#Selina Textbook

[incorrectbatfam]

The batfam as things on my computer before I go and clear up my storage

Dick: an MP4 of that Boston cop getting launched out of that slide ass first at mach 7

Jason: drum tabs that I had to heavily revise because they were written by a guitarist and I would need 3 hands to play them otherwise

Tim: codes copied and pasted from GitHub because that's the only way I would've gotten my degree

Damian: several pictures of my dog that I plan to print and put in an album

Duke: a bunch of sci-fi fonts I downloaded to play with

Cullen: kinda blurry pictures of My Chemical Romance when I saw the reunion tour

Stephanie: one of my college textbooks that I checked out of the library and scanned instead of buying

Cassandra: enough pirated music for the FBI to actually spare a glance

Barbara: a program I made to appear like I was at home on my computer that I can use as an alibi in case I get accused of something

Harper: a note where I made fun of the Titan submersible because it wasn't socially acceptable to do so in public

Carrie: a folder of blank meme templates

Kate: a detailed calendar reminder from when I had to dispute a parking ticket

Helena: a beginner's guide to the Korean alphabet because my last job had half its employees in Seoul and I needed to know who was who on Zoom calls

Luke: workout notes and routines that I never actually stick to

Bette: a VPN because sometimes American Netflix just doesn't cut it

Alfred: a lot of emailed receipts—basically half my inbox is receipts

Selina: a copy of my friends' Amazon wishlists

Bruce: my account passwords but they're written in a cipher

[sunnyrealist]

Let's Talk about Sebastian's Parents

I recently needed to write about Mr. and Mrs. Sallow for my fanfic, and because there is very little information out there, I had to invent a lot of backstory as to who they were and what life was like for the Sallow family prior to their deaths.

I'm so curious to know what headcanons others in the fandom have created about them. It would be interesting if some of us had similar thoughts. If you're willing, would you share your own ideas via comment or reblog? Thanks!

I threw in a little preview above of one of my many commissions from @giselsann-opencommissions that I've been sitting on for quite some time. I don't usually post them until I get to the plot points they depict. This one is close enough - I'll show the entire thing real soon.

Before I get to my headcanons, this is what Hogwarts Legacy: The Official Game Guide has to say about Sebastian's parents (see last paragraph):

Here is the background I created for my fic:

Their names were Samuel and Selina (Ware) Sallow. Their family and friends called them Sam and Lina.

They were both pureblood and the same age.

They met at Hogwarts. Sam was in Slytherin, and Lina was in Ravenclaw.

When they were students, they were academic rivals - not "enemies," per se, but they were not exactly friends until they were assigned as partners for a project in Potions during their seventh year. They realized how similar they were and fell in love.

They got married very quickly after graduation but didn't have Anne and Sebastian until they were older (around 30).

The two of them eventually became teachers at Hogwarts. Sam taught Magical Theory (predecessor to Professor Fig), and Lina taught Defense Against the Dark Arts (predecessor to Professor Hecat). They were experts in their fields.

They moved to Aranshire when they became professors. I believe they lived in the spider house in Hogwarts Legacy (there's actually evidence to back this up). It was FILLED with books to the point that it was practically a library.

The cellar was their workspace, and the twins knew that when their parents were down there that they were not to be disturbed unless there was an emergency.

Both of the Sallows were incredibly studious and conducted a lot of research in their spare time. They sometimes teamed up to study particular subjects, such as defensive magical theory and love as a form of magic in its purest form. They didn't view Dark magic as inherently evil, just as everyday magic is not always perfectly good.

Mr. and Mrs. Sallow were quite lovey-dovey. Sebastian remembers them reading in front of the fireplace, engrossed in their own books, but always holding hands or touching. He also remembers being grossed out as a little boy by how often they would kiss.

Neither of them had big families, and just about all of their family members had passed by the time the twins were born. Solomon Sallow was their only living relative at the time of their deaths.

They took the twins to Hogwarts often during summer breaks, so they had a head start on learning the lay of the land and the school's curriculum. Sam and Lina had them read some of their textbooks prior to their first year so that they could get the most out of their education.

They wanted the twins to be well-rounded, so they taught them multiple languages. Lina considered music a language and taught them how to play piano. She also would sing them a song every night when she put them to bed.

Lina was exceptionally gentle, despite her interest in magical combat, Dark magic, Dark creatures, etc. She tended to coddle and fuss over the children. Every year on their birthday, she would bake a spice cake with vanilla icing. She was proficient in both Muggle and magical healing. Her nicknames for Sebastian and Anne were "little prince" and "little princess" - "the little twin rulers."

As far as looks, Sebastian takes after Lina, who had curly auburn hair and freckles. While Anne got a few of Lina's freckles, her hair is similar to Sam's.

Sam loved to give the twins sweets behind their mother's back. He had a distinct laugh and enjoyed reading stories aloud and "doing the voices." He taught the kids how to play Quidditch; he had once been a beater. When he traveled for his studies and would come home with unique artifacts and new information, he would share all of it with the twins in plain language, never talking down to them. I see Sam as an Atticus Finch kind of father.

Christmas was a simple affair. They'd have Uncle Solomon over for dinner, and he would leave pretty quickly after dessert (he and Sam were not close and disagreements were frequent). The twins were always gifted two items: a new book and something particularly interesting, useful, or coveted.

They liked animals and had an Old English Sheepdog named Endy (short for Endymion).

Again, I would love to hear your headcanons. Are yours similar or completely different from mine? Sound off in the comments or reblog! I love discussions like this.

[kamiko1234]

Okay I have finished chapter 16 of TLO and OH MAN. So first off, SELINA WAS THE SPY AND THEN SHE DIED!? Poor thing! For real poor, poor thing. In wondered when she got her second thoughts. Like in what book did it happen? My personal headcanon is that it happened during TTC. But also the fact that SHE WANTED TO STOP BUT LUKE PRESSURED HER INTO!? Litteral textbook circle of abuse where Luke pressures her the same way Kronos did him 😭 With the added hurt of Luke genuinly believing that he's doing it for the greater good. AND THEN SELINA JUST DIED TO GET ARES THERE.

At least she can be with her boyfriend now i guess???? AND I ALSO LOVE THE CLARISSE DEVELOPMENT WITH SELINA'S DEATH. OUCHY. Not sure how to deal with the fact that Percy apparently isn't the hero??? Really confused why Rachel would say that tbh- he's like the only option. Maybe it's supposed to be a "don't play the hero" warning? In the sense that he needs to be careful and shouldn't disregard his friends??? Idk, let's see how this'll go. As always I ask you not to spoil me.

[arabriddler]

Oswald's Origin-- Part 2

(Previous)

Despite growing up poor in The Narrows, Oswald had an... alright life. Sure there are holes at the bottom of his shoes, the patch his mother had sown into his shirt is too girly, and the kids bully him often, but his mother did all she could to make his life...well...bearable.

She juggled many Jobs to keep them afloat. They kept a jar in the middle of their apartment where they'd collect any extra bit of money in. It was to afford admitting Oswald to school. It was a slow process, the money they had barely kept them afloat, and Gertude loved Oswald dearly, if he ever wanted something, she'd get it for him, even if she had to steal it.

Oswald grew up poor, sure, but at least she can help make him happy. Still, raising a child in the narrows as a single mother was scary. She took him with her everywhere, often too scared to leave him alone and unattended. There are many homeless kids around The Narrows, like that Selina child, and she'd hate for her son to end up like that. This proved to be helpful. While adjustment was hard for Gertude, it's easier for Oswald considering he was a child. He learned the language quickly and often helped translate or negotiate things in behalf of his mother. He learned responsibility at a young age.

One day, Gertude announced that their lives will take a drastic change for the better. She got a Job upstate working as a maid for The Flacones. They offered her a little room in their mansion and she could bring Oswald along. Life was a little better there. There was plenty of food, clothes, and the jar started filling up a little better. Oswald was twelve when his mother started working at Falcone's. The realized he's too old for school now, but they can use the money in the jar for university.

Oswald enjoyed his stay at the Falcone estate. Falcone had two kids, Sofia and Alberto. Alberto was often coddled by his father as the next in line as head of the family, Sofia was ... left out. Oswald got along with her. They'd sneak into the don's study and listen to the dealings of the Gotham underworld. Sofia was smart and she wanted to be the head of the family, especially since Alberto didn't want to ( but the don wouldn't have it ). Oswald was inspired too, he wanted to grow up to own a mansion and be as powerful as the don, untouchable.

Sofia was... special. She was bullied too because she was born with a strong giant build. Despite that, she liked dressing up in beautiful dresses and put make up on. She encouraged Oswald to join her. It's nice to look at yourself at the mirror and realize how beautiful you are despite what people say.

Oswald was 17, jar halfway full, when things went bad. Some rich kids were playing near the Falcone estate and one of them had a textbook. Oswald was simply curious when he asked what the book was about. The kids refused to tell him and started calling him name, which he ignored, but when they started calling his mother names...well. He attacked them, but they were too many, and soon their older siblings joined and beat Oswald and broke his ankle.

Gertude couldn't tell Falcone about this, he'd kick them out! she took Oswald to a clinic but she didn't have enough money to treat his leg, even if she sacrificed all the money in the jar. She had to steal some from Falcone, not much, but only some.

Yet, she was caught red handed, and they were kicked out immediately. The Don values loyalty after all.

( next )

[clawsextended]

holly is incredibly tolerant of selina. most people would think it weird, how patient she is with her mother’s eccentricity. how little her strangeness bothers her, and how easily she ebbs and flows with all of the cat’s decisions.

but the thing is that was not always so. whatsoever. a young holly was nothing but an infant, bounced from one lap to another through a stuttering series of stinted foster homes — golden curls and a garish giggle — and that toddler was finally placed in a home with one selina kyle. it was selina who first took to the child, and it was holly who bit and scratched and screamed and shrieked. she was fussy, loud, made messes everywhere. (and she remembers selina taking the punishments. she remembers selina insisting the coloring all over the walls was her even if it didn’t make any fucking sense.)

holly didn’t know that girl. so she didn’t trust her. she was so little, and she’d never, ever known anyone, really, so why would she be different? for the first couple years or so of knowing selina, holly was a holy terror to her — which was only rational for a little girl who didn’t know her at all, who had never had parents, who had only ever been cooed over and shuffled around between grownups.

by the time she’s around 12, holly’s already survived enough trauma to fill several lifetimes thrice her own. she’s got a form of ptsd so complex it’s mutated into a new genome. her adhd is erratic and scattered and viciously forgetful — she leaves books in school and the catwoman breaks in just to get textbooks from her locker. they get batburger after and she promises next time she won’t forget. she forgets two days later.

holly is patient with selina in a way words cannot convey because she has seen people be impatient with selina. she’s watched people forced her to wrench words from her throat when she couldn’t manage to speak. she’s seen her beaten within inches of her life for the simple sin often of opening her own mouth (and holly knows every time she doesn’t mean to). she’s seen her ridiculed for a silent distance selina often could not help, and she’s seen times when selina was too young and too shutdown to so much as wince in reply. holly is kind to selina even when it seems improbable because she can’t bear to be any other way, not when she’s watched selina curl up tight and she’s coiled into her arms and listened to her whispering incomprehensibly. holly remembers expecting her to cry and being surprised when she never felt any wet, warm salt trickle down her cheek. when she looked up, she just remembers that half-lidded look on her mom’s face, staring, constantly exhausted. selina had only been fifteen. she wouldn’t be able to cry for another handful of years.

selina makes holly feel safe. but the reverse is also extremely true.

