, they didn't acknowledge him. Later, fellow classmate Blindfold would straight-up call Hellion a monster. Hellion was all alone.

Fractured But Whole

Before we continue, let's circle back to Hellion getting a power-up earlier. I said it was implied to be from Hope, performing some sort of miracle. But either she gave him a permanent power-up, or Hellion just unlocked his own natural talent. Because the same run later showed Hellion using his powers to remove an explosion out of someone's body, showing he can mentally manipulate heat and energy on a cellular level. Yeah, fellow X-Man Rachel used her telepathy to spot him, but for those keeping count: Hellion could move energy through people without harming them, move at subsonic speeds, create force barriers, shoot telekinetic blasts, control heat and energy, and work on a cellular level at minimum. Laura once told Julian to create a telekinetic bubble inside of a villain's brain or heart to kill them. Hellion was against this on principal, but he doesn't say he can't do it. Considering he could weave his energy into someone's body and remove a fucking explosion, I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that Hellion could bubble some jerk's brain.

Now keep this all in mind. The X-Men had one of the most powerful telekinetics alive. He was hurt, vulnerable, and becoming increasingly isolated due to the mistreatment and trauma he had been enduring. Which was largely made worse by the X-Men just being inconsiderate assholes. And despite everything that had happened, despite his growing cynicism with the world and his disillusionment with the X-Men, he still worked to be a hero. Surely this is the type of mutant the X-Men would want to nurture, help and encourage.

Anyway, Hellion was probation unless they needed to use his powers for missions.

Okay, Cyclops and friends were a bust. They treated Hellion like shit and degraded him when he needed help. Maybe he could find help from somewhere else?

So Cyclops and Wolverine broke up over (among other things) the ethics of raising child soldiers and letting these kids kill. Cyclops is pro child soldier, and Wolverine was against it. You'd think this might be in response to them letting down their students and helplessly watching as they got gunned down. But they go back to using them once this event is over, so it's kind of pointless when you think about it.

Hellion choose to side with Wolverine during the Schism. He joined the school Wolverine has built. He was still a brash bully, but he was supporting the more idealistic and good-natured path of righteousness Wolverine is offering. Despite Wolverine treating him like shit and his daughter breaking his heart, he believed in what Wolverine has to say.

Wolverine was suspicious of him and threw him into a special class with other troublesome kids, so Spider-Man could spy on them and see which one might be a traitor. Still better than being with Cyclops though. And Hellion even got to go on crime-fighting adventures with Spider-Man, protecting New York!

But then this was ignored and never acknowledged again. Hellion would never talk to Spider-Man again and this whole thing might as well not have happened.

Hellion would become a shut-in. Trapped in his smelly room, he pretty much cut off all contact with everybody. He made it clear to a belligerent, antagonistic Wolverine that he didn't want to be there anymore. But he couldn't leave, since people saw him as a threat and would come after him the second he stepped out. Wolverine takes the opportunity to antagonize the disabled child soldier war hero with PTSD, whose life he helped demolish. Wolverine even said that he didn't give a damn about Julian's troubles, and was only getting involved because people were complaining about Hellion being a ticking time bomb.

One day, Laura came to visit him. Julian was quick to forgive her for leaving him on read for several months after he became an amputee and had his life destroyed. And to be fair, she was going through a lot of stuff on her own, which Hellion recognizes. He did briefly lash out at her in his anger, but quickly corrected himself and apologized. He also grabbed her arm when she tried to leave him without an explanation again - uncool, but he at least checked himself and let go when she told him to.

Gambit got involved to try and protect Laura... by threatening to blow off Hellion's arms and legs, to match his missing hands. Hellion was being an asshole, but keep in mind Hellion is a child soldier who had his arms blown off in the line of duty, and has spent the last few months being mistreated by pretty much every X-Man he has come across.

Hellion was also jealous of Gambit, but also worried that he was a groomer who was trying to put the moves on Laura. He was wrong, of course. But maybe he heard about a certain student named Foxx (aka Mystique,) who tried to frame Gambit a banging one of his students.

Hellion stalked Laura asked around and located Laura at the Baxter Building, where she would be spending the night babysitting Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman's two kids. They would get attacked and abducted by the Collector, leading to this whole adventure. It was a thing. Julian helped save her and the kids from dying in the cold recesses of space. Also Julian made fun of the Collector to his face multiple times.

But while this was going down, Hellion showed his insecurities to Laura. He knew she had her own issues, but he didn't know the extent of what she'd been going through. She didn't talk to him about them, and he would have liked that. He felt abandoned, and wondered if him being disabled now was one of the things driving her away from him. But she assured him that she didn't abandon him, and kept watch over him when he was injured and recovering.

When all is said and done, Laura was ready to part ways with Julian. But he didn't want to go without talking things out. He still loved her and wanted to be with her. But she didn't feel the same way and rejected him. Julian lashed out and accused her of being an unfeeling machine - something that would hurt her. She still cared for him, but her feelings for him had changed as the two of them had changed.

This whole debacle is very controversial with fans. Who was right? Who was wrong? How justified were either of them? Was Julian abusive? Was Laura unnecessarily cruel? Generally, people will agree that they both messed up. But who was more in the wrong usually depends on which character you stan more. Hellion's behavior near the end is never really justified, though many people at least understand where he's coming from.

Despite being a Hellion stan, I lean more towards Laura. Despite their mutual feelings for each other, she wasn't obligated to put her feelings aside to take care of him. Her life was also falling apart and she had her own struggles. Yes, she could have handled the situation better. But I don't blame her for focusing on her own life when she was drowning. And it's not like this girl, raised from birth as a tool and still coming to terms with her own humanity, pain and emotions, was capable of dealing with him in the best way, even though she wanted to.

But I can't be mad at Hellion because he suffered way more these last couple of months, didn't have the support Laura would come to have, and, oh yeah, he had his hands blown off by an evil robot. That didn't entitle him to lash out at her the ways he did, but he absolutely didn't deserve to be brushed off. Which is what Laura did, even if it was unintentional.

It was a failure to communicate. They both wanted different things. They had their own issues and that kept them from being there for each other. They were hurt by other people and situations, those warped them and made it harder for them to reconnect. Ultimately, the Laura and Julian we were seeing now, were not the same people they were when they met and fell in love.

I see the vision, but it still feels kind of abrupt and it looks like largely happened just to write out the romance, while not really doing anything to address their issues. It's a story about them growing apart, but not really making it feel like they grew apart. It just looks like Laura is avoiding Hellion even after he explains that her how her behavior also hurt him, but only Hellion's behavior is treated as heinous. And to be fair, grabbing onto someone the way he did, lashing out at them and poking at their insecurities around their humanities, is arguably worse than anything she did to him. But shutting yourself off from someone without explanation, ignoring them when they're begging for help, not showing much concern for their suffering and ignoring multiple pleas to be honest about their problems, is also pretty nasty.

Again, Laura wasn't obligated to deal with his baggage. And it's not like she was in the right headspace to help. But she was involved with Hellion's life and problems, and he was with hers. To ignore this connection was very insulting. Neither of these traumatized, PTSD-ridden child soldiers handled this complex emotional situation well.

So I get it. But the story was written in a way that downplayed Laura's faults and felt like it had to force the issue in order to make it work.

Anyway, Laura would get into a poorly-received, crappy romance with a time-traveling teen Angel from the past. She would also spend hundreds of years in a Vault with Synch as her only companion, where they'd fall in love under dubious circumstances, largely off-screen. She'd forget all this and Synch would accept this, then get back together with another version of Laura, who is also the "real" Laura, and an old MILF. But most fans don't care about old Laura or accept her as the "official" Laura, and she ends up dying, living inside of Synch's head and then dying again. So this whole paragraph means nothing.

But at least we would get a couple shots of Hellion looking at Laura through some bushes like a creeper, just to twist the knife and make sure that the ship was properly killed.

The Fart Cloud

Remember that time the Inhumans unleashed a stupid fart cloud onto Earth in the hopes of activating latent Inhuman genes in some humans? But the fart cloud was poisonous to mutant and started killing them? The X-Men had to hide their numbers in a Hell dimension for safety.