[memoria-99]

Wizardess Heart:

Redesigned canon characters & Original characters

... that are planned to be in my fanfic someday

In this post I'll just introduce them briefly, and maybe in the next post I'll post more specific profiles for each

Warning: This post includes a genderbent one, so if you don't wanna see those stuff feel free to go back

#1 (Canon redesign)

Name: Liz Hart

Appearance: Brown hair, reddish pink eye and purple eye

MBTI: ENFP

Specialty: Baking, Talking to animals, Time control

Class: Day Class Fortitudo

Roommate: Amelia Nile

Alias: Goddess of Time

Alive Relatives: Count Hart(distant relative, adoptive father), Countess Hart(distant relative, adoptive mother)

In Class: Overall good listener, reacts a lot. But reacts a lot to other students as well and daydreams more than that.

#2 (Canon redesign)

Name: Amelia Nile

Appearance: Orange hair(wavy), orange eyes

MBTI: ESFJ

Specialty: Physical activities, Charm, Purification

Class: Day Class Potestas

Roommate: Liz Hart

Alias: Sol Maiden

Alive relatives: Father, Mother, Stepmother, Younger siblings

In Class: Greets professors cheerfully. Pays attention and reacts a lot. Sometimes dozes off.

#3 (Original character)

Name: Heidi Alpheus

Appearance: Magenta pink hair(wavy), blue eyes

MBTI: ENTP

Specialty: Drawing, Telecommunication with nature, Reading minds

Class: Day Class Fortitudo & Night Class

Roommate: Erin Leiado

Alias: Mother Nature

Alive Relatives: Serge Durandal(maternal cousin)

In Class: Participates actively. Asks tons of questions, which usually have a point.

#4 (Original character)

Name: Erin Leiado

Appearance: Silver hair, black eyes

MBTI: INTP

Specialty: Playing the piano, Spellsinging, Controlling others' will

Class: Day Class Vir Ingeniosus

Roommate: Heidi Alpheus

Alias: Songstress Diva

Alive Relatives: Mother, Younger sister, Saella(distinct ancestor), Cerim Leiado(paternal cousin)

In Class: Quiet listener, but tries different way rather than copying the textbook. Often gets pinned on one point and is trapped in that thought. Reads other books when bored, only to get scolded when found out.

#5 (Canon genderswap)

Name: Lucienne Duller

Appearance: Pale violet hair, yellow eyes

MBTI: ISFP

Specialty: Dancing, Embroidery, Monitoring dreams, Space control

Class: Night class

Roommate: Selina Goldstein

Alias: Princess of the Labyrinth

Alive Relatives: None

In Class: Is asleep half of the times. Is awake in the other half, mostly because the exam is close.

#6 (Original character)

Name: Selina Goldstein

Appearance: Blonde hair, pale green eyes

MBTI: INFJ

Specialty: Writing, Controlling marionettes, Talking to ghosts

Class: Night Class

Roommate: None -> Lucienne Duller

Alias: Shadow Queen

Alive Relatives: Walter Goldstein(father), Alfonse Goldstein(half-brother), Klaus Goldstein(half-brother), Elias Goldstein(half-brother)

In Class: Quietly writes everything down, then asks question after class.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

#OnlyInGotham

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ISQUXPL by forevernightfall danny —  @angelslikeme   › was at the Jason Todd Memorial Library where i work when the breakout happened. the joker got inside and was being weirder than he normally is so i did the logical thing — threw my uni textbook at his head. he collapsed and didnt get up, idk if he was breathing +   > danny — @angelslikeme › robin and nightwing came in and took him away but that was Traumatic ™ but it's okay cause black bat gave me a hug #OnlyInGotham ____________________ or, the gothamites band together and twitter slowly goes to shambles as the OnlyInGotham hashtag starts trending internationally. Words: 1167, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Series: Part 5 of chat/social media fics, Part 8 of AU ; soulmates, Part 6 of hero's, man Fandoms: DCU, Batman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: M/M Characters: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Wally West, Duke Thomas, Cassandra Cain, Original Characters, Other Character Tags to Be Added Relationships: Roy Harper/Jason Todd, Dick Grayson/Wally West, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Batfamily Members (DCU) & Others, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added Additional Tags: Social Media, Twitter, gothamites band together to hurt the joker, Jason Todd is a sweetheart, Book Nerd Jason Todd, eat the rich, Rich Tim Drake, Brucie Wayne - Freeform, Richie Grayson, dumb rich men, yes this IS a cape fic, gothamites - Freeform, Only in Gotham, Fluff, Crack, literally only crack, Seriousness treated like crack, Humour, LIAN HARPER MY DAUGHTER, bruce wayne is an okay dad, he tries and we love that, Oliver Queen is a Meh Dad, he tries slightly less, gay people, Straight People, Romantic love, Soulmates read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/ISQUXPL

[nerdhappenings]

more headcanons on the batfamily in hogwarts houses? i'm curious for your opinion. you can also include sub-houses if you'd like!

Oh, man. I'll just do the Batfam I know most.

-Bruce Wayne

-Bruce Wayne is the Avatar of Hogwarts Houses

-Gryffindor? Brave, helps others literally all the time

-Hufflepuff? Hard worker, patient, loyal

-Ravenclaw? Intelligent, witty, planning, knowledgeable

-Slytherin? Ambitious, cunning, resourceful and heritage (kinda)

-Dude's literally got every amazing trait whattheheck

-I think I have to put him in Ravenclaw

-But man is it a hard choice

-Bruce's intellect is such an important part of his character

-His other aspects are very important to his character, too

-But his Ravenclaw traits are what set him apart from other heroes

-He's "the world's greatest detective"

-Often uses wit and intelligence to defeat his enemies

-His intelligence is what makes him such a notable foe to villains

-I'm not going to get mad if he's sorted in the other houses, though

-Dick Grayson

-Dick's probably a Hufflepuff, but mAN is Gryffindor close

-Friendliest, kindest dude you will ever meet

-Is good in every universe, even in ones where Superman is bad

-Hard worker and very fair

-Believes in love, or hope or something

-Jason Todd

-Jason's a Slytherin

-The other option for him I was thinking was Gryffindor, but dude's ambition and willingness to do almost anything to get his way helped me choose

-He has big ambitions for how Gotham should run, and he's more likely to play dirty

-Not particularly cunning but extremely resourceful

-Tim Drake

-There was no doubt in my mind that Tim's a Ravenclaw

-Intelligent and witty

-One of the smartest dudes

-Has backup plans for his backup plans

-Tim's always right and will make sure everyone knows it

-Damian Wayne

-Textbook Slytherin

-The sneakiest, brattiest kid you'll ever meet

-Will also do anything to get his way

-Cunning and resourceful

-Obsessed with his "status" and heritage

-Barbara Gordon

-Barabara, similar to Bruce, has many of the houses' traits

-I can see her in any of them, Slytherin probably the least

-I think it also depends on her era

-Like, as Batgirl she was more Gryffindor

-But as Oracle she was more Ravenclaw

-So I guess I'll put her in Hufflepuff, which she had during both eras

-Hard worker, loyal, kind and helpful

-Puts others first

-Stephanie Brown

-Steph I'd maybe put as Gryffindor?

-Admittedly I don't know much about her

-She seems pretty headstrong, though

-Determined and stubborn

-Cassandra Cain

-Similar to Bruce and Barbara, I can see a little bit everything in Cass

-I landed on Hufflepuff for her, though

-She's very loyal to the Batfam

-Extremely caring and helpful, as well

-Sweetest girl ever

-Duke Thomas

-Duke's a Hufflepuff

-Pretty soft spoken

-Extremely friendly and loving

-Hard worker

-He's very sweet

-Kate Kane

-I think I'm gonna put Kate in Ravenclaw

-Disclaimer though, I don't know too much about her, either

-Intelligent (she was in the military)

-Very witty and knowledgable

-Also tends to be a realist

-Alfred Pennyworth

-Probably a Hufflepuff

-Very hard working and loyal

-Patient and kind

-With his loved ones through thick and thin

-(Bonus) Selina Kyle

-Also probably a Slytherin (This family- geez)

-Very cunning and sneaky

-Will also do anything to get her way

-Ambitious and resourceful

Thanks for the ask! It was fun!

[priscus]

@clawsextended

selina is one of her father's closest friends; she's all but attached to her uncle bruce at the hip. oddly enough, that's why she's always seemed like the middle ground. some neutral no-man's land removed from the weird tenuous dynamic that exists between waylon, bruce, and diana. a safe place. a refuge.

which is why cleo is here --- duffle bag full of textbooks and her toothbrush under one arm --- crouched in the window of selina's apartment. she's much more of a climber than her father is. she doesn't like using front doors. it's hard to get in somewhere when you're a perfect mix of killer croc and cheetah. the fact that she got into gotham u? a miracle. and maybe some bruce wayne intervention.

" can i stay here for the weekend? daddy's driving me up a wall, and i have a term paper due on monday. "

in other words, her mother is back in town. and that's a problem for literally everyone in gotham, but especially for her father. especially for her.

[incorrectbatfam]

jason todd has turned all of the batfams names into verbs

Dick (v.): [REDACTED]

Jason (v.): being the best Robin and the hero that Gotham needs thanks to superior intellect, cool-ass weapons, and being the first person to survive death

Tim (v.): getting 0.5 hours of sleep

Dami (v.): similar to being a textbook obnoxious little brother but with a sword

Duke is already a verb

Cullen (v.): writing a 30k Destiel fanfiction at 2 A.M. on a school night

Steph (v.): eating the last piece of cake and blaming it on Batman

Cass (v.): lurking, but even lurkier

Babs (v.): accessing large amounts of personal information by guessing the username and password on the first try

Harper (v.): turning everything into a taser

Carrie (v.): ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Kate (v.): showing up when a deus ex machina is needed before disappearing to a condo in Barcelona

Alfie (v.): being Britishly un-British

Selina (v.): treating something like a cat even if it isn't one

Bruce (v.): stubbornly adhering to unrealistically abstract morals, setting fire to the kitchen every time you step in it, and having an unhealthy addiction to adopting every kid you see, but I'll give you a C+ for the time you left tissues and soup at my safehouse because I sneezed while we were fighting

[satansapostle6]

folie à deux

Sometimes poison is sweet.

Selina Romanov and Draco Malfoy met when they were only eleven years old. The two of them have always shared an intense bond, always having gravitated towards one another. But the question still remains, as the years pass by, is their connection one of passion, or delusion?

Warnings: Contains Mature Themes/Language, Themes Such As Sexual Content, Violence, Abuse, Sexual Assault, Eating Disorders

Fourteen.

It had been a week since the verdict of Marcus Flint's disciplinary hearing had been announced. Selina had been silently miserable the entire time, not really crying or screaming anymore, but not laughing or smiling much, either. She hadn't spoken to her Uncle Igor much since the hearing, and had no idea whether he would be able to successfully become her legal guardian. Jasper and Amana both stayed by Selina's side as much as they could, both devastated by the outcome of the hearing. None of them had spoken to or even looked at Elspeth since. Selina was of course still enraged by the school board's refusal to expel Flint, but was at least relieved by the fact that she no longer had to see him on Hogwarts grounds. At least, she thought, she had been granted that one source of relief. Spring was coming, but Selina was hardly in a spring sort of mood. Draco had also seemed particularly bitter following the outcome of the hearing. Although he and Jasper had been at odds ever since their fight in the corridor, the two of them had since calmed down in their own respective efforts to keep it together for Selina. 

But Selina was completely withdrawn at this point; she had been for a while. Nothing that had happened all term had really affected her the way it would have, whether it be positive or negative. Selina had been indifferent toward her own birthday, as well as her becoming Slytherin's team captain, in addition to escaped murderer Sirius Black being spotted, which almost led to an evacuation of the school. Selina was completely numb to the world, not having anything to offer anyone. Joy was lost on her, and she hadn't smiled much since. Jasper Carroll had done everything he could think of in an attempt to make her laugh, or even smile, but still, nothing had come of it.

Jasper and Selina were sitting alone in his dorm room after their lessons that day, silently reading through their textbooks, hoping to at least accomplish some preparations for their finals as long as they were both feeling miserable and antisocial. Selina had been looking through her Care of Magical Creatures textbook laid out on the bed, ignoring the tapping feeling on her ring for hours. Sighed aloud, she peeled off her silver ring and tossed it across the bed, forcing herself to focus. 

  "What is it?" her boyfriend looked up from his studies, brows furrowed. "Draco?"

  "Yeah, he keeps nudging the ring," she mumbled, not looking up. 

  "Is he alright?" Jasper asked passively, half-feigning his concern for Draco Malfoy's wellbeing.

  "Probably. I think he's with the boys, he probably wants us to come down," she muttered absentmindedly.

He thought for a moment, genuinely considering their options. 

  "Why don't we just go see what he wants?" he suggested, sounding surprisingly enthusiastic.

  "Why, I don't remember you being Draco's biggest fan?" Selina frowned, finally looking up from her work.

  "No, I'm not," Jasper remarked bluntly, "But you haven't even talked to anyone who isn't me or Amana in days. You should talk to your friends."

  "My 'friends'? You hate them," she pointed out.

  "I do," he admitted readily, "But, hey, they backed you up at the hearing, didn't they? And you could use a break, we've been studying for hours. You deserve it."

  "You're right about that," she nodded. "Alright. Fine. Let's go find them."

  "Good. Maybe we'll even have fun," Jasper said hopefully. 

  "Really? You, and Draco, fun?" she said dryly.

  Jasper thought about what she said. "Okay,

maybe I was being optimistic."

  "That's what I thought," she nodded, slamming her aggressive textbook shut.

Selina and Jasper searched for Draco and the other Slytherin boys, discovering the disturbing sight of a fully uniformly executioner in the courtyard.

  "Who the hell is that?" Jasper whispered as they awkwardly hurried past.

  "Walden Macnair," Selina murmured, glaring in his direction as Jasper chivalrously ushered her past. "He works at the Ministry as an executioner. He's insane."

  "What's he doing here?" he questioned, scanning Selina's features for answers. "...No. It's today?"

  "Yeah," she nodded, unable to take her eyes off of Macnair. "They're executing Buckbeak today."

  "That's terrible," Jasper breathed, feeling horrible for Hagrid. "Maybe we should pay Hagrid a visit..."

  "That's not a bad idea," Selina considered worriedly. 

They eventually found the boys, lurking about the grounds. Draco was standing around loitering with Crabbe and Goyle, as well as Theodore Nott. They seemed to all be relishing in the ordeal Draco had caused. 

  "Draco," Selina said without enthusiasm.

He looked up to see her, looking pleased that she'd actually showed up after hours of his hounding. 

  "Sel. Carroll," he beamed, "Care to watch the execution with us?"

  "'Execution'? It's a bird," she reasoned, "God, you're all idiots."

  "Come on, Sel, lighten up!" Draco Malfoy rolled his eyes, "It's free entertainment!"

Selina looked up to Jasper for guidance, only receiving an eager, encouraging nod in response.

  "Can I have a word?" she scowled impatiently.

  "Yeah, sure— Ow!" Draco exclaimed as she pulled him by the ear.

Nott and the others laughed, enjoying the sight of their friend being manhandled.

  "You told me you'd write to your father," Selina snapped. 

  Draco glanced back at his friends, hoping they overheard nothing. "Yeah, we'll, you know what usually happens when I try to argue with him!"

  "So this is it, then?" she groaned. "They're going to execute a bird like a war criminal, and that's just fine with you?"

  "What do you suggest I do, throw myself in front of Macnair?" Draco questioned. "Have you seen Macnair? He'd probably eat me!"

  "Yeah, well, you'd deserve it," Selina remarked out of frustration.

She sighed exhaustedly, briefly thinking to herself that she had no control over anything important before she scolded herself for giving into her thoughts. 

  "Hey. I tried, I really did," Draco tried to convince her. "There was nothing I could do."

  "Yeah. You're right about that," she agreed, unable to add anything else to that thought. 

Selina crossed her arms as she stood there silently, unable to redirect the conversation. 

  "Hey. How have you been doing?" Draco cocked his head at her. "I feel like we haven't spoken at all."

  "I haven't spoken at all," she corrected him bitterly. 

  "What's wrong?" he asked her, not knowing what else to say.

  "Nothing new," Selina shrugged, "Just... more of the same. You know?" she asked.

  Draco nodded, the answer making perfect sense to him given her current circumstances. "Yeah," he accepted the answer as they walked toward the others.

Crabbe, Goyle, and Theodore were all continuing to laugh at what was about to happen, thoroughly enjoying themselves. 

  "How far do you think the head will roll?" Theo asked with a chuckle. "I'll bet you ten sickles it'll roll down the hill."

  "I'll bet you twelve the giant oaf cries!" Vincent Crabbe cackled with laughter. 

Selina raised an eyebrow at Draco, picking up on a hint of discomfort as he considered what was happening. 

  "What do you think they do with the bird once they're done?" Goyle wondered. "Do you think they keep it? To eat, or something?"

Everyone, including Crabbe and Theo, all gave him strange looks. 

  "What did I tell you? Father said I can keep the Hippogriff's head. I think I'll donate it to the Gryffindor common room," Draco thought snidely, satisfied with himself as his friends laughed along.

Jasper Carroll only seemed annoyed by the comment. 

  "Wicked!" Theodore exclaimed excitedly. 

  Crabbe turned to the castle, a goofy grin appearing on his face. "Look who's here!"

Jasper and Selina knowingly exchanged looks, worried about what might unfold.

  "Ah, come to see the show?" Draco laughed cheerfully.

From that moment on, Jasper and Selina distanced themselves from his behavior entirely. 

  "This is going to end well," Jasper muttered under his breath, bracing himself as he cleared his throat. 

  "You!" Hermione Granger exclaimed, drawing her wand at Draco. "You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!"

This was about what Jasper and Selina had both been expecting. Draco, Goyle, and Nott were all terrified, despite their best efforts to remain composed. 

  "Hermione, no, it's not worth it!" Ron Weasley protested fearfully. 

Goyle and Nott did nothing at all to help as Draco whimpered and sniveled, silently praying that she wouldn't hurt him. He certainly looked pathetic, as if he were about to be in tears. Selina drew her wand instinctively, pointing it straight at Hermione. The two of them had never really spoken before, but until now, there had never even been any particular reason for bad blood between them. 

  "Selina..." Jasper watched her nervously, trying his best to make sure she was safe before anyone else. 

  "You curse him, Granger, and I'll blow your head off," Selina warned her calmly. 

Gregory Goyle and Theodore Nott both cowered behind Selina, begging her to protect them. Hermione glared at her, weighing her options thoughtfully. She slowly retreated, putting her wand away as she decided to simply walk away. Satisfied, Selina Romanov also pocketed her wand. Draco seemed surprised, and relieved, as she decided not to hurt him after all. However, he didn't seem to have learned his lesson at all.

  "Filthy little Mudblood," he muttered, causing her to whip around and punch him in the face before anyone could say anything else. 

Draco and the boys immediately panicked, running away from her. Draco Malfoy threatened the other two, urging them not to tell anyone that he'd been punched in the face by Hermione Granger, of all people. Jasper stopped before he  ran off with them.

  "I'm sorry," he quickly apologized to Hermione, 

deciding, in spite of his opinion of him, that it would be prudent of him to leave to check on Draco, at least physically. 

Only Selina remained, coolly eyeing Hermione as she stood there. Hermione naturally expected a rude curse of some sort from her, or at the very least a vengeful glare, but received only a curt nod as Selina ran off to find the others. 

  "That vicious little bitch! I think my nose is broken!" Draco complained as Jasper took a look. 

  "Well, it's definitely bleeding, but I think you'll be fine, mate," Jasper told him as he examined him in the corridor, unamused. 

  "Don't tell me I'm going to be fine!" Draco complained. "My face is ruined! Can you imagine?!"

  "Yes," Jasper said through gritted teeth as his patience slowly dwindled, "I can."

  "Okay," Selina sighed, "I think Draco owes them an apology, for being a demented little fuck, so he's coming with me," she concluded, eliciting an angry look from him.

  "As if! I'm not apologizing to anyone!"

  "Yes, you are," Selina insisted, "Because I know it'll humiliate you. Jas. You coming?" 

  "I don't want any part in that," he assured her. "I'll be right here," he stated, reluctantly remaining behind with the others. 

  "Alright," Selina sighed, turning to Draco, who only had a bit of blood still somewhat dripping from his nose, "Let's go."

He screamed at Selina like a child throwing a fit in a store as she dragged him off towards Hagrid's hut. The two of them eventually found Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley, none of whom seemed particularly excited to see see them. 

  "What do you want?" Ron demanded.

His friends seemed equally on edge.

  "We didn't come here to pick a fight," Selina told them, shoving Draco towards them. "I just... thought I'd apologize. For his behavior, and for the whole Buckbeak thing."

Ron and Hermione both glared at them spitefully, while Harry seemed more skeptical than anything. 

  "Look, you probably don't want to believe me, which is fine, but for the record, I never thought any of this should happen," Selina offered passively, "I told Draco to try and convince his father not to continue with this, and he did. But Lucius wouldn't listen."

The three Gryffindors seemed surprised by this, unsure of what was the appropriate response. 

  "Really?" Hermione glowered at Draco. "You tried to save Buckbeak?"

  "What, you think I care if that bloody thing lives or dies?" he snapped.

  "Oh. So you just had to put on a show for your friends, is that it?" Ron demanded.

Draco was about to retaliate, before Selina stuck out her arm in front of him to bar him. 

  "Anyways. I thought you ought to know," Selina said flatly. 

  "That's—Thanks," Harry Potter considered with a courteous nod, not sure how exactly to feel. 

  "Yeah, no problem," Selina continued, as Draco stood beside her dramatically emphasizing his movements as he rolled his eyes. "I was just gonna ask... how's Hagrid?" she wondered. 

To her surprise, Hermione was willing to supply an answer. 

  "He's fine, I think. Just devastated," she replied sadly. "Thank you for asking, I guess."

  "Do you think I could come with you?" Selina asked them hopefully. "Hagrid was always nice to me. I thought I'd keep him company."

  "That's what we were doing," Harry remarked cautiously, not expecting her to care about their friend's feelings. "I suppose you could come."

  "Alright, I'm out of here," Draco rolled his eyes as he wandered off, before Selina could stop him.

  "Thanks," she nodded kindly, walking alongside them, "I appreciate it."

Ron and Hermione walked ahead of them toward Hagrid's, clearly not willing to converse with Selina. She and Harry were stuck walking behind them, walking together in that they were headed toward the same destination, but separately in that they both felt too awkward to walk next to one another. Harry felt incredibly uncomfortable, desperately trying to ease the tension with casual conversation, seeing as Selina had demonstrated an amicable attitude so far, seeming more sympathetic than Draco and the others. 

  "So you really convinced him? Malfoy?" he asked suddenly.

  Selina nodded. "Yeah. Why?"

  "...No reason," Harry shrugged. "Just never thought Malfoy would ever try to do something good."

  "He definitely needs to be pushed," she offered. "But, I don't know, he's capable."

  "I'm sure he is," Harry responded sarcastically as they walked.

  "You can judge me for being his friend, I really don't mind," Selina assured him. 

He was somewhat taken aback by her self- awareness. 

  "I know he's not a good person."

  "Then, why do you like him?" Harry Potter dove into the real questions he'd been itching to ask.

  "He's my friend. He's like family to me," she said simply. "Yeah, he's not great, but he's there when I need him. I can't say the same for many people."

  "Yeah. I guess I see your point," Harry admitted, no longer argumentative toward the subject. 

  "I know he's an arsehole to you, and your friends," Selina told him candidly. "I am sorry about that. It gets pretty fucked up."

  "You don't have to apologize for him," Harry said immediately. "He makes his own choices."

  "Yeah," she nodded, walking beside him.

  "But so do you," he reasoned.