So Julian was poisoned by one of those clouds, and the X-Men totally failed to find and save him when he went looking for their help. Thanks again, X-Men. You're always there when Hellion needs you.

Hellion would visit the Inhumans on their Earth turf. Now dying from the cloud, he was determined to be a martyr. Let the Inhumans witness a person they'd harmed with their actions.

His powers wrecked New Attilan as he lost control over them, endangering everyone around them. Luckily, an Inhuman named Synapse was able to turn off his powers and stop him.

Synapse argued to the ruler of the Inhumans, Medusa, to help Hellion despite the damage he caused. Medusa didn't need convincing though; they were not going to persecute the infirm, and they were going to help this poor, suffering mutant as best as they could. He was going to get the best medical care and they would work tirelessly to see him recover.

Yes. The Inhumans who nearly gassed him to death treated him better than the X-Men. Hellion would be so grateful for their help, he would volunteer at their hospital as an orderly.

Not much would happen to Hellion after this. Despite being told (by everyone) that he was a dangerous mess they didn't want to deal with, Hellion... never really did anything beyond sometimes teasing classmates sometime, briefly date Shark-Girl, and help the X-Men whenever they asked. Many of his cameos consisted of him being in the background, having been beaten up by whatever villain the X-Men were facing.

Also, another fun fact: The X-Disassembled event saw the adults chiding the students as young, inexperienced kids who should stay out of real missions. Which was disrespectful to the kids who rose to the challenge when the X-Men failed them. But at least they weren't interested in using them as child soldiers.

Except one of the adults telling them this was Jean, who has their fellow student Laura as a member on her team. AND she had Laura's 12 year old sister, too. Hellion was notably absent from the majority of this conflict, since his very existence would undermine the adults' message entirely.

Also the school got blown up. It got blown up quite a few times while Hellion was a student. It got blown up so many times, the kids were cracking jokes about it. Surprisingly, none of those explosions were caused by him.

But just because Hellion wasn't active, doesn't mean he wasn't still pulling out Ws.

Hellion Was Right: Etc.

Hellion was right about a lot of things, but I can't sit here and list every single one of them in great detail. So here's a bulletpoint list of his other truths.

During the Utopia era, he knew that humans would eventually round up mutants and put them in camps. We know that happens in a few bad futures. This would also happen during the fall of Krakoa.

He knew the Brood were irredeemable monsters and hated Broo on sight. And in the end? Their only "redemption" was the X-Men to use them as weapons against the terrorist organization, Orchis. They could never truly be saved.

He ended up siding with Wolverine during the Schism, despite him and Logan hating each other. Guess who won the Schism in the end?

Right away, Hellion knew Wind Dancer was a catch. He also had a thing with Laura, dated Shark-Girl, and in an AU he married Surge. The man just can't stop picking Best Girls. He has a supernatural sense that allows him to figure out which girls are superior.

Remember that school competition, and Hellion bragged about how none of the other squads could ever hope to win it again? Shortly after Hellion and his squad won it, the school was hit by the mass depowering event known as M-Day. The majority of students were depowered and many were subsequently massacred by anti-mutant terrorists. Even when the school recovered, they never had these school-wide competitions again. So yeah, no other students would get to win that trophy.

Hellion had been open about his dislike of robots, after they took his hands. Who was behind Orchis? Omega Sentinel. Not only that, the group was primarily run by robots, and they wanted to wipe out all organic life - especially mutants, but they had plans to kill all organic life to preserve themselves. Humans would be their next target, after they finished killing off mutants.

Hellion thought it was weird how Wolverine kept picking up teenage girls as his sidekicks. He joked that Wolverine was a perv, of course Wolverine isn't a predator, he has no ill intentions with those girls, and some of them just dropped into his lap. But it's still pretty sus, even if no one else wants to point it out.

Northstar thought Hellion was making a mistake, picking Emma as his advisor over him. He thought Hellion needed the discipline. Considering Hellion thrived under Emma, she stood up for him when no one else did, and Northstar abandoned him just as the others did anyway... Yeah, Hellion made the right choice in picking Emma.

New Edit: I just saw this post. So you know how Hellion thought mutants should ignore past incidents and accidents, because they need to look out for each other and humans wouldn't judge them fairly? And then the X-Men were all, "NO, we need to listen to human laws!" Yeah, so anyway, the X-Men would basically say the same thing Hellion did, in the Krakoa era. Except now they had the power to enforce their will.

Hellion hated Quentin Quire and beat him up. No explanation needed.

The Gays Love Hellion (And Hellion Loves Them)

So weirdly enough, Hellion has a big LGTV fanbase. Which is weird, because he's from Academy X, not Fraternity X. Why would gay fans gravitate towards a straight, cis, masculine jock who regularly dominates others an- Oh.

Well, it goes beyond that. The X-Men in general have a huge queer audience. But Hellion has multiple factors working in his favor: he's sarcastic and has great quips, he takes after Emma Frost, he's canonically ripped, and he's had his moments of fanservice.

Most importantly, there was that one arc where he was on a beach for a mission. He thought the mission was casual, so he was the only one in swimwear, and nobody told him because they wanted to see him in short-shorts. He's smart, but that scene would go on to imprint himbo energy into the minds of many readers.

Also, he spent the entirety of the Age of X event with his tits out.

I don't find Hellion sexy at all, personally. He's not my type. But he IS a sex bomb. I can see the appeal regardless.

I'm iffy on the femme-y himbo depiction among fans. It's amusing, but I feel like it tends to paint a shallow picture of an otherwise manly, cool, intelligent and tragic character. But Hellion is perfect even if he's a himbo, he's perfect no matter what. I stan the alternate universe black Hellion who was like 5 years old and only appeared in the background of one panel, who may or may not be Hellion at all. He had metal hands, so I like to think he's meant to be Julian Keller.

Krakoa

So the mutants formed a mutant nation, an island paradise called Krakoa. It was this whole thing, it was great, I loved it. I recommend reading House of X/Powers of X if you haven't already. But the tl;dr is that mutants were able to resurrect the dead and give depowered mutants their powers back.

Hellion was given a sanctuary in paradise. The X-Men who had abandoned him had finally given him protection and safety. He had every single one of his deceased friends back, and they were there with him. The days of M-Day were a bad memory, there would be no school attacks, and he wouldn't have to live in fear of M-Pox. If he wanted to, he could die and come back with his hands, fully restored through the Resurrection Protocols.

You know who else came back? Wind Dancer. After fourteen real-life years, the two were finally reunited.

Hellion had regained almost everything he'd lost. All of his suffering was worth it, because he finally reached the light at the end of the tunnel. All the work he put into helping the X-Men, saving Hope and working tirelessly to protect others has paid off.

But if this post has taught you anything, it's that Hellion isn't allowed happiness.

Krakoa would fall through the machinations of an evil organization called Orchis. Lead by such villains as Omega Sentinel and Nimrod, Orchis would frame Krakoa for crimes in biological warfare and sabotage, wanton murder of humans, and plots of world domination. The whole world stood back and did nothing as the mutants were attacked, scattered across the world and hunted 'till near-extinction. Many people even cheered Orchis on. Some governments even assisted them in making life more difficult for mutants. Mutants were rounded up, jailed, put under inhumane conditions, forcibly injected with "cures," and even murdered.

Where was Hellion during all of this? Well, he was in another dimension. Xavier had sent mutants through portals, per Orchis' demands. They wanted Xavier to telepathically force every mutant off the planet, or Orchis would use biological warfare to wipe out millions of humans. Wanting to spare humans, Xavier forced the majority of mutants through portals, which would end up leading them to the White Hot Room. The strugglers were left to deal with Orchis.

Hellion either went through those portals, or he had been killed during the Orchis genocide and gone through the Resurrection Protocols in the White Hot Room. He'd be there for several months, struggling to survive in a desert with 200,000 other mutants.