  "I do," she said, "Draco knows how I feel about things. I tell him when he does something he knows his wrong, the same way he still chooses to do it."

  "So why stay friends with him?" Harry asked. "He's done so many things."

  "So have I," she reasoned.

  "Maybe, I mean, I don't know you very well, but you're definitely not as bad as Malfoy," he told her.

  "I'm not much better sometimes," Selina confessed, standing with the other three at Hagrid's doorstep.

  "Hello, you three," he answered rhe door sniffling, "And Selina. Hello," Hagrid said with surprise: 

  "Hi, Hagrid. Just wanted to see how you were doing," Harry informed him. "So did Selina."

He looked back at her, sharing a private, wordless conversation with her as she nodded in appreciation.

  "That's right kind of you all, it really is," Hagrid nodded gratefully, smiling softly. "Well, come on in, I just put on a pot of tea."

The four of them sat down with Hagrid at his table, sadly gathered before the execution. 

  "Why can't we just set him free?" Harry asked him, desperate for a solution.

  "They'd know it was me," Hagrid said with defeat in his tone, "And then Dumbledore would get into trouble. He's coming down, Dumbledore. Says he wants to be with me when they... When it happens," he tried to cheerfully provide a euphemism.

Selina frowned empathetically. 

  "Great man, Dumbledore."

  "We'll stay with you, too," Selina decided with determination, earning nods of agreement from the others. 

  "You'll do no such thing!" Hagrid told her, aghast. "Sweet of you to offer, but I can't let you. Think I want you seeing something like that? No," he shook his head in horror.

Harry also seemed determined to support his friend.

  "You just drink your tea and be off. Oh. And before you do..."

Hagrid stood, opening a container to reveal a small animal.

  "Scabbers! You're alive!" Ron Weasley accepted his pet rat with relief.

  "Keep a closer eye on your pets, Ron," Hagrid reminded him.

  "I think you owe someone an apology," Hermione scowled at this new development.

Harry and Selina were both growing bored of this conversation that no longer included them, looking around out the window at nothing.

  "I think it's almost curfew," Selina murmured, doing her best to entertain.

  "Yeah," Harry realized, equally distracted.

An argument broke out between Ron and Hermione, just as a loud crash interrupted Selina's train of thought. Something had flew straight through Hagrid's open window, cracking open a vase.

  "Blimey! What was that?" 

Hagrid was bewildered. Hermione inspected the large pebble that had somehow flown through the window, as Harry took a look out the window. 

  "Hagrid!" Hermione exclaimed, realizing that Macnair, the Minister, and Professor Dumbledore were all moments from approaching Hagrid's. 

  "Oh, crikey," he murmured to himself, now seeing them coming. "It's late! It's nearly dark, you shouldn't be here! Someone sees you outside this time of night, you'll be in big trouble! Particularly you, Harry."

Hagrid hastily threw a blanket over the creature he'd been hiding in the corner, as Dumbledore and the others knocked loudly on the door.

  "Be with you in a moment!" Hagrid called pleasantly, hiding the panic in his voice as best as he could.

  "Quick... Quick!" he rushed them all out the back door.

Selina went along with the others, carefully glancing over at Fudge.

  "Hagrid..." Harry began, not knowing what to say to comfort him. "It'll be fine. It'll be okay."

  "Go, go!" Hagrid whispered, genuine fear in his eyes as they ran off behind the giant pumpkins in the garden.

Selina ran behind Harry as they dove down, careful not to be seen by anyone. The two of them exchanged worried looks, realizing that they had multiple problems on their hands. Selina watched from behind the pumpkins as Professor Dumbledore seemed to be distracting Cornelius Fudge with all sorts of random facts and thoughts, almost as if he had some sort of agenda. 

Before Selina could weigh the options, the sound of crackling branches and twigs behind them startled her. The four of them turned around, currently terrified. 

  "What?" Ron questioned worriedly.

  "I thought I just saw... Never mind," Hermione trailed off. 

  "Let's go!" Harry whispered, no longer wanting to risk being caught outside.

They all ran up the hill, watching as the events at Hagrid's hut began to unfold from a safe distance. 

  "Oh, no," Hermione Granger murmured sadly, watching as they all saw Macnair raise his scythe. 

He slowly lifted it into the air, bringing it down swiftly as a loud thump followed. Selina's eyes filled with tears as she watched, unable to do anything at all. She froze beside the others, witnessing the horrific event in silence as Hermione tearfully hugged Ron, as Harry joined them regretfully. Selina just stood there silently, lost in her own thoughts until she heard Ron yell.

  "He bit me!" Ron exclaimed, clutching a bleeding finger as he watched his rat run away.

  "Ron. Ron!" 

Harry and Hermione both called after him in a panic as he chased after the rodent. Selina watched in confusion, unsure of what to even do now. The rat seemed to run towards the Whomping Willow, which Selina automatically recognized was a huge problem. 

  "Harry, do you realize what tree this is?" Hermione asked.

  "That's not good," he responded.

  "No, it's not," Selina stared.

  "Ron, run!" Harry shouted at him.

Selina had no idea what exactly was happening at this point, now that she saw Ron cowering before a large black dog.

  "Harry, Hermione, run!" he sobbed hysterically. "It's the Grim!"

Selina had no idea what he was referring to, but wasn't waiting around to find out. She ran out of the way as she watched the aggressive dog make a beeline for Ron, dragging him into the Whomping Willow. She wasn't exactly sure how to react, given that this was a very strange development. 

Chaos unfolded, and Harry and Hermione both panicked as they jumped and ducked to avoid being hit by the moving tree, which was becoming increasingly malicious in its movements. Thinking fast, Selina pointed her wand as she looked around to make sure she was safe. 

  "Immobulus!" she cast her spell. 

The tree suddenly stopped moving completely, as both Harry and Hermione looked back at her in shock, seeming slightly injured by the tree with little cuts and scrapes.

  "Thank you," Harry breathed, thankful to be alive. 

  "Yes. Thank you," Hermione blurted out.

  "You're welcome. Now, I suppose we'd better find your friend," Selina pointed out, leading them straight into the tree.

The other two exchanged nervous glances, not thrilled about this particular journey. 

"Where do you suppose this goes?" Hermione said quietly as they walked through a dark, wooden passageway.

  "I have a hunch," Harry said darkly, "Let's just hope I'm wrong."

The corridor was dry and dusty, as if nothing much really happened inside. Selina held her wand out in front of her, on high alert as they ventured in. She surveyed her environment, slowly becoming more and more certain as to where they passageway had led them. 

  "We're in the Shrieking Shack, aren't we?" Hermione asked. 

  "It's a pretty safe bet," Selina murmured.

  Harry walked alongside her, anxious to find his best friend. "Come on."

They walked up a small set of stairs, entering a room off to the side. Selina saw Ron in the corner, still terrified out of his mind. 

  "Ron," Harry recognized.

  "Ron, you're okay," Hermione said with relief.

  "The dog," Harry said quickly, "Where is it?"

  "It's a trap! He's the dog, he's an Animagus!" Ron cried, pointing behind them as he panicked.

Selina turned, pointing her wand as she saw a rugged-looking man standing in the corner, with long curly brown hair and a crazed look in his eyes.

  "Sirius Black!" she realized.

Hermione foolishly, in Selina's opinion, threw herself in front of Harry, defending him automatically. 

  "If you want to kill Harry, you have to kill us too!" she cried.

  "Speak for yourself!" Selina Romanov turned to face her in horror, her wand aimed at the infamous murderer. 

  "No. Only one will die tonight," Sirius Black said with a menacing grin.

  "Then it'll be you!" Harry Potter charged at him.

Selina now had absolutely no idea what was going on, sensing that there was a bit of information she was missing, but she put that thought out of her mind as she focused on her own livelihood. 

  "Alarte Acendare!" she shot him high up into the air before Harry could act on his impulses. 

Hermione and Ron both watched in horror, as Harry still decided to tackle the killer they'd come across. Selina stood in front of Hermione, her wand still fixed on Sirius Black, who was only laughing as Harry held him down, aiming his wand at him.

  "Are you going to kill me, Harry?" the man laughed, seeming amused by the situation. 

Before Selina could decide whether or not she should interfere, they were all caught off guard by another presence in the room. 

  "Expelliarmus!" 

Professor Lupin burst into the room, preventing Harry from attacking Black, which Selina found to be a relief. 

  "Well, well, Sirius, looking rather ragged, aren't we?" the professor taunted. "Finally, the flesh reflects the madness within."

  "Well, you'd know all about the madness within, wouldn't you, Remus?" Sirius Black posed a question.

Selina was off-put by their banter, not sure if she wanted to know what exactly was going on.

  "I found him," Sirius Black whispered excitedly, seeming more and more unhinged. 

  "Let's go," Selina urged Harry, Hermione, and Ron.

  "I know," Lupin whispered, seeming equally enthusiastic.

Selina tried to convince the others to escape, recognizing that the two men seemed to be on the same side.

  "Don't think I won't leave without you three!" Selina hissed as they whispered amongst themselves. "Do you all want to die?!"

  "Let's kill him!" Sirius cried.

  "No!" Hermione screamed, looking to Professor Lupin. "I trusted you! And all this time, you've been his friend! He's a werewolf, that's why he's been missing classes!" she revealed.

Selina looked over at the two men anxiously, not at all comfortable with the level of provocation that the three Gryffindors were. 

  "How long have you known?" Lupin asked her. 

  "Since Professor Snape set the essay."

  "Granger, are you stupid?!" Selina exclaimed. "Let's go!"

  "Well, Hermione, you really are the brightest witch of your age I've ever met," he remarked.

  "For fuck's sake, everyone kind of assumed you were a werewolf, you're gone after every full moon, and your boggart was the fucking moon! If we don't tell anyone, can we live?!" Selina pointed her wand fearfully, fully aware that both of them could probably kill her.

  "No one's threatening you, Miss Romanov, it'll be alright," the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor assured her, "Allow me to explain—"

  "Enough talk, Remus! Let's kill him!" Sirius Black pleaded.

  "Wait!" 

The two of them fought incessantly as Selina looked back and forth between them, considering her options as far as attacking them first. 

  "Very well, kill him," Lupin relented, "But wait, one more minute, Harry has the right to know why—"

  "Guys..." Selina murmured, considering running, but not necessarily wanting to leave the other three to die.

  "I know why!" Harry said emotionally. "You betrayed my parents! You're the reason they're dead!"

  "Okay, this seems private," Selina murmured, slowly backing away, not dropping her wand.

  "Wait! No one leaves this room!" Sirius yelled as she muttered a curse under her breath.

She was fully aware that she was now being held hostage by both a murderer and a Hogwarts professor.

  "No, it wasn't him," Remus Lupin explained with a sigh, "Somebody did betray your parents, somebody who, until quite recently, I believed to be dead!" 

  "Who was it, then?" Harry demanded.

  "Peter Pettigrew!" Sirius interrupted, "And he's in this room! Right now!" he cackled.

Selina was alarmed by his hysterics, not daring to move as she watched him rambling on. 

  "Come out, come out, Peter! Come out, come out and play!"

  "Expelliarmus!" a familiar voice yelled. 

Professor Snape came to their rescue, at first ignoring the three children.

  "Vengeance is sweet, I hoped I'd be the one to catch you," he poked at Sirius Black with his wand.

  "Severus..." Lupin tried to calm him.

  "I told Dumbledore you were helping an old friend into the castle and look! Here's the proof!" Snape sneered vindictively.

  "I'm not involved in this," Selina decided, slowly creeping backwards, "So I'm just going to leave—"

  "Stay behind me, Romanov," Snape interrupted, not looking back at her.

  "Damn it," she muttered. 

  "Brilliant, Snape," Sirius belittled him, "You put your keen mind to the task, and come to the wrong conclusion. If you'll excuse us, Remus and I have business to attend to."

  "...Give me a reason! I beg you," Severus Snape snarled, his wand poking into the man.

  "Severus, don't be a fool—" Lupin sighed. 

  "He can't help it! It's a habit!" Sirius whispered, egging him on.

  "Be quiet," Lupin told him. 

  "Be quiet yourself, Remus!"

Selina sighed impatiently as she watched them argue amongst themselves. 

  "Look at you two, quarreling like an old married couple," Snape remarked humorously.

  "Why don't you run along and play with your chemistry set?" Sirius snapped in response. 

  "I could do it, you know," Snape reminded him, tempted by the idea of killing him himself, "But why deny the Dementors? They're so... longing to see you."

Both he and Selina could see the fear in Sirius Black's eyes at the mention of the dementors. 

  "Do I detect a flicker of fear? Oh, yes. A Dementor's Kiss. One can only imagine what that must be like," he murmured. "It's said to be nearly unbearable to witness, but I'll do my best."

 "Severus, please!" Professor Lupin interjected.

  "After you!"

  "Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted. 

Selina looked back at him in shock, as Snape went flying into a bed in front of them. 

  "Harry! What did you just do?!" Ron screamed.

  "Are you insane?" Selina agreed.

  "You attacked a teacher!" Hermione stared at the incapacitated potions master.

  "Tell me about Peter Pettigrew," Harry told the two other men. 

  "He was at school with us, we thought he was our friend!" Lupin began.

  "No, Pettigrew's dead! You killed him!" he turned to Sirius.

  "I thought so too, until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the map!"

  "What the hell is going on?!" Selina screamed.

  "The map was lying, then," Harry reasoned.

  Lupin disagreed. "The map never lies!"

  "Pettigrew's alive! He's in this room!" Sirius said. "And he's right there!" he pointed at a corner in the room.

  "Me?! He's mental!" Ron Weasley cried.

  "Not you!" the man exclaimed in exasperation. "Your rat!"

Selina Romanov was taken aback by this development, no longer able to follow the conversation at all. 

  Ron naturally refused to believe what he was hearing. "Scabbers has been in my family for—"

  "Twelve years?!" Sirius cut him off. "Curiously long life for a common garden rat! He's missing a toe, isn't he?!"

  "So what?!" Ron questioned.

  Harry seemed to understand. "All they could find of Pettigrew was his—"

  "His finger," Selina realized, remembering the stories of the murder of Peter Pettigrew that had landed Black in Azkaban.

Her grandmother had occasionally used Sirius Black as a threat against Selina when she was a child to stop her from crying. 

  "Dirty coward cut it off so that everyone would think he was dead!" Sirius boomed. "And then he transformed, into a rat!"

  "Show me," Harry demanded.

Selina watched as Sirius charged at Ron, attempting to pry the small creature from his fingers. 

  "Give it to him, Ron!" Harry told him.

  "I can't lie, I need to see this," Selina agreed as Ron begged him not to take the rat. 

Sirius grabbed ahold of the creature, until it scurried away in a panic. Everyone in the room watched as Lupin and Sirius both tried to go after it, waving their wand in its direction as it tried to disappear into the wall. But a spell eventually hit the rat, revealing a small, dumpy-looking man lodged into a hole in the wall. Selina and the others were horrified, particularly Ron. 

  "That is seriously fucked up," Selina watched as the two men grabbed him by the arms.

Ron nodded quickly, watching as the disgustingly ugly man decided to play dumb. Everyone was in complete shock, both learning that Sirius Black was entirely innocent, and that the true murderer had been posing as Ron Weasley's pet the entire time. 

  "Remus? Sirius! My old friends!" Peter Pettigrew exclaimed. "Harry! Look at you! You look so much like your father. James. We were the best of friends—"

  "How dare you speak to Harry!" Sirius yelled. "How dare you talk about James in front of him!"

  "You sold Lily and James to Voldemort!" Lupin accused him. 

  "I-I didn't mean to!" Pettigrew sniveled. 

  "I really wish I left," Selina stared as she sort of put the pieces together.

  "The Dark Lord. You have no idea the weapons he possesses! Ask yourself, Sirius, what would you have done! What would you have done?!" he wailed. 

  "Died! I would have died, rather than betray my friends!" Sirius yelled at him as they chased him around the piano, almost looking like some sort of twisted silent film. 

  "James wouldn't have wanted me killed!" Peter whispered to Harry as he tried to back out of the room. "Your dad, he would have spared me! He would have shown me mercy...!"

  "You're not buying into this, are you, Potter?" Selina hoped as she watched the grown man groveling as the other two pulled him away.

  "Should have realized, Peter, that if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would! Together!" Remus Lupin shouted. 

  "No!" Harry boomed, confusing everyone.

  "Harry," Lupin began exhaustedly, "This man..."

  "I know what he is," Harry promised him, looking down at him, still begging for his life. "But we'll take him to the castle."

  "Bless you, boy! Bless you!" he screamed as Selina kept her wand pointed at him.

  "Get off!" Harry yelled, kicking him off. "I said we'd take you to the castle. After that, the dementors can have you," he glared at him, striking genuine fear in his eyes.

Selina looked at him approvingly, appreciating the poetic justice of the punishment. She never would've guessed that Harry Potter had it in him to be so vindictive.

  "Come on," she suggested, glancing over at Snape. "Perhaps we'd better get out of here before he comes to."

  "Good idea," Sirius Black agreed, as they all piled out of the Shrieking Shack. 

Harry, Hermione, and Sirius all tended to Ron, as Lupin called her over as he dealt with Peter Pettigrew. 

  "Selina. Keep your wand pointed at him, and do as I say," he instructed her carefully. 

  "Yes, sir," she nodded, not needing to be reminded of how dangerous the man was.

Peter Pettigrew glared at her fearfully, knowing that she was no more likely than Lupin was to set him free or sympathize with him. 

  "Are you sure we can't just kill him?" Selina questioned. "I feel like that'd be easier..."

  "We need to take him to the castle. To clear Sirius's name," Lupin reminded her as they dragged him through the secret passageway back to Hogwarts.

  "I guess you're right," she admitted, wane at the ready. "May I?"

Lupin studied her for a moment, nodding once he caught onto her train of thought. 

  "Incarcerous," Selina said, as ropes bound him.

  "Please! Please, don't do this!" Peter pleaded. "I'll do anything! Please! Please, dear girl! I'll do whatever you want!"

  "Including shutting up?" she asked as she and Professor Lupin dragged him along.

  "You know, you always were my favorite student," Lupin remarked dryly as they trudged along. 

It was now dark outside. They all climbed out of the Whomping Willow, allowing Ron to rest on the ground as Selina and Lupin continued guarding the others from Pettigrew, struggling to silence him as he thrashed and struggled desperately. 

  "Please! Anything but the Dementors, I beg of you!" he screamed. "Flog me! Drown me! Turn me into a Flobberworm, anything but the Dementors!"

  "Shut up!" Selina groaned impatiently. 

  "Please, dear girl! Please, Remus!" Peter begged them. "I'll do anything, please, help me!"

  "One more word, and I'm using the Silencing Charm," Lupin warned sternly.

  "No, no!" he blubbered. "Ron! Haven't I been a good pet?! You won't let them give me to the Dementors, will you, I was your rat!" 

Ron tried his best to get away from him as Selina and Lupin attempted to contain him.

  "Sweet girl! Clever girl!" he begged Hermione. "Surely you won't—"

  "Get away from her!" Lupin yelled as he struggled against the restraints.

  "Professor! Can I do something about this now?!" Selina cried.

She watched him as his attention slowly shifted to something else entirely. Following his line of sight, Selina and Hermione both noticed the bright full moon appearing in the sky. 

  "Harry!" Hermione screamed, trying to get his attention.

Both Harry and Sirius ran back to them, realizing how urgent the situation was. 

  "Remus, my friend! Have you taken your potion tonight?!" Sirius tried to intervene.

  "Get away!" Selina yelled, running away with the other three as they watched him attempt to reason with the transitioning werewolf.

It was horrifying to witness. Selina was genuinely afraid for her life, as she gripped her wand as tightly as she could. 

  "Expelliarmus!" 

  "Harry!"

Selina watched helplessly as Peter Pettigrew grinned, waving goodbye with ugly, sharp fingernails as he slowly transitioned back into a rat, scurrying out of a pile of clothes. Selina was furious but had no choice but to focus on the werewolf that currently posed a threat to them all.

  "Run!" someone yelled. 

  "Wait. Wait," Hermione Granger murmured, staring.

  "Hermione! Bad idea, bad idea," Ron whispered. 

  "No shit," Selina agreed, frozen in place, hoping the werewolf wouldn't perceive her as a threat.

  "Professor? Professor Lupin?" Hermione asked nervously.

  "Nice doggie. Nice doggie," Ron whimpered behind them.

  "There you are, Potter!" Snape yelled, running in front of them. 

He did his best to protect all of the students, hiding them behind him as he prepared to defend them. 

  "Jasper?! Draco?!" Selina saw them come  running with him. 

  "Selina! Get away from him!" Jasper Carroll yelled, terrified.

  "What the hell is happening?!" Draco cried.

Sirius Black transformed back into his animal form, fighting off Lupin as a dog. He eventually bested Sirius, which was difficult to watch, slowly lunging towards Harry and Hermione.

  "Alarte Ascendare!" Selina fought off Lupin's attack.  

She did what she could to deter him without hurting him too badly, which didn't work too effectively. A loud howl in the distance called him away from them, as everyone tried to locate Sirius Black.

  "Sirius!" Harry yelled, running after him.

  "Come back here, Potter!" Snape ordered.

  "'Sirius'?! As in, Black?!" Draco looked around. "Sel, what the fuck?!"

  "I'll explain later!" she exclaimed. 

She stood there, unsure of what to do, as Snape tried to track down Harry from where he stood. He would have chased after him, but he seemed to understand that he'd better stay with the others in case Lupin came back. 

Selina could hardly comprehend anything that was happening, looking back and forth between Jasper and Draco, Snape, Ron and Hermione, and Harry.  Deciding she'd better go after Harry, to make sure he and Sirius were both alive, Selina ran straight down the steep hill, nearly falling over and rolling down it just as the others had. 

  "Romanov...!" Snape growled, watching her as she rushed off. "Get back here, now!"

Selina completely ignored her Head of House, scrambling down toward the lake to find Harry Potter and Sirius Black. She'd hoped they were safe, but discovered that the Dementors had already found Sirius. They were circling around above both of them, not caring that Harry was a student as long as he was shielding Sirius. 

She watched in horror as many cloaked Dementors preyed on the both of them, seemingly sucking out every ounce of hope or happiness either of them had left in them. There may as well have been a thousand of them. Selina cast her Patronus as she felt the Dementors beginning to feed on her. 

  "Expecto... Patronum!"

A large, silvery white snake coiled all around the three of them, defending them from the demonic creatures. Selina watched as her spell began to take effect, gasping as she felt memories of herself and Amana, and Jasper, and Draco being sucked away, while it seemed all she had left was harsh memories of her grandmother, and her mother's murder, and Marcus Flint. 

Harry cast his own, non-corporeal Patronus, but it didn't seem to do much good against the many Dementors attacking them. Selina felt cold and clammy as she was forced to relive the day her father murdered her mother, followed immediately by the night Marcus Flint violated her.

She might as well have cast the Patronus Charm for the umpteenth time, but this was the first time she had ever actually went up against a real Dementor, let alone a swarm, or a gaggle, or a murder of them. Luckily, she was winning, but barely so.

The gigantic snake enveloping her and the other two was doing most of the work, protecting her, as well as Sirius and Harry. Selina felt her body beginning to go limp as she fought to stay standing, strengthening her Patronus as quickly as she could. 

  "Selina!" 

She turned around, startled to see Draco had run after her, despite both Jasper and Snape's advice. 

  "Draco! No!" she yelled, as the Dementors began to focus on him as well.

  "Selina!" he cried, falling victim to the Dementors' attacks. 