Hellion and most other named mutants would return to Earth, thanks to the X-Men. But also the X-Men and the ruling leaders of Krakoa were kind of to blame, since they failed to strike down Orchis earlier, despite them being a known threat. They tried some things, sure. But the plot basically forbade them from making any real progress against them until now. So yeah, the adults let Hellion down again. If they stopped playing by the rules and killed Omega Sentinel, they'd be happier.

Also, Krakoa would still exist beyond this point. Or rather, a splinter of the island nation would exist in the White Hot Room. It was shown that, without any humans or other groups coming down on them, they could thrive and grow as a healthy, enlightened and thriving nation. Mutants had the option of giving up life on their home planet to go to the White Hot Room's and have sanctuary, or stay in the trenches and spend their lives under constant threat of humans, aliens, demons and robots.

Look at Hellion at the start of his journey, and look at him now. He lost his friends, his loves, his wealth, his family, his identity as a leader, and any confidence he had from his body. The only thing he has left is his telekinesis.

The Villainous Path

Little hellions, kids feeling rebellious Embarrassed, their parents still listen to X-Men

So now we have a better picture of Hellion. He's a person with a big heart and a huge sense of loyalty, but he's been constantly let down by people around him. He's been kicked while he's been down, treated like a monster, and had the people he loves most walk out on him. His own insecurities, ego and attitude have held him back. And just when everything seemed to be turning around, just when he had everything he had lost... his home is taken away from him and he's left alone all over again.

You can see why Hellion wouldn't want anything to do with the X-Men after all of this. They took him in, but they treated him like shit and failed him constantly. He was constantly pointing out the truth, but they punished him for it and insisted that he was wrong.

But you can also see why he would have a grudge against a world who supported his peoples' genocide and the destruction of his nation. The same world that largely stood by and ignored his plight during those 2 other genocides he directly endured, and several others he would have been witness to.

Marvel's also on a sliding timescale, where their time passes much slower than ours. So bear in mind, he has probably been active in-universe for 2 to 4 years. 5, if you want to be generous. Everything you have read has been happening non-stop in a very short span of time.

Almost everyone around Hellion is terrible. He literally cannot count on anyone to help him out, because they are either grossly incompetent, unequipped to deal with things, or outright trying to kill him.

If everyone just listened to him, everything would have been fine... Or humans, machines and other heroes would have wiped them off the planet, and things would be even worse. But I choose to believe that Hellion had the right of way. After all, he'd been right about everything else.

Hellion proved himself to be a real hero, despite everyone doubting him. But he has also done things you wouldn't see most traditional heroes do, because he's cynical and willing to do harsher things if it means helping others. At the very least, he's firmly an anti-hero.

There is precedence for having him taking on an antagonistic role and going against traditional heroes. The context was always him doing what he thought was best.

So he could easily work as an anti-villain or antagonist; someone who will take the role of the heel, but still be sympathetic and have the capacity to be redeemed.

Right now, many fans are worried that that Hellion won't be portrayed sympathetically. That he'll be suddenly and drastically changed into a villain, solely there to cause trouble, do despicable things and be defeated. To be a strawman of what he once was. And to be fair, that's a fair worry; we recently saw a mutant, Nature Girl, go from a mild-mannered student supporting character, to a genocidal villain at the drop of a hat. Her character was irrevocably warped to facilitate a story. Anyone who liked her original characterization would be turned off by this change.

Or how about Benjamin Percy's take on Beast? The loveable furball was now a vile, manipulative, genocidal villain who would torture his friends for his own gain.

There was room for these characters to become darker figures - let's not forget how Nature Girl had a small story dedicated to her being painfully aware of the torture Christmas trees go through before they're tossed aside by humans, unaware of the pain they have caused. But these characters went from A, to B to Z. Things jumped wildly and they became extreme caricatures that barely resembled their original selves. And even if Beast did some questionable things in the past, no way would he naturally fall as far as he did under Percy's pen, much less so abruptly.

There's also worry that the Krakoan will be used as a strawman against Krakoa. He'd be used to portray the worst aspects of Krakoan culture and somehow prove to the audience that no, Krakoa was actually really bad and you should be glad that it's gone.

The Krakoan is specifically twisting the dream of Krakoa to rule the masses. I'm not paying too much attention to these, since preview blurbs are known to be inaccurate at times. But at the very least, they make it clear that what he's doing is not meant (out-of-universe, at least) to be an accurate representation of Krakoa. He's an in-universe example of Krakoa being misused and represented.

Despite this, if the Krakoan is Julian, I think he will be respected a bit. One of the writers of NYX, Jackson Lanzing, was asked about Hellion. He had this to say.

I think that's a pretty fair take on him. Lanzing acknowledged that he's not some simple character. Hellion has the potential to be a big player for mutants - for good or for ill - and that stems from him being somewhere in the middle of the Xavier-Magneto spectrum. He has some desire for peace and co-existence, but he's also not shying away from the reality he faces. If they're writing him, I fully expect them to portray this depth and nuance, even if it's on a small level.

They acknowledged his ties to David and Laura. The latter is important because there's a lot they could mine here beyond their romance. Hellion was there to show Laura a life outside of the darkness. He wanted her to be a better person and break free from her past as an assassin. While the writers might focus on the duo's romance, they should at least be aware that it's built on a foundation of seeing past the bad side of someone, and getting to the real, good person underneath.

Further, both writers are now on record as being big fans of Hellion. They not only like him a lot, but they clearly have a grasp on his character. I doubt they'd do something that would destroy his potential for future stories.

I'm cautiously optimistic about Hellion's villain era. I could be wrong and the writers could totally flub it. But for now, things are pointing towards him being treated with respect.

And if not? Well, he'll probably be right anyway. He's the new Cyclops/Magneto. As the saying goes, they were right. And Hellion has already proven that he has been right this whole time. If Hellion is reduced to some baby-eating monster, I would defend him. That baby was probably racist and had evil vibes.

From the Ashes

That's telekinesis, Kyle. How 'bout the power to move you?

The new relaunch will see other books release alongside NYX. And yes, they're going to be notably less popular because they don't have Hellion in them. But with Hellion's new role, who says he can't be a key figure in the world of mutants going forward?

Exceptional X-Men will feature Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost mentoring three new mutants. They'll be protecting these kids and guiding them through a world that hates and fears them, ensuring that they grow up to be heroes. Meanwhile NYX's main villain is likely one of their previous kids they trained, who they failed, mistreated and abandoned several times, who was explicitly stated to be unstable after his experiences on the field and under their care.

These kids are fucked. Hellion needs to come in and save them from the X-Men, before Kitty Pryde ruins their lives with her "help."

X-Men will feature Cyclops and his band of heroes (plus Quentin Quire), acting openly and proudly as mutants. They won't return to their evolutionary era, but they will still but heads with the government and are in a place that might put them in opposition with the mainstream opinion. From the looks of it, they will fight for their rights and do what they feel is right, even if it makes humans uncomfortable, because they need to be heard and- Oh wait. Hasn't Hellion been doing all of this from the get-go? Hmm.

Don't worry, I'm sure Cyclops will tell the Krakoan that his methods are super wrong and go too far, and that the X-Men are fighting for their rights the right way. Hurting innocent people to promote your cause is wrong! Then Cyclops and his team will get a few more innocent children killed before moving on to their next project.

What about Uncanny X-Men? Rogue's leading that team, and Gambit and Wolverine are on it. All three of them owe Hellion an apology. Jubilee's also there. She always busted Hellion's balls for how he handled his relationship with Laura... when she wasn't ogling his ass on the beach. Which was fair, but maybe she could apologize for not being a little sympathetic after his hands got blown off by an evil robot while fighting for their cause.

X-Factor will apparently pit the titular team against an underground mutant revolution, lead by Polaris. Hey, you think the Krakoan might want to get involved with that down the line?

Wolverine has a solo book. He can use the 5000 issues he'll get to beg Hellion for forgiveness. That's almost enough time to make up for how he treated Julian.

Dazzler's getting a mini. And guess who's going to be part of her crew? Hellion's exes, Wind Dancer and Shark-Girl. Wonder how they'd feel about him breaking bad?

And Now?

We wait see what comes next. We hope for the best, expect the worst, but know that this book will be the best of the From the Ashes era, simply because Hellion is gracing us with his presence.

I recommend reading more Hellion stories when you can. This post only touches on the basics. There are a lot of things I had to cut out. There are a lot of things that I missed, or didn't include because I they weren't as important to be as they might be to you. You might read things completely differently, even though I am objectively right because Hellion is perfect and could never do wrong. I might have purposely skewed things to favor Hellion because this post is Hellion propaganda. But whatever the case, you absolutely should follow my boy.

I had a whole section about Hellion's telekinesis. He's a telekinetic in a world filled with telekinetics who ALSO have telepathy and other powers. But he was able to stand out with how he varied in its use - he could create energy blasts and projectiles, fly at subsonic speeds, make things combust on a molecular level, and blast through just about anything. I cut it because I hit the image limit and didn't have enough space to show them, and they need to be shown because his powers are visually distinct. It was either keep them and cut out the tiddy pic, or keep the tiddy pic and cut out the displays of power. And I think I made the right choice.

[k-kizkhalifa]

Pink

Ah, yes. The smut fic that turned into a story. Here she is, updated and ready for consumption! ~ kiz

Pink (36883 words) by kizkhalifa Chapters: 5/? Fandom: Harry Potter - Fandom Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, Teddy Lupin Additional Tags: Begging, Auror AU, Auror!Draco, Bottom!Harry, Slutted-out!Harry, Light breeding kink, Explicit Language, Dark Undertones, Story Tags:, EWE, Slash, Smut with a Story, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drarry, Case Fic, SMUT TAGS:, ligh dom/sub, draco as a pleasure dom, Light Degradtion, crossdessing kink, Praise Kink, Free-use!Harry, little twisty twist in here, shocked me too when i wrote the shit Summary: Pink bag, with a pink box, and a pink set of lingerie started the whole thing. Late nights, a sinister case, and Teddy Lupin brought them together. Will magic, power, and darkness tear them apart? What choices did they have, in the end?

Excerpt: Harry woke up scrambling to his feet the moment he did, his hand grasping his wand, frantic as he took in his surroundings. It was dark, he realized, then he felt a hand on his shoulder, “Harry!” Harry tried to see, but he couldn’t see well. His glasses were broken, gone, he didn’t know. 

“Found him!” Came from beside him, and then Harry felt his nose being healed, letting out a grunt, “sorry mate.”

“It’s fine,” Harry pushed his hand away, getting to his feet, “glasses around here?” 

“Here,” Ron pressed them to his hand and Harry slipped them in place. “What happened, mate? The bystanders are real shaky with details because they’re all Muggle.” 

“Great,” Harry frowned, then it seemed as if reality suddenly hit him. “Where is Teddy?” 

“Teddy isn’t here?” Ron asked, looking around, “why?” 

“Where is Draco?” Harry looked around, his fears growing as he used his wand to light the park better. “They were by the swings!” He took off running towards them, all he found was Draco’s scarf on the ground. 

Harry bent, picking it up, “have you heard from Draco?” He asked Ron, turning around to face him. 

“No?” Ron shook his head, “what’s going on? Why was Draco here?” 

“They have my son,” Harry answered in a tight voice, “they have my Draco.” Ron blinked, watching as Harry disapparated without another word. 

[seriouslysam8]

Did you had Ron and Hermione divorced in legardemain but why I thought their life was good in that universe any reason ps not a Hermione lover just a curious reader dying to know why that's all don't hate me

I like writing about real problems. Harry’s addiction to Felix Felicis in Brontide. Sirius’ mental health struggles in Brumous. How all of the abuse, neglect, and trauma affected Harry as an adult in all of the MIT series with all of his little quirks. Andromeda finding happiness with another man after Ted’s death in MIT. Draco still being a little shit in Entombed when he’s initially unwilling to help Harry until Astoria convinces him. Then Draco’s entire societal withdrawal in Legerdemain after the death of his wife.

Divorce wasn’t something I ever wrote about. I sure as hell wasn’t going to divorce Hinny - though, again, I showed them having realistic martial issues in Brontide when Harry’s addiction spiraled before he knew what was happening and desperately tried to hide it. As I was writing the MIT series, Ron and Demelza’s friendship was so fun to write. I started to want to see them together. At the time, I was hellbent on never leaving the MIT universe. I had so many stories planned. So, I thought I’d just do it. Tackle the storyline and do what I wanted to do. When the hate and the annoyingness of it all happened, I stepped away from that series and started fresh.

I am giving myself more freedom when I write. I have both series going. I have a few one-shots. While I’m not updating weekly like I was, I am having more fun writing some side projects. Like last week I was just going through it and I wanted to write something completely fun and silly so I wrote Heliophile. I didn’t let the pressure of you need to write your angsty stories so don’t write anything else box me in. After writing my fluff piece, Brumous has been a lot easier to write this past week in a way it wasn’t last week.

So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m writing what I want to write now. I was never a big fan of Romione or Hermione. I think that’s evident with the lack of both in the MIT series. Ron was always around but Hermione barely was. When the chemistry between Ron and Demelza really started to pop off the page, I simply just wanted them together. I thought their personalities meshed better and it would be more fun writing them as Hinny’s main couple friend. And I thought writing a divorce would be fun as well.

[viridianphile]

7th yr., dramione, fluff, rivals, down bad Draco

Draco just wants to sleep in his quarters, skip his classes and dream and dream and dream.

He hates seeing his classmates, hates their mindless talk about who fancies who, and most of all hates having to see her in flesh.

As she shoots up a know-it-all hand, starts parting her plump lips to answer, her annoying voice reverberating around his skull, he might as well combust on the spot.

Especially if he has to deal with his problem. This particular problem, he figured, the only way to solve it is to sleep it all away.

Which he did, but to make matters worse, he sees her in his dreams, EVERY. SINGLE. FUCKING. TIME.

And things always end up the turn for the worse. Always the worse (for lack of better word). He gets to wake up with the lingering thought of her in his newly minted state of wakefulness and a raging hard-on.

It is a problem, yes indeed.

Which begs the question, why does Draco Lucius Malfoy want to sleep and sleep and sleep?

It is obvious really, he’s definitely infatuated with her, his subconscious unconsciously dreaming of her.

But quite literally, in vulgarized fashion; Draco Lucius Malfoy lusts for Hermione Jean Granger.

And he doesn’t want to admit it yet.

“Draco, fuck you, wake up,”

He groans in his sleep.

Theo slapped the supple cheek of his bare arse “Look at that fucking kinky arse! I bet you fell asleep touching yourself all day thinking of Granger. Is that why you didn’t go to class yesterday?”

Draco immediately springs up, head still groggy and confused. Theo mussed his already messy bed hair, “I understand mate, the snakes understand,” he tuts compassionately.

“Understand wha—?” Malfoy blinks, until everything dawned upon him.

“What the fuck are you doing here Not?!”

Theo raises his palms up defensively.

“Uh—your girl’s waiting for you, and I being your faithful wingman came to pick you up and tell her your undying love,” he then places a diplomatic hand over his heart solemnly.

“My girl? Which girl? What girl?” Draco aka “completely lost” Malfoy throws the dark haired boy a skeptical look,”Last time I checked I was single with an idiot henchman for a best friend”

“Merlin to Draco, it’s Granger, the love of your life? She literally confessed her love for you in front of the whole class under the influence of a veritaserum”

“You’ve got to be kidding”

“No. You missed the chance to witness the legendary confession of the swot to her equally swotty rival”

Malfoy must be dreaming, that couldn’t be real. Theo can’t be real, this must be another dream. Granger’s involved, *again*, so it has to be, right?

He was lost for words, staring into space. Until he slapped himself to reality.

*Holy shit that hurt*

“So then what?” excitement assaults his nerves but apprehension devoured the rest of it.

“Then fly away my little butterfly, spread your wings and chase for the nectar of your dreams! Go before she changes her mind!”Theo spreads his arms dramatically, he has the spunk for theater.