One in particular seemed to be targeting him. It hurt her to see Draco seem so helpless against them, all of his happier memories being stolen as nothing but pain was reflected in his eyes. Draco almost fainted, overwhelmed as he felt every part of him draining away. 

  "Expecto Patronum!" she shouted again. 

Draco watched as a bright light shot out of her wand. Another beautiful snake emerged from the light she casted, saving him from the Dementor. He gasped loudly, seeing her fighting to protect him as he nearly collapsed. Selina took deep breaths, hoping it would be enough to keep her conscious. But her knees eventually buckled, causing her to collapse on the gravel by the lake a few feet away from Sirius. 

She forced her eyes open, panting hard as she felt her heartbeat slowing down far too much. She was stuck staring across the lake, paralyzed with fear, as another Patronus joined hers in shielding the three of them. It was another fearsome snake,  eventually joined by a noble stag with brilliant antlers. Selina had no idea where they'd come from, or who had conjured them. 

Her eyes closed as she saw only flashes of the worst day of her life, unable to fight off the nightmare any longer. 

  "You don't scare me, Ilya! I won't let you force our daughter to live the way you did! I just won't!"

  "You're blinded by your emotions, Adeline!"

  "You're blinded by greed!"

  "I won't have any more of this. I just won't!"

  "My daughter will not become another Durmstrang soldier trained in the Dark Arts before she's old enough to Apparate!"

  "Your daughter?! She's mine too!"

  "Not anymore! Not as long as you insist upon damning her to your fate! She will not become a Death Eater, even if the Dark Lord returns!"

  "Expulso!"

Selina woke with a start, lying in the hospital wing, accompanied by a few others. She sat up in bad immediately, her eyes wide with terror. She panted heavily, as Jasper Carroll sat beside her and gently stroked her arm. 

  "Hey, hey, it's okay," he whispered, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "I'm right here. I'm here."

  "Sirius," Selina gasped, realizing where she'd been before she woke up in the hospital wing, "What happened to him?"

She looked around the room frantically, looking for everyone else. Hermione Granger was tending to both Rom and Harry. Harry was apparently still unconscious. 

  "Don't worry about that right now," Draco told her, concerned for her wellbeing as he sat on the other side of her bed, "You need rest."

  "I need to know what happened!" Selina argued.

  "You..." Draco couldn't seem to come up with the right words. "You saved me," he whispered simply, so that only she could hear. 

  "Selina," Hermione said, approaching her bed. "Sirius, they've got him. They're going to perform the Dementor's Kiss."

  "Is there anything we can do to stop it?!" Selina demanded, not paying attention to anything else.

  "I don't think so, Selina," Jasper told her. 

Hermione turned to Harry as he woke up, basically having the exact same conversation with him as he asked for updates. 

  "I have to help him," Selina told Jasper and Draco, "Sirius, he's innocent—"

  "What are you talking about?" Draco Malfoy questioned, not understanding. "What happened?!"

  "I'll explain later," Selina said as she jumped out of bed in her jeans and black long-sleeved shirt, "I need to speak to Professor Dumbledore!"

  "Sel, get back in bed," Draco told her, "You just fought a bunch of Dementors—"

Dumbledore eventually entered the hospital wing, as Hermione rushed to speak to him. 

  "Headmaster, you've got to stopped them!" she pleaded. "They've got the wrong man—!"

  "It's true. Sirius is innocent!"

  "It's Scabbers who did it!" Ron exclaimed.

  "Scabbers?" Albus Dumbledore questioned incredulously. 

  "He's my rat, sir," he tried to explain, "But he's not really a rat... He was my brother Percy's rat, but then they gave him an owl—"

No one seemed to follow this explanation. 

  "Peter Pettigrew, sir!" Selina interrupted urgently. "He's alive! And he framed Sirius Black!"

  "Peter Pettigrew?" the Headmaster repeated. 

  "The point is, we know the truth!" Hermione concluded. "Please believe us."

  "I do, Miss Granger," the old man promised, "But I'm sorry to say, the word of three thirteen year-old wizards will convince few others. A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless to those who have forgotten how to listen."

  Selina stared at him with her mouth agape, horrified. "All due respect, sir, what does that have to do with anything right now?!"

  "Selina!" Jasper hissed, worried she'd get herself into trouble. 

  "'Right now'," Dumbledore echoed, genuinely contemplating what she'd said. "Mysterious thing, time. Powerful... And when meddled with, dangerous."

Selina looked to Hermione for answers, realizing that, of course, as the smartest person in the group, she seemed to be catching onto what Dumbledore had been suggesting. Selina silently followed her lead, unsure of who else she could trust. Draco looked around the room, suspicious of everyone, especially Hermione. 

  "Sirius Black is in the topmost cell of the Dark Tower," the professor revealed grimly. "You know the laws, Miss Granger. You must not be seen. And you will do well, I feel, to return before this last chime."

Selina's eyes widened as she began to catch onto what was actually happening. She finally noticed the dainty necklace around Hermione's neck, a tiny golden hourglass-shaped pendant. 

  "If not, the consequences are too ghastly to discuss," he warned them. "If you succeed tonight... More than one innocent life may be spared."

  "Sirius," Selina whispered as she thought, "And Buckbeak..."

She was amazed at the opportunity they'd been given, to fix everything that had gone wrong that night. 

  "Three turns should do it, I think. Oh, and by the way... I find retracing my steps to be a wise place to begin. Good luck," he offered nonchalantly before leaving. 

  "What the bloody hell was all that about?" Ron demanded. 

  "He's mental," Draco decided with finality, surprisingly in agreement with Ron. 

They all watched him in confusion as he left the room without another word. Hermione looped her Time-Turner necklace around her and Harry, starting the process. Selina had seen ones like it, both in the possession of others, as well as in places like Knockturn Alley. 

  "Sorry, Ron, but seeing as you can't walk... Selina?" Hermione asked finally, realizing there was no one else in the room she could trust. "I think you'd best come along, since you can conjure a Patronus."

Selina considered it for a moment. 

  "Can I bring these two?" she asked, pointing back at Jasper and Draco, who were both standing behind her. 

  "Bring us where?" Draco demanded suspiciously, not understanding anything that had been said.

  "Absolutely not," Hermione shook her head.

  "Come on, Granger, are you seriously in a position to deny help?" Selina rationalized.

  The brown-haired girl considered this for a moment. "We can bring Jasper," she concluded. "Transporting four is already risky enough."

  "Fine," Selina sighed, looking to Jasper, "Will you come with me?"

  He seemed completely lost. "I don't think I have a choice," he responded, standing beside her, "I need to make sure you're safe."

  "Okay," Selina agreed, nodding as Hermione wrapped the thin gold chain around the four of them.

  "Wait! You can't just go with them!" Draco protested. "Both of you! Come back!"

  "We can't," Jasper told him, as Hermione secured the necklace. "We have to go."

  "We'll be right back," Selina promised him. "It'll be okay."

  "Selina!" Draco screamed at her. 

She and Jasper stood together anxiously, hand in hand, as she winded up the Time-Turner, three turns back as Harry Potted looked around, still confused. Selina and Jasper watched as everything around them disappeared, and they saw many people in the hospital wing appear and disappear before them. Eventually, the room was completely empty, and they stopped. 

  "What just happened?" Harry questioned, startled by the experience. "Where's Ron?!"

  "We just went back in time," Jasper told him calmly, trying to take control of the situation.

  "What?!"

His approach didn't seem to work. 

  "Seven-thirty," Hermione blurted out, looking around, "Where were we at seven-thirty?"

  "I don't know, going to Hagrid's?" Harry guessed.

  "Come on! And we can't be seen!" Hermione said urgently, rushing them all out of the room.

They ran through the corridor, heading back towards Hagrid's. 

  "Hermione! Hermione!" Harry shouted to her. "Hermione, wait!"

  "Are you trying to get us caught?" Selina whispered harshly. 

  "Will someone please just tell me what it is we're doing!" he cried. 

  "You foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach!" the sound of Hermione's voice carried from outside.

  "This is the right moment," Jasper realized.

  "That's us!" Harry realized as they watched the embarrassing altercation between Draco and Hermione. 

  "This is not normal..." Harry murmured uneasily, as Hermione grabbed him so that he didn't draw attention to them.

  "This is a Time-Turner, Harry. McGonagall gave it to me first term," she explained to him sternly. "This is how I've been getting to my lessons all year."

  "You mean we've really gone back in time?" Harry asked her, as Selina sighed, waiting impatiently with Jasper.

  "Yes."

  "Dumbledore obviously wanted us to return to this moment. I guess he wants us to change what happened after this point," she thought.

  "Good punch," Selina commended Hermione, watching  from this angle as she punched Draco. 

  "Agreed," Harry nodded. 

  "Thanks," she chuckled, not expecting the compliment from Selina, of all people. 

  "We're coming," Jasper realized as he saw a past version of Draco Malfoy running towards them.

  "Run!" Hermione whispered. 

They all hid from Draco, Jasper, and the others, waiting to head towards themselves. 

  "Come on. We should be at Hagrid's," Hermione led them towards his hut.

  "My outfit looks great," Selina murmured mostly to herself, observing her own body from a new perspective. 

  "Now you see what I see," Jasper said quietly, following Hermione. 

  "Look, Buckbeak's still alive," Harry said wistfully as he observed the gentle bird.

  "That's one thing we need to fix," Hermione remarked worriedly.

  "This is perfect. If we free him while Fudge is with Hagrid, they'll never suspect him," Selina told the others.

  "Let's go," Hermione whispered as they all ran behind Hagrid's pumpkins, where they'd been earlier. 

  "That's Pettigrew," Harry realized darkly as they watched Hagrid give the rat to Ron inside. 

  "Harry, you can't..." Hermione warned him sympathetically.

  "You don't expect me to just sit here," the bespectacled boy argued.

  "Yes, and you must!" she told him.

  "I'm afraid you don't have a choice," Jasper offered sadly. "Otherwise, we won't be able to save anyone."

  "There can't be two of you at once," Selina reasoned, "Everyone involved could go mad as a result. Dumbledore said earlier, it's dangerous to meddle with time. And he was right."

  "Yes, awful things happen to wizards who meddle with time," Hermione nodded. "We can't be seen."

  "Fudge is coming," Jasper informed them.

  "But why aren't we leaving?" Hermione asked. 

  "The window!" Selina realized, everything beginning to fall into place for her. "We have to look out the window!"

Hermione picked up a small rock that had been on one of the pumpkins, tossing it straight through the window as she realized what was meant to happen. The rock hit Harry on the back of the head. She threw another one as she'd remembered from earlier when they were in Hagrid's hut, breaking open a vase filled with sand. 

  "Are you mad?" Harry demanded. "That hurt!"

  "Sorry," Hermione apologized. 

They now looked out the window as they had earlier, seeing Dumbledore and the Minister coming with the executioner. 

  "We're coming out the back door!" she realized.

  "Go!" Selina told them, as the four of them hid behind the trees in the forest. 

They all watched as the earlier versions of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Selina all dove behind the pumpkins, watching the adults. Hermione leaned forward, examining herself critically. 

  "Is that really what my hair looks like from the back?" she whispered, scaring herself as she accidentally snapped a few branches.

Selina rolled her eyes, as they all hid behind the trees, not ten feet from themselves. 

  "What?" Ron asked the past Hermione. 

  "I thought I just saw... Never mind," she trailed off.

Selina was thankful that even the past Hermione was smart enough not to question any hint of time travel. They watched as the past versions of them ran off, leaving only the four of them and Buckbeak. 

  "Okay, now we can go," Selina said quietly.

They ran to try and wrangle Buckbeak, careful not to be seen by the adults, as well as their past selves. Harry and Hermione grabbed the hippogriff by his chain, freeing him. Selina and Jasper grabbed a few of the dead ferrets hanging near him, hoping to entice him with treats. Harry tried his best to shoo the crows away from him. 