Draco hurriedly gathers himself to leave but reaches back towards his henchman, “Wait, fuck, give me your pants.”

Oh right, he forgot.

Draco swiftly accio’d Theo’s pants and quickly fastened himself to decency. Theo merely let him and pats a proud father’s hand on Draco.

“Go my little soldier, this is your war—“before Theo finishes, Draco already left the chambers to chase for Granger, his dearest rival and apparently…the love of his life?

***

“Granger!”

“Malfoy?”

Granger stops in her tracks while Draco collects himself until he’s back in proper circulation.

One huge gulp of air and he’s back on his knees, a look on Granger and he’s a pathetic flustering idiot. But backing down isn’t an option and so…

“You…you fractured me to my undoing. My soul cripples at the mere thought of you. You make me lose my mind, the greatest tragedy of mine. Granger…I think I might be also in love with you…”

Hermione blinked, eyes wide. What did she just hear? If this what they call…a confession?

But seriously, from Malfoy? Her rival? The bane of her existence? The annoying fly who pests her academic endeavors, everywhere she goes?

But a pretty handsome fly too though…

An unexpected blush creeps up to her cheeks, and wait a minute…what’s with this sudden burst of emotion? Why is he looking at her like he’s about to beg on his knees for her?

He’s absurd. His unnecessarily poetic monologue’s absurd…too sudden. And are those Theo’s dress pants he’s wearing?

“Malfoy…what…I…are you serious?”

This Hermione, the brightest witch of her age, suddenly lacked the sense to speak.

Draco stops, his heart taking a sudden lurch.

“But..Theo..”

Hermione’s pulse flutters.

“What about Theo, hmm?”

He just realized.

“I’m gonna kill that fucking bastard”

That jerk tricked him.

And surprisingly it worked.

(End)

[gren-arlio]

You guys voted Something Random, I love and hate you at the same time.

In that case...Y'all know about JUMP HERO? Welcome to...well, rambles about some random things.

(Da Satan Plant. As of writing this I just hit 51 followers. Wow.)

Hey all, Gren here. I know its been a bit since I've properly posted, and frankly, you're not wrong at all. Life's been busy, and with the rate I'm going at (going to college and whatnot, middle of the school year shenanigans,) there's no way in hell I'll be able to keep the once-a-week posting that I've done. Maybe for summer, but I dunno yet.

Also, life's been hitting me HELLA hard recently, so motivation is also not there. If YKYK.

Which leads to an announcement that I made before: I won't exactly be posting weekly anymore. I'll just... post whenever I feel like it nowadays. Adds a lot less stress for me, and I'll be able to send dumb shit about Puyo and Madou here. Ya know, like a normal blog. You might get 3 posts in a week for all you know.

But enough on that. I'm here to ramble. This won't be a Waku Puyo Extras thing or whatever, literally just things I wanna show and explain some nonsense. There's no formula. Enjoy.

----

I've been working on this stuff since April of last year, and it's been going decently well, people partially know my works. Now, what in the world do I want to show y'all this time around, since I got free will?

Well for one, I'd you've been following my work for a bit, you'd know about the pain that was finding Madou Sugoroku content, that game was so elusive to me that I was convinced it wasn't real for a period of time.

Uh, yeah. It's real. Very, very much real. And man do I love the style of the game. It's so dang pretty. I'll mention gameplay some other time, I'll cover it another time, but today's not that day.

Also. Arle's fit.

It's basically Schezo's clothes but it looks so damn good. No complaints here. Though I do wonder how she got it.

I do want to mention the Pairs though. Arle/Satan is fine, Witch/Draco have been paired since like Saturn, Schezo/Incubus at least have Waku Puyo, Minotauros/Rulue is obligatory, but what the FUCK is going on with the pairing of Sasori Man/Zoh Daimoh? The fact they got two word names?

I do wish that Draco just had a little bit more than what she has currently. I love her, she's a funny person and whatnot, I just wish there was...more, you know?

She's been a character I've been wanting to cover for god knows how long, it's just I've never had enough unique things to talk about with her. Lotta the stuff is things we do know, or Puyo Puyo Tetris [2] sorta just making her beauty obsessed.

Least in Waku Puyo, she has some comedic scenes, canonically being able to make 5 chains and confusing Schezo at least 3 times. And in the manga, she bounces off Rulue and Minotauros decently, her fight was fun to read.

(Don't ask how Rulue learned Shadow Clone Jutsu)

And for a second, let me say that the designs in this manga are top-notch. Witch's redesign is nice, Rulue's looks really good, Draco's design is great, Schezo consistently has the best clothes, and Lagnus... somehow looks even better.

Oh yea, speaking of Draco, let's look at someone who sorta kinda maybe perchance looks like her but is actually from JUMP HERO.

... I'm awful with transitions. We're talking about the series. Sorta.

So, JUMP HERO. Series made by Compile, unknown to a lot of us.

(Nexus image)

Frankly, I want to cover this game sometime. It seems so...interesting. The characters, the gameplay, the story, it all seems so interesting to me.

People like Billie Be Babine, Margarita Linda, (the black and red folks in the front), Sugar & Oligo, they all seem so damn cool. Oh, and that Penguin is some fella named Ivan. He has a reeeeeally long last name.

Oh and that robot guy is like 2 years old canonically. Needed to mention that.

This is Sugar and Oligo btw. They seem fun to talk about sometime.

(Nexus image)

The game feels so heavily unexplored. I want to see it sometime. When? Whole other story.

But with that, I think this'll end my small ramble about nothing. Thanks for reading.

Adios.

[bitsandbobsfromrandomfandoms]

Sometimes I think there is a lot of internalized misogyny that shows up in fanfiction that remains unaddressed because it's so hard to talk about.

It is practically against fandom etiquette to think critically about fanfiction. I even feel very icky doing it when I know that many writers and artists churn out their content for free.

I have nothing but deep love and respect for fan-content creators. (From the bottom of my heart, thank you for your service 🫡)

But there are a lot of underground aspects about fandom that goes unacknowledged because even as I sense them, it feels ephemeral and intangible. I’m only one person, I don’t think I know how to articulate this much less speak of it with any kind of conviction.

So for the sake of that, I'm going to try and chip away at it and see if the words come over-time.

My more critical opinions are posted here and not in the comment section on ao3 because I have no desire to truly discourage anyone.

And first, let me just say I truly loved this story. I enjoyed the bloody shit out of it.

Draco's snarky, unfailing sense of humour even in face of utter tragedy was just chef's kiss.

10/10 recommend.

But there is one bone I want to pick and it's this:

It is established that by the end of the story, that Harry has fallen in love with Draco but chose to go back to his wife.

Why? Because he wants to have a family and children which was the reason he and Ginny were fighting to begin with and since Draco can't give him that, they both agree to end things.

Draco himself, has a very beneficial arrangement with his wife since she is also gay and they're acting as each other's beards but we see nothing of Harry's relationship with Ginny.

So my question is, what is she in this story besides a glorified baby-maker?

Draco and Harry eventually end up back together when their children are grown and they are middle-aged men. Harry even jokes that Ginny thinks he's gay and Draco says "10 points to Gryffindor".

Which is funny because at the beginning of the story, when Draco was giving advice under the guise of Lavender Brown to the man who wrote to Prophet, Draco advises him to break-up with his wife so she wouldn't lose years of her life with someone who couldn't want her back the same way:

She is young enough to start again with someone else. You want bitter? Denying you're gay and then finally admitting this to her when she's forty-five is sure to warrant her casting at least three different castration charms in your direction. And I wouldn't blame her.

And yet this is exactly what Harry does to Ginny.

This isn't so much a criticism as it is an observation that Harry was extremely selfish and cruel.

On top of that, I have a few more bones to pick at but none of them are as big or as important as the first one. They're just little things to be mindful of to maintain the distinction between good story-telling and reality.

The first is that, Harry in this story was healer and it was so much fun to see him take on this role since there are so many stories that feature Draco as a healer. But in this story, he was sacrificing his own life's energy to save people who would otherwise die. A physical consequence of doing this was his constant fatigue and how he seems to be just as thin and gaunt as Draco, who is somewhat starved and malnourished in this story.

In real life, when someone is prone to such extremes of behavior, they don't just stop doing what they are doing because someone asked them to. It's something of a compulsion or an addiction to them. So if the story was realistic, and Harry was actually absorbing other people's deaths, he wouldn't stop simply because Draco asked him to, he would continue to do what he was doing but hide it better.

There was also the strange role-reversal that took place after Harry saved Narcissa where instead of Draco thanking him, it was the other way around because Draco made him promise to stop. This isn't bad per se, but since I'm something of an expert in abusive relationships, something that comes up often in situations of lamp-shading or gaslighting is that the person who is being gaslighted is usually expressing the sentiment that in the given circumstances, it makes more sense for the other person to be expressing. So I'm hyperaware of that even though it may not necessarily apply here.

My last nitpicking is that Draco does not seem to have any sexual trauma because all the coercion and assault he's endured. Again, realistically this is unlikely. People who have gone through what he did don't walk out of the same way. And yet, apart from the physical damage to his knees, psychologically, he seems fine. I don't think this is so much of a complaint because I realise that if the story did address sexual trauma, it wouldn't be as light-hearted and enjoyable as it was. So I like to think that this is something that Draco might've had to come to terms with, off-screen.

I really did love the story but off-late, I'm more mindful of the way women are written in fanfiction because I really think that part of the reason m/m fanfiction is so much fun to read is because it never has to address to complex social dynamics that exist between men and women.

It's a space where women get to ignore the nature of living in a patriarchal world. Where sexuality isn't immediately conflated with shame or submission. Where the characters can engage in recklessness or risky behaviors without losing their relatability or be blamed for it. Where both characters seem to just be on more even footing than if one of them were a woman?

Urghh. I don’t think I’m explaining this well at all.

But I have to wonder that there are a lot of underground implications for why women go in for this kind of thing. And what it means when female characters are treated the way Ginny was in this fic?

I’ve noticed that even in many f/m fanfictions, there is this tendency to place female characters in situations of bondage or enslavement. Or they are reduced or disempowered in some way.

It’s going to take long time before I fully understand what's truly going on under the surface here.

I also think that, for straight women, reading about men in sexual situations will always be more gratifying than reading about women, because it’s what we are naturally attracted to x2. Maybe that’s why men are also very titillated by lesbian porn 🤷‍♀️

[greenerteacups]

I absolutely adore the way you write Harry and Ron as clever and snarky in their own ways (Harry's conversation with Snape was hilarious and clever in Norberta). All too often in Dramione fanfics they are shown as lesser than because writers want to make Draco and Hermione exceptional, but your D and H are incredibly interesting and smart on a level that still allows them to shine next to remarkably wonderful Harry, Ron and all the other fascinating characters you write

Thank you so much! This is a really touching compliment, because I share the same pet peeve. Something I was careful of when writing the fic was not to pitch Harry and Ron too OOC (as with all canon divergences, you increasingly can't help it, and I think it shows in Harry the most — I just have to steer him a bit harder than JKR does in order to develop him when I can't rely on his internal monologue). I think there are three major reasons that Harry and Ron get washed out in Dramione fics — the first being a simple plot mechanic to get Hermione alone and in a mental state where she would be open to a connection with Draco, which, admittedly, is pretty unlikely if Harry and Ron remain in the picture. By the time OOTP wraps, she and Draco are just so ensconced in their separate social circles that she seems to regard him as irrelevant in HBP, so obviously, if they're going to get together sometime in that timeframe or afterward, their social situations need to change. On the other hand, though, if a fanfiction is taken in some respects as a theoretical argument for how a ship could happen, I always thought Harry/Ron bashing was implicitly a sort of weak argument for D/H, because it requires Hermione to be totally iced out of her own friend group before she considers Draco as a friend or partner. Not to mention that you lose the opportunity to develop these rich auxiliary relationships (Hermione and Harry as unofficial siblings, Draco and Harry as foils, Draco and Ron as foils, Harry and Ron as platonic soulmates) that provide shape and contrast to Draco and Hermione's relationship. The books are a story about love and family! Different kinds of love! And deep platonic love, honestly, more than anything else!

The other side of the coin is that bashing sometimes happens as a natural consequence of having to Do Something About Ron. The need to retcon Hermione's crush and/or relationship and/or marriage with Ron to clear the stage for Draco means that a fanfic author has to just fiat some stuff from the books out of existence. And so you get Death Eater Ron, or Ron as a terrible boyfriend, or cheating, or just being cruel. Or dead! I've read a few where Ron just gets unceremoniously fridged, which is maybe a little better than character assassination, but also pretty sad for all rare us Dramione Ron Enjoyers. Like, I don't think that Ron and Hermione would work out, but I think that's because they share zero interests and tend to aggravate each other's insecurities, not because they don't care about each other, or God forbid, that Ron was secretly a shit person and a bad friend for seven years.

Then you have the final group, which is people who actually do dislike Ron for his behavior in the text. Everyone has that right, so I don't hate, and I can especially understand it if you read his arcs in Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows a certain way (I hate the first half of Deathly Hallows, actually, almost exclusively because of the dumb ass Ron's Vacation subplot). JKR doesn't do him any favors here, because she doesn't give him a real reconciliation with Harry or Hermione before he comes back in Deathly Hallows — all their fights sort of end with a shrug and a joke and a comment like, "wow, that sucked, let's not do that again," which is not unrealistic, if you're talking about teenagers, but also does not solve the problem that caused the fight, and we know that because it keeps happening in other books: someone steps on Ron's feelings, he lashes out, they get hurt, and instead of asking for sympathy or trusting his friends to mend his feelings if he explains them, he storms off to sulk. (This is a pattern that I imagine starting at the Burrow, when poor Arthur and Molly just wouldn't have had time to have proper sit-downs and debriefs whenever their kids fought, and so Ron's self-soothing method was to isolate — we see hints of this in Chapter 32-33, and again near the end of Chapter 38 — until he can pretend to get over it.) But going from just canon, it's not impossible to come up with a reading of Ron as this selfish jerk who gets jealous of his friends and screws them over when he gets mad at them. A lot of those people come to Dramione for the catharsis of watching Hermione find a bond with someone who just... doesn't do that, and I don't blame them at all. All the same, I hope Lionheart!Ron can offer an opportunity to experience the joys of Ron Enjoyment for a wider demographic.

[m0srael]

A series in which I ask my mutuals for fanwork recs, and then come back and tell you why I loved them. Any chance you have something to rec (the criteria are virtually non-existent)? Please, please send it on. Here is my original ask with more info.

I Was Recced:

As The Lights Lift Around Us by @zeziliazink [Drarry | M | 25.6k]

“What?” Draco said, finally looking Potter in the eye. Potter’s eyes were wide and green below his raised eyebrows. It must have been the lenses of his glasses sharpening the flecks of color in his irises, because they were almost shimmering in the light of the hundred-year old sconce on the brick wall behind Draco’s head, and oh fuck, he was still looking Potter in the eye, what the fuck, how was he supposed to get out of this, now?  In which our heroes become reacquainted in a pub, spend a whole day together that turns into night, and then...? Featuring a minor freakout (Draco), a brand new song (Harry), and affectionate exasperation (all of their friends). Will Draco figure his shit out before Harry gives up? Will Harry survive the Venomous Tentacula? Will Draco ever decide which tea he wants? Will Harry's HooTube commenters ever forgive him for falling in love?