  "I'm glad we get to save him, too," Jasper told his girlfriend, "I just couldn't believe they were actually going to kill him."

  "I know," Selina agreed.

  "Me neither," Hermione chimed in as she and Harry tried to drag Buckbeak away from Hagrid's hut. "Come on, Buckbeak!" 

  "Come here, boy!" Selina whispered, clicking her tongue as she tried to guide him away.

  "Come with us now. Come on!" Harry Potter begged.

The four of them all pleaded with the animal as they tried to release him, hoping he'd come along. They were all terrified of being caught as Dumbledore and the others began to move outside. 

Selina began to notice that, as he redirected the Minister's attention, even the past version of Professor Dumbledore seemed to be on their side, creating a sufficient diversion for them. No matter what anyone thought of him, Selina realized, the man was respectively a genius. 

Harry and Hermione almost surrendered as they were convinced they'd been caught. Selina and Jasper both rolled their eyes, continuing to lead Buckbeak into the forest with the dead ferrets. Eventually, they were able to escape with him, as the Minister and the others realized that he was gone.

  "But where is it?" Fudge questioned in shock. "I saw the beast, just now! Not a moment ago!"

  "How extraordinary," Dumbledore remarked dryly as they got away. 

Hermione and Selina led Buckbeak into a clearing in the forest, no longer needing to drag him along. They all settled for a short while, trying to synchronize themselves with their past selves as best as they could. 

  "Now what?" Harry spoke up as they watched themselves by the Whomping Willow. 

  "We save Sirius," Hermione replied.

  "How?" he asked in turn.

  Hermione frowned, not having much to go off of. "No idea."

  "Look. There's Lupin," Harry pointed out.

  "And there's me and Draco, with Snape," Jasper told Selina. "We were starting to worry about you, you know. We went looking for you, after you didn't come back from Hagrid's. We didn't know what to do, so we went and got Snape."

  "Thank you," Selina murmured, leaning against him with her head on his chest as he held her. "I love you, you know," she told him. 

  "I love you," he echoed with a sigh, as they all waited for themselves to emerge.

They sat with their backs against a tree in the forest, watching peacefully as Buckbeak caught the birds that had been flying low.

  "At least someone's enjoying himself," Hermione remarked.

  Harry nodded. "Yeah."

  "I'm so happy we saved him," Selina sighed, watching him play. "Look at him. He's so innocent."

  "He really is," Jasper agreed. "It's a good thing Granger has that Time-Turner."

  "Do you think we can really save Sirius?" Selina Romanov asked him. "I mean, we saved Buckbeak, but... that's something else entirely. I don't think just luck is going to be enough this time around."

  "We can do it," he assured her as she brushed back his long black hair. "We have you. As long as we have you, anything's possible."

She squeezed his hand tightly, trying to calm her fears. 

  "If that's what you really think," she sighed, "Then I believe you."

  "You should," Jasper squeezed her hand, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. "You know, earlier when me, Snape, and Draco brought you to the hospital wing... I heard Snape talking to Dumbledore. About the Patronuses that saved you and Potter from the Dementors," he confided in her.

Selina listened curiously, trying to see where he was going with that.

  "He said that only extremely powerful magic could have saved you three," he told her, leaning in to whisper into her ear, "And something tells me, us going back in time made that possible."

They all watched as everyone emerged from the Whomping Willow passageway, waiting for Lupin to take his werewolf form so that they could save Sirius. Selina would've wanted to interfere early, warning everyone about Lupin and capturing Pettigrew before he changed back into his rat form, but she knew that it could only do harm. 

Selina and Jasper watched with the others as the fight gradually broke out, with Sirius going after Lupin. Sirius eventually rolled down the hill, leaving Harry, Hermione, and Selina to fend off the newly transformed werewolf. Draco and Jasper, particularly Draco, were both hiding behind Snape, unsure of what to do. 

Not having any better ideas, Hermione cupped her hands around her mouth, howling like a wolf to divert Lupin's attention. 

  "Of course," Jasper realized, remembering the howling they'd heard earlier.

  "What are you doing?!" Harry demanded fearfully.

  "Saving your life!" his friend exclaimed, continuing to howl like a wolf in heat.

  "Thanks," Harry murmured.

  "Great. Now he's coming this way," Selina saw the grey werewolf charging towards them.

  "Yeah... Didn't think about that," Hermione admitted, "Run!"

They all took off deeper into the forest, trying to outsmart the werewolf, which proved to be very difficult. Selina drew her wand as she and Jasper took off in one direction, while Harry and Hermione went in the other. They could hear Professor Lupin growling and snorting in an animalistic manner, trying to locate them. 

Jasper covered his own mouth as he breathed in and out as they all hid behind trees, trying his best to remain calm. Harry and Hermione were both scared out of their wits, paralyzed as they tried to remain still. They moved around the trees, skillfully outmaneuvering the wolf as best as they could. 

Selina waited patiently, listening for signs of their Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Eventually, Lupin grew tired of searching for them, and ran off into the night. 

  "That was so scary," Hermione whispered.

  "Poor Professor Lupin's having a really tough night," Harry pointed out.

  Jasper nodded as they all headed for the lake. "You can say that again."

  "Sirius. Come on!" Harry urged them. 

They all stood behind the trees near the clearing where the lake was, watching the Dementors slowly feeding on Selina, Harry, and Sirius. Draco wasn't far from sharing the same fate, breaking down into tears as Selina was only able to keep him from being fed on by the Dementors. Her Patronus was the only thing currently standing between herself, Sirius, Harry, and the Dementors. 

  "We have to do something," Selina stared, watching herself being psychically torn apart.

  "Wait! Just wait," Harry told her. 

  "This is horrible," Hermione murmured.

  "Don't worry," Harry insisted. "My dad will come. Any minute now. Right there, you'll see."

  Jasper seemed the most confused. "Your...?" 

  "Don't question it," Selina shook her head dismissively, prepared to jump in and save herself and the others. 

  "Harry, listen to me," Hermione attempted to convince him, "No one's coming."

  "Trust me, he will. He's coming."

Selina was unable to continue standing idly by, as she considered jumping in.

  "You're dying," Hermione told Harry, "All of you..."

  "I'm not waiting any longer," Selina announced, running off towards the lake. 

  "Selina!" Jasper yelled after her.

  "Expecto Patronum!" 

She cast her Patronus once again, sending the giant snake after the Dementors attacking herself, as well as Sirius and Harry. Draco was watching helplessly, unable to do anything. 

  "Selina!" Harry shouted, joining her as he cast his own Patronus.

Both of the animals that represented them fought against the Dementors attacking them and Sirius before. The bright white lights drove all of the Dementors away, allowing the tiny orb that represented Sirius's soul to return to his body. He seemed to be breathing, and so did Harry, for that matter. 

Selina had never felt so powerful in her life, fighting off probably about a hundred Dementors to save herself and her new friends. She, Harry, and Sirius were eventually saved, as she and Harry exchanged relieved looks, allowing the spells to dissipate.

  "We did it," Selina told him, "Us. No one else," she laughed hysterically.

  "You're right!" Harry Potter chuckled along with her, seeming more happy. "It was us."

They both headed back to the others together, now much more amicable than they had been before. 

  "You did it! You're alive, all of you!" Hermione exclaimed happily.

  "Oh, God, I'm so proud of you," Jasper sighed, wrapping Selina in a protective hug, still holding his wand in his hand. "I'm so glad you're safe."

  "We need to get to Sirius," Selina turned to Harry as he nodded in response. "Now."

The four of them looked over at Buckbeak, realizing that he was currently their most reliable method of transportation. Harry and Hermione climbed onto him first, as Selina and Jasper rode behind them, holding on tight. All of them screamed, both terrified and excited, as Buckbeak took off. 

Selina giggled happily as Jasper wrapped his arms around her stomach, securing her in front of him as they flew off to the Dark Tower together. Everyone was enthralled as they held onto Buckbeak, surrounded by the beautiful night sky. 

  "Did I mention that I love you?" Jasper asked cheerfully.

  "You always remember to," Selina replied, smiling as they all landed in front of the highest cell of the tower.

Sirius Black turned to face them, surprised to see them coming to his rescue. 

  "Bombarda!" Hermione blew apart the metal cell door. 

Selina and Jasper ran to lift it out of the way. Selina Romanov stood in front of Sirius, kindly offering her hand to him as he stood. He took it graciously, offering her a bewildered smile.

  "Thank you."

His words said 'thank you for helping me up', but his eyes said 'thank you for everything'. 

  "Harry. Hermione," he said as he joined the others. "I cannot express my gratitude enough."

  "You don't have to," Harry Potter promised. "You're my godfather."

Sirius smiled at him, nodding appreciatively.

  "You're Selina Romanov. Aren't you?" Sirius Black asked as he approached her. 

  She nodded, not too surprised that he was able to recognize her. "Did you know my father?" she asked him. 

  "I was familiar with him," he said, walking alongside her. "He was very close friends with Rodolphus Lestrange. He married my cousin, Bellatrix."

  "Yeah," Selina nodded, recalling having heard the same thing many times. 

  "I also knew your mother, you know," Sirius changed the subject. "She was a year younger than I was. She and my brother, Regulus, were quite close. The best of friends, in fact. Very kind woman."

  "Yes," Selina murmured, walking between him and Jasper. "Yes, she was."

There was a brief silence between them as they walked.

  "I read about Regulus, in her diaries, you know," Selina informed the man. "She loved him. She was devastated when he died."

  "Yes, as was I," Sirius said earnestly. "He was very noble, my brother."

  "I'm sorry," Selina told him, looking him in the eye. "He seemed like a great person."

  "He was. He was one of those people you just had to love," he offered kindly. "And so was Adeline. I'm sorry if this is strange, but... you really do remind me of your mother a bit. Headstrong, sharp, gentle... You look like her. More so than you do your father, you know. Although, I do hear you've inherited his talent for Quidditch..."

That was something Selina was happy to hear, as he carried on listing pleasant things for the two of them to conversate about.

  "Thank you, Sirius," she said finally. 

  "Thank you," he beamed, "All of you. I'll be eternally grateful for this."

  "I want to go with you," Harry told him, sounding more like a child than ever.

Selina smiled sympathetically as Jasper wrapped his arm around her. 

  "One day, perhaps," Sirius promised the boy. "For some time, my life will be too unpredictable. And besides. You're meant to be here," he held him affectionately. 

  "But you're innocent," Harry protested quietly.

  "And you know it. For now, that will do," Sirius assured him with a smile. 

Selina held onto Jasper, watching sadly as Sirius and Harry said their goodbyes. Sirius climbed on top of Buckbeak, prepared for the both of them to make their escape. 

  "It's perfect they have one another," Jasper thought. "They're both innocent, and now, they're both free."

  "I hope so," Selina said, watching.

  "You really are the brightest witch of your age," Sirius told Hermione, making her smile, "And Selina... I'd tell you you're going to be someone someday, but you already are someone, aren't you? I hope we meet again," he said softly. 

  "So do I," Selina agreed, watching as he flew away happily.

  "Don't you hurt her, Jasper, or I'll be back in Azkaban!" Sirius called. 

  "Don't worry, I won't," Jasper Carroll chuckled as they all watched him leave. 

  "We have to go," Hermione realized, as the clock began to chime.

All of them ran for the hospital wing, determined to make it back in time. Selina and Jasper were in front of Harry and Hermione, almost running into Dumbledore as he left the room. 

  "Well?" the Headmaster asked.

  "We saved them," Jasper responded dutifully.

  "He's free. We did it," Harry said triumphantly.

  "Did what?" Dumbledore questioned, most likely joking. "Goodnight."

He disappeared, and Harry, Hermione, Selina, and Jasper all laughed with relief as they burst into the room. 

  "Bloody hell!" Draco exclaimed loudly. 

  "How did you get there?" Ron Weasley pointed. "I was talking to you there... And now you're there!"