As the Lights is a stark departure from last week's read: Open Fire by Slytherco. With tags like "musician!Harry", "flying teapots", "lots of blushing", and "lots of grinning", you might expect this fic to be super cute and fluffy--and you would be absolutely right! Zezilia gives us just enough angst in this Enemies-to-Friends-to-Lovers story to make the getting together feel genuine and believable without making us doubt for one second that these boys we love so much will end up happily together. Reading this story made me feel so warm and fuzzy that I inhaled it in a day, and I highly recommend you do so as well! In addition to the classic, very gay trope of the "24 hour date" and musician!Harry's smoldering good looks and endearing friendship with Luna (who fronts a band called Luna Lovegood and the Good Loves !!!!!), there are a couple of specific things I want to shout out about this story:

🐣 Draco Malfoy's Journey to Healing His Inner Child Is there another person, real or fictional, who needs to heal their inner child as much as Draco Malfoy?? Arguably Harry James Potter, but when we meet him in this fic he's well on his way. I love how Zezilia skillfully peppers in all these little but significant ways that Draco is trying--consciously and subconsciously--to re-parent himself and to replace all the vicious, unkind voices that have populated his head for so long. His mirror has the voice and personality of someone's doting grandmum, for goodness' sake! But beyond that, we get to witness Draco learning how to allow himself to be earnest, to openly enjoy the things he likes, and to be a little weird! It helps that he has two of the world's best friends, Sophie and Ravi (Zezilia's OCs), to encourage and support him. Honestly, I desperately want a Sophie. It's so gratifying to watch Draco not only love himself for who he really is, but learn that other people will love his true self, too.

🧙🏻‍♂️ The Wonder of the Wizarding World I adore the ways that Zezilia has woven the most magical parts of the wizarding world through this story. The way that they use magic to embellish scenes and complicate the characters lives is so delightful. Whether it's a particularly bawdy painting of a shepherd tending his flock (and other things), the most magical sounding café with Cheering Charm-infused pastries, or a magical park full of animated (and also bawdy!) statues, Zezilia doesn't hold back on the whimsy!

And a bonus: this fic is pro-Hot!Neville, and so am I. So very much.

If you read this (or have read it), let me know what you think!!

*

I Was Recced As The Lights Lift Around Us by @softlystarstruck, so I read:

morning light [victuuri | G | 1.8k]

A cozy winter morning, and a new term of endearment.

Okay, so technically speaking I have read everything Bee has ever written--much of it several times--which means this was a (blissful) re-read for me. I've gushed about my favorite stories Bee has written before (starlight (the unsuccessful return of a runaway prince), to be a bit of warmth (for you), you bring me home, their kinktober 2021 collection, for starters) but I have yet to really rec this one. Since most of my mutuals will be familiar with the way Bee writes our favorite boys, Draco and Harry, I am here to implore you to dig into their Yuri!!! on Ice fics on AO3, even if you aren't familiar with the source material!

Bee takes all the tenderness, care, and intimacy which which they write their Drarry stories and carefully molds it to fit these two lovely, anxious men. What I love most about Bee's writing is that they are able to gently pick up two characters, see right to the heart of them, and then translate all their deepest desires and fears right onto the page in beautiful prose (and sometimes verse!). This means that while morning light feels undeniably "Bee" in its tone, pacing, and use of endearments, the relationship between Viktor and Yuuri is unique and so true to their characters. Viktor (off-screen) is bold and confident and commanding, while Yuuri (everywhere, all the time) is anxious, self-effacing, and unsure. In this close, intimate moment Bee manages to capture all of their facets, allows them to let their guards down, and helps them to grow even closer to one another. This fic is warm, quiet, blushy, and so, so lovely!

Thanks for sending me a recommendation!

[weirdo09]

everything’s fair in love and soul

a bywheelclair modern au fic chapter 1

little tip: play “candy grapes” by fousheé (feat. steve lacy) when it comes up, you’ll know…

sometimes max mayfield can be bossy but, especially tonight as her friends, will and lucas would say. she has been begging them to go to a concert with her all week and eventually, they caved. “ah, yes! i knew you two would agree!” max exclaimed smugly. “yeah, yeah, yeah whatever, max but, who’s playing?” lucas said, rolling his eyes playfully at her. “oh, well i won’t tell you until we get there.” max replied with a shit eating grin. will and lucas both huffed but decided not to pester her further for max’s lips will most likely be sealed until they get to whatever concert she’s planned to go to. soon, max dragged will and lucas into her car and they were off.

“are you really sure that you won’t tell us who’s playing?” will asked curiously. max just looked at him through the mirror and kept driving. “just stop trying, you know her.” lucas whispered low enough for her not to hear. will nodded in agreement and looked out the window. the three of them have been friends since forever, well technically since elementary school but it feels like forever. him and lucas first meet in kindergarten and max soon joined them in third grade. they were your average gang of weird little kids and they’ve stuck together ever since. even when will came out to them, max and lucas didn’t treat him any different and when they(max and lucas) both came out as bisexual, will didn’t treat them different either.

will smiled at the memories of their friendship, so distracted by them that he didn’t hear max telling them that they arrived nor did he also hear lucas telling him. so, lucas shook him out of his day dream.(night dream?) “earth to will?” lucas said, slight worry creeping in his voice. will shook his head “oh, sorry are we there yet?” will replied with a dry chuckle. “yup, now c’mon i wanna see this band!” lucas said, grabbing will’s hand and dragging him out the car. they walked over to max, who was leaning against the entrance. “took you guys long enough, what were you doing, kissing?” max said jokingly but for some reason, it made will’s cheeks heat up and he nervously chuckled at the comment. “no, max but, can we go in now?” lucas asked, letting go of will’s hand making will miss the warmth. “yeah, yeah, c’mon now, grumpy pants.” max said, walking in the building with lucas and will close behind.

as they walked inside, will instantly felt the atmosphere began to shift, the overall mood of the place reminded him of one of those soul food places he’d occasionally pass by on his way to lucas’. it was like being transported to a whole new world and that feeling would continue to stay as the band began to start playing. “hey you guys, i’m gonna go to the bathroom real quick.” max said before dashing through the crowds of people. will hummed in recognition, focusing on the stage and staying close to lucas.

suddenly, will heard the sound of soulfully guitar then the sound of a man’s vocals

‘oh, it’s easy to love me’

will felt like the world began to slow down around him like, it was finally at peace and he enjoyed that feeling.

‘try me, i swear’ ‘i’m gonna let down my hair’ ‘i’m gonna break things in here’

the vocalist seemed to gravitationally pull will closer towards the stage. he looked to see if anyone was feeling the same way and surely, lucas seemed to as well. this mysterious guy had jet black hair that reached to his shoulders, looked pretty tall, wore what seemed to be a flannel, some shirt with an artist on it, black jeans and black converses. ‘he’s hot..’ the thought struck will’s head and he couldn’t help but believe it.

‘i could hit you with the draco’

with that lyric, will remember the song, candy grapes. he remember the day that he first heard the song. he was at lucas’ and it played on his phone which suddenly made him want to slow dance. once, lucas heard what he was playing, they began to dance to the music together. will smiled at the adorably cheesy memory which also made him blush surprisingly.

‘you come for me, i don’t play fair’

will started swaying to the song, softly singing along.

‘some say we’re the weirdos’

by this time, max was already back from the bathroom. she herself was secretly singing in there along with the music, max smiled at her best friends enjoying the show. ‘i knew they would like this.’ max thought as she walked over to them.

‘i wanna be on your side(ooh, ooh, ooh)’

as the mystery guy sang this, it seemed like he sang that towards will, well at least to him, it did.

at the song’s end, everyone applauded some were even shouting appreciation. the main singer grinned and bowed along with the rest of the band. will’s mood shifted back to reality and he was met with max asking him and lucas, “did you enjoy the show, boys?” both of them hummed in agreement. “ok so, do you wanna meet them?” max then asked with a smile on her face. will and lucas’ eyes found each other, both looking like they were thinking the same thing, “is she serious right now?” max must’ve noticed their bewilderment because soon, she dragged backstage to meet the band.

as they walked backstage, will felt a knot in his stomach telling him ‘do you seriously like a guy you’ve never met?’ will thought about this then thinking ‘do i really?’

once they got backstage, will watched as max began hugging and fist pumping different members of the band. she stopped as she got to the mystery guy. “will, lucas, meet mike, mike wheeler.” max introduced, ‘so that’s his name..’ will thought and mentally noted. “i’m lucas, lucas sinclair.” lucas said smilingly. will took that as his queue to introduce himself. “oh, i’m will, will byers.” he said with a small wave.

mike smiled at both of them. “uhm, nice to meet the two of you. i’m mike as you know and if max’s hasn’t told you already, i’m one of her friends.” mike said with a small smile. will’s lips parted as if he was about to speak but no words came out though, his head was absolutely flooding with them. ‘his voice’s really nice.’ he thought as he also thought of what to say. “funny, max’s never mentioned you before, uhm nice to meet you too, mike.” will said sheepishly.

max took that as a sort of bonding moment but also a second thing. sure, max knew both of the two(mike and will) long enough to know when they had a crush and she was certain that will took a special liking to mike which clicked in her brain as a sign to get them together. then she took a glance at lucas and thought, ‘might as well add him too.’ max’s friends were all like open books to her and she was certain she’d at least make them more than acquaintances.

max smirked to herself and the others started talking about random things. “so, what made you decided to play candy grapes?” will asked with a hint of nervousness. “oh uhm, i just really liked the guitar and the vocals.” mike replied with a charming smile. weirdly, that made will feel…warm? “that’s cool, uh me too. when’s your guy’s next concert?” will said. “next friday, just so you know, you’re welcome backstage anytime. you too, lucas.” mike said with a wink.

max guffawed loudly, startling everyone in the room. she continued to laugh for 5 minutes straight. “what’s so funny, maxine?” mike asked sarcastically. slapping her knee, max replied “oh nothing, just you trying miserably to flirt with guys you just met.” mike’s face scrunched up as max continued to laugh, a little blush colored his facial features. will blushed as well, just a little darker in shade. lucas just laughed at max and mike. after max finally stopped laughing for the second time, she wiped an imaginary tear. “you are definitely something else, wheeler.” max said, chuckling. “yeah, yeah, you haven’t changed a bit since high school, mayfield.” mike said, cracking a smile.

when the gang(max, lucas and will) headed out, will asked max what she meant backstage. “oh don’t worry, will i meant nothing by it. unless, you actually do like mike.” max said, hopping in the driver’s seat. “har, har, har very funny.” will said dryly as he got in the backseat with lucas. lucas and max began arguing over what music they should play when will thought on what max said. ‘there’s no way.’ will thought, laughing.

what will happen next? possibly a little bywheelclair hangout? or matchmaker max? ;)

@shutuperce @foodiewithdahoodie @atbyler @eefonline @adorewillbyers @adoremikewheeler @xhavibee @yelenapines @pimplepogue @cgi-heart-eyes @shortcakezzzz

[andithiel]

Flufftober day 12 - "You kept this?"

Well, real life is still a thing and it still gets in the way of my writing. I've had this in my drafts for a month and now I finally managed to finish this @flufftober prompt. Thank you to the ever amazing @crazybutgood for looking this over, I appreciate you more than I can say 😘

It’s when Draco helps Harry sort through his old boxes (to be helpful, of course. It’s absolutely not because he doesn’t want to let old junk into their new shared home, not at all, Potter!) that he finds it: Tucked inside his old The Essential Defence Against the Dark Arts book, its creases worn and almost see through, lies a familiar looking paper crane. 

Draco is frozen for half a second before he opens it and carefully smoothes it out against the cover of the book. The charm of the illustration inside has faded somewhat and is mostly stuck on the image of Harry being struck by lightning. Draco lets out a surprised chuckle, eyes stinging.

“What?”

Harry comes up behind him, resting his chin on Draco’s shoulder.

Draco turns the paper over, starts to fold it into a bird again. He spent so many times practising how to, it’s still engraved in his muscle memory even though it’s been over ten years.

“You kept this?” he says, annoyed at how wobbly his voice comes out.

Harry snorts softly; it tickles. “Guess I did.”

“But… why?”

Harry shrugs, his shoulders brushing Draco’s body with the movement. “I actually found it a few years ago when I was sorting through my things. I guess I must’ve just shoved the crane in there in Third Year and forgot about it. But when I found it, I…” 

He trails off, then snorts softly again. Draco turns around; Harry’s looking down at his feet, one hand rubbing at his neck.

“You…?” Draco prompts.

Harry looks up at him, one dimple visible even with his repressed smile. “I sort of kept it because… Well, even if you were a little shit when you made it for me, I looked at it with fondness when I found it. It was right about when we’d become friends, and I started to realise that I had feelings for you, so…” He looks down again, his cheeks turning a darker shade. “I think I kept it because… Okay, please don’t think of me as a lovesick school girl, but I kept it because it was the only physical thing I had to remind me of you back then.”

It’s hard for Draco to swallow around the lump in his throat that forms with the mix of shame for his past self and affection for Harry. He has to blink several times at the mental image of Harry carefully handling this stupid paper crane, made out of spite, as something precious.

Harry puts his hands on top of Draco’s, calming his fidgeting. “I have to admit, I think the drawing is pretty accurate.”

Draco lets out a surprised bark of laughter, tearing his eyes from the crane to look at Harry. There are so many things he wants to say. He’s still not sure he’s deserving of Harry, not after all the nasty things he did. But Harry smiles at him in that way he does when he knows what Draco’s thinking, when there are no words left that he hasn’t already said.

“Could you maybe show me how to make one? We could… we could use them as decorations in our new home.”

Our new home. Draco has to blink away the tears stinging his eyes, and he doesn’t trust his voice to carry, so Harry continues.

“Maybe it would be fitting, you know, how we started and how it’s going. Remembering old memories while we’re creating new ones.”

Finally, Draco manages to nod. “Yeah,” he sniffles. “I’d like that. As soon as we’ve settled in. And as soon as we’ve got rid of your ridiculous coffee table.”

Harry lets out a belly shaking laugh. “That’s the spirit.” He gives Draco a soft hug, enveloping Draco in his warm scent. “Best start right away before I Confund you about that coffee table.”

[slytherintragedy]

✩༺♥༻✩ ━ ❝if they find out we slept together, we're in big trouble.❞

✪ 。゜ ⠀ ☆ 。゜ ⠀ ★ Answered » { Hermione }

✦ —   * ⠀ / ⠀ 𝙁𝙄𝙇𝙀𝘿 𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍 ⠀﹕⠀ ❪ @bccksmarts ❫

It was never supposed to happen, they were meant to hate each other. And Draco never, ever thought something like that was possible but one night had changed everything. It had started out like any other day, the Slytherin spent the day causing mischief with his friends. And by that evening, he was just doing his own thing. Was goofing around when he stumbled upon what seemed to be a fight between two familiar Gryffindors, which was awkward but he didn't walk away. Mainly because it wasn't long before the two were storming off in different directions, unfortunately though Hermione did end up running straight into him. And the Slytherin could have been a little shit, which wouldn't have been anything new. Don't get him wrong, he did PLAYFULLY tease her a bit but the night ended in a twist. They ended up hooking up, not even once but more than once that night. As he would like to say her night on the wild side but it was only for that night and afterwards they avoided each other like the plague.

But then rumors started to spread around, which Malfoy found amusing at most. It shouldn't because really it was no one's business but it was their guesses of WHOM this mystery person could be that amused him, honestly how anyone found out was beyond him but he wasn't about to question it. But then one night when he was alone and walking back to his house, the Slytherin was pulled aside quickly. Which Draco was about to react when he realized it was Hermione, which caused him to narrow his eyes at the Gryffindor. Had stood there quietly to hear her out but eventually he shut her up with a kiss before correcting her. Kissing her some more, letting his hands roam until she broke the kiss to state the obvious. Which caused a soft snicker that lacked any real mockery to escape his throat at her statement. ❝Oh no Princess, you don't say? And here I thought, we'd be welcomed like royalty.❞ Malfoy teased with a smirk. ❝But seriously, I'm more than aware if anyone knew about us then trouble will follow. But they don't know so what's the harm? Besides you had fun, didn't you? So why not just say hell with it and live life on the edge?❞