Selina and Jasper laughed cheerfully, watching as Draco and Ron were forced together in their baffled confusion.

  "What's he talking about, Harry?" Hermione teased.

  "I don't know," Harry chuckled along.

  "Sel! Jasper!" Draco shouted, running toward them. "What the fuck just happened?!"

They looked at one another, trying to decide how to respond. Neither of them had an answer prepared. They were still in complete shock due to everything that had just happened, unable to believe that they had actually made it, and weren't killed. 

  "I suppose we should catch you up," Jasper 

[landboundstar]

Trade Secrets Part 3

Part 3 of my Batman fanfic. Change of narrator for the next couple parts. A little bit of a time jump, but Bruce, Zatanna, Harvey, and Selina are around 6 or 7.

Trade Secrets

Part 3

I walked into the hospital waiting room and sat with a bottle of water, waiting for Dad to finish talking to one of the donors who had been at the show upstairs in the pediatric unit. 

Bruce looked up from the notebook he was writing in, a math textbook open by his elbow. His face lit up in a smile, and he ran over, wrapping me in a hug.

"What's this?  Worried you're going to forget math?" I couldn't help teasing my friend who remembered everything.

"No, but I do need to turn in my homework on Monday. Is everything okay?" Bruce grabbed my shoulder, looking at me, and I batted at his hand.

"Everything's fine. We had a show in the pediatric ward. One of the donors was up there and stopped Dad after the show. Why are you here?"

"Dad has rounds today."

The door opened and both Dr. Wayne and Dad walked in.

"Do you have the rest of the day free, Gio?"

"I just had the charity show at the hospital on my schedule today."

An hour later, we were having lunch with the Waynes.

"Can I be excused?" I asked.

My dad, midconversation, waved that it was okay. And Bruce and I raced out the side door to the garden.

I was sitting on a rock, watching Bruce hanging upside down by his knees after climbing a tree, when Rachel poked her head out the door. 

"Selina just showed up. I'll tell her you are out here."

"Aren't you going to come out too?" I called back in.

Rachel smiled. "I have piano practice first, but I'll be out after. Don't worry, I'll bring snacks."

Bruce reached up, and flipped himself upright onto the branch with a frown.

"That can't be right. She had dance lessons today."

But Selina ran out the door and hugged both of us seconds later. 

"You had dance lessons." Bruce accused. "You told me you had dance lessons on Saturday." 

Selina grabbed a different tree branch and pulled herself up so that she was sitting on it like a seat.

"I skipped them." Selina smiled down. "Mom decided I should take dance lessons to be a graceful young lady."

I did not know English had a way of pronouncing an eye roll, but you could hear it in Selina's voice.

"I don't think you need any help being graceful." Bruce told her. I had to bite back a laugh because it was true. I could not picture anyone who was more graceful than Selina.

Inside, slow hesitant notes on the piano started to form into a more familiar melody.

Selina tilted her head. "Rachel is doing better. Ode to Joy, right?"

Bruce nodded. "It is now - recognizable." 

Having been visiting with some of Rachel's earlier attempts at the song, I had to agree. Recognizable was a vast improvement from her earlier attempts.

A clanging sound interrupted that thought and I looked up, but could not see anything from my seat on the rock. 

Bruce could see something though.

"Harvey!"

Running over to the side gate by the road, Bruce unlocked it and let his friend in.

"I was going for a walk and saw everyone outside."

Bruce shut the gate, locking it so that it looked like every other piece of wrought iron fence surrounding the Wayne family's garden.

"Good to see you again, Zatanna." Harvey tilted his head at Selina. "I thought you had something today."

"Dance lessons. I didn't feel like dancing."

"But if you were supposed to -",

"Well, if Bruce and you think it is so important, why don't you two dance?"

"What?" 

Selina jumped down and started pacing. "My mother thinks I should learn how to dance to be graceful and make connections as I get older. Your parents go to the same parties my parents do, so why don't you have to learn the same thing?"

"Because I already know how to waltz." Bruce said. "My parents taught me last year."

"Really?" Harvey sounded surprised.

Bruce let out a sigh, but he looked a little hurt. "Why do you think Selina knows how to dance and I don't?"

Then he held out his hand and Harvey moved forward, like for a handshake. 

Instead, Bruce took his head, placing Harvey's hand on his shoulder instead. Then, he put his other hand on Harvey's back.

"You see, when I step back, you step forward."

Notes continued to move from the piano. I thought with a little practice, it might be the Blue Danube, but it had the rhythm of a waltz. Sometimes.

Bruce guided Harvey into a step to the side, then he stepped forward.

And Harvey didn't step back.

Bruce frowned, tapping his friend's shoulder. "No. This time, I step forward and you step back. That's how you waltz."

Harvey blushed, the red creeping all the way up his cheeks. 

Bruce tried to reassure him. "Look, if you need a break, that's fine."

Harvey shook his head. "No, I can do this. So, who moves forward next?"

They manage three shaky waltz turns before the door opened, the faltering piano notes continuing, as a tray came down on the table.

"I see that I'll need to get another glass and some more cookies."

Harvey stepped away from Bruce, still blushing.

Bruce just smiled at Alfred. "Thank you. I should get a drink. Teaching Harvey how to waltz is not as easy as my mother made it look when she taught me."

"It is a skill that comes with practice."

Harvey moved over to the table, looking relieved, probably thinking Bruce would forget about dancing after the snack.

But, even though I might not spend as much time with the three of them, I figured Selina and Harvey knew Bruce could be stubborn, especially when he was trying to make a point.

And Bruce never forgot anything.

[landboundstar-writing]

Trade Secrets Part 3

Repost from my main blog and AO3. Tip if you can, reblog if you can't. Any support helps.

I walked into the hospital waiting room and sat with a bottle of water, waiting for Dad to finish talking to one of the donors who had been at the show upstairs in the pediatric unit. 

Bruce looked up from the notebook he was writing in, a math textbook open by his elbow. His face lit up in a smile, and he ran over, wrapping me in a hug.

"What's this?  Worried you're going to forget math?" I couldn't help teasing my friend who remembered everything.

"No, but I do need to turn in my homework on Monday. Is everything okay?" Bruce grabbed my shoulder, looking at me, and I batted at his hand.

"Everything's fine. We had a show in the pediatric ward. One of the donors was up there and stopped Dad after the show. Why are you here?"

"Dad has rounds today."

The door opened and both Dr. Wayne and Dad walked in.

"Do you have the rest of the day free, Gio?"

"I just had the charity show at the hospital on my schedule today."

An hour later, we were having lunch with the Waynes.

"Can I be excused?" I asked.

My dad, midconversation, waved that it was okay. And Bruce and I raced out the side door to the garden.

I was sitting on a rock, watching Bruce hanging upside down by his knees after climbing a tree, when Rachel poked her head out the door. 

"Selina just showed up. I'll tell her you are out here."

"Aren't you going to come out too?" I called back in.

Rachel smiled. "I have piano practice first, but I'll be out after. Don't worry, I'll bring snacks."

Bruce reached up, and flipped himself upright onto the branch with a frown.

"That can't be right. She had dance lessons today."

But Selina ran out the door and hugged both of us seconds later. 

"You had dance lessons." Bruce accused. "You told me you had dance lessons on Saturday." 

Selina grabbed a different tree branch and pulled herself up so that she was sitting on it like a seat.

"I skipped them." Selina smiled down. "Mom decided I should take dance lessons to be a graceful young lady."

I did not know English had a way of pronouncing an eye roll, but you could hear it in Selina's voice.

"I don't think you need any help being graceful." Bruce told her. I had to bite back a laugh because it was true. I could not picture anyone who was more graceful than Selina.

Inside, slow hesitant notes on the piano started to form into a more familiar melody.

Selina tilted her head. "Rachel is doing better. Ode to Joy, right?"

Bruce nodded. "It is now - recognizable." 

Having been visiting with some of Rachel's earlier attempts at the song, I had to agree. Recognizable was a vast improvement from her earlier attempts.

A clanging sound interrupted that thought and I looked up, but could not see anything from my seat on the rock. 

Bruce could see something though.

"Harvey!"

Running over to the side gate by the road, Bruce unlocked it and let his friend in.

"I was going for a walk and saw everyone outside."

Bruce shut the gate, locking it so that it looked like every other piece of wrought iron fence surrounding the Wayne family's garden.

"Good to see you again, Zatanna." Harvey tilted his head at Selina. "I thought you had something today."

"Dance lessons. I didn't feel like dancing."

"But if you were supposed to -",

"Well, if Bruce and you think it is so important, why don't you two dance?"

"What?" 

Selina jumped down and started pacing. "My mother thinks I should learn how to dance to be graceful and make connections as I get older. Your parents go to the same parties my parents do, so why don't you have to learn the same thing?"

"Because I already know how to waltz." Bruce said. "My parents taught me last year."

"Really?" Harvey sounded surprised.

Bruce let out a sigh, but he looked a little hurt. "Why do you think Selina knows how to dance and I don't?"

Then he held out his hand and Harvey moved forward, like for a handshake. 

Instead, Bruce shook his head, placing Harvey's hand on his shoulder instead. Then, he put his other hand on Harvey's back.

"You see, when I step back, you step forward."

Notes continued to move from the piano. I thought with a little practice, it might be the Blue Danube, but it had the rhythm of a waltz. Sometimes.

Bruce guided Harvey into a step to the side, then he stepped forward.

And Harvey didn't step back.

Bruce frowned, tapping his friend's shoulder. "No. This time, I step forward and you step back. That's how you waltz."

Harvey blushed, the red creeping all the way up his cheeks. 

Bruce tried to reassure him. "Look, if you need a break, that's fine."

Harvey shook his head. "No, I can do this. So, who moves forward next?"

They manage three shaky waltz turns before the door opened, the faltering piano notes continuing, as a tray came down on the table.

"I see that I'll need to get another glass and some more cookies."

Harvey stepped away from Bruce, still blushing.

Bruce just smiled at Alfred. "Thank you. I should get a drink. Teaching Harvey how to waltz is not as easy as my mother made it look when she taught me."

"It is a skill that comes with practice."

Harvey moved over to the table, looking relieved, probably thinking Bruce would forget about dancing after the snack.

But, even though I might not spend as much time with the three of them, I figured Selina and Harvey knew Bruce could be stubborn, especially when he was trying to make a point.

And Bruce never forgot anything.

[clawsextended]

adhd holly things:

phone is always left in a place that makes no sense because she put it down to do something else and forgot it.

phone is often in: the cat food container, the refrigerator shelf (usually middle shelf), the closet (third or fourth shelf from the bottom), top shelf of the kitchen cabinet, behind the toothpaste on the bathroom sink, too many more to name.

can’t stay still, incessantly bouncing her knee, rhythmically tapping on everything, speed of fucking light.

a criminal owner of The Clothes Chair where all her clothes are tossed when they become Too Heavy, Too Light, or Not It.

constantly leaves her textbooks at school. at home. at her friends’ house. at the iceberg lounge (selina needed to talk to ozzy for literally five minutes), in waylon’s sewer, at wayne manor, on varying rooftops. some of those are lost long ago in a land far away.

never stops singing along with… everything. if she knows the song, she’s gonna sing. if the tune is catchy, she’s gonna madlib the words. and then learn it and listen to it more than 40 times in a day.

sometimes too understimulated, holly will literally do four things at once if she can get away with it. youtube video on the tv, laptop running fortnite, phone playing a let’s play vid with no commentary, intermittently writing up a code.

minus zero chill. negative chill. can’t talk in a quiet tone.

bite bite gnaw bite chew anything she can. constantly gnawing on whatever necklace she’s wearing — owns a lot of bead and varying gemstone necklaces.

[uselessbiscuitsoul]

SELINA CONCISE PHYSICS JUMPSCARE (very cute art btw andbdbdb)

I did not expect for someone to recognize my physics textbook from my school bus graveyard fanart today but here we are lmao

(Also thank you sm <3)