#all the hate and poison is more common than not and it's scarier than someone calmly saying something creepy bc it's the crowd going to

[justaholeinmysoul]

Experts could be wrong but too many people just voice their wrong, emotionally driven, personal, science devoid opinions as facts and too many agree with the coldest takes because they're easier or more popular

[dracowars]

forbidden | draco malfoy

pairing: draco x slytherin!reader

word count: 3,6k

summary: where y/n and draco have to endure a very special type of detention

a/n: welcome to my first ever one shot. i hope you enjoy it! please let me know if there are any mistakes.

warnings: none

universe: harry potter

Honestly you weren't really surprised that Professor Snape gave Draco, Harry and Ron detention for nearly blowing up the whole potions classroom when fighting over the ground unicorn horn, an important ingredient for The Antidote to Common Poisons.

But what you weren't expecting was that Snape gave you detention as well, just because you sat in the center of it. Any attempt to convince him otherwise was useless.

And now here you were, in front of Hagrid's hut, the moon shining bright, the only light coming from the hut and your dim lanterns. You'd rather be in any other place you can think of. Everywhere except here. The sooner it ends, the better.

Yet the three idiots next to you still yelled at each other for what already feels like hours. Not even Filch nor Mrs Norris, who escorted you here after curfew, could bear their stupidity any longer, so Mr Filch knocks against Hagrid's door and runs off with a malicious giggle, but not before wishing y'all good luck, of course. You, for your part, could really need it.

"Can't believe I have to spend detention with you again, Potter", Draco spat, his voice full of disgust. The whole day he'd told you about how Harry and him already had detention in their first year at Hogwarts. That time they were lead into the Forbidden Forest and since you are now at Hagrid's hut in the middle of the night, you can already imagine exactly what your detention consists of this time.

Goosebumps spread all over your skin when you only think of the Dark Forest. Yes, you were sorted into Slytherin but that doesn't mean that you can't be afraid. You were, in fact, scared of many things but going into the Forbidden Forest was definetely very high on that list.

Draco noticed your change of behavior while listening to his story of his 11 year old brave self and suddenly had fun frightening you. Not that you were already scared enough of only the thought to go into that damned forest.

Even though he promised to protect you all the way, you were sure that when they were in first year Draco was the first to run and leave the others for death. But he would never admit that and maybe, just maybe, he actually grew up a little bit since then.

You've actually known him since you can remember. Your families, both pureblood, are very close, they even went to Hogwarts together in their time, which let to you and Draco being childhood friends. So when you went to Hogwarts yourself, you were happy to have your best friend by your side and when you got sorted into the same house, Slytherin, you couldn't have been any happier.

Eventually these long years of friendship turned into something more in your fourth year. (Maybe already earlier, you weren't quite sure.) Neither of you wanted to admit it at first but you were meant to be. Anyone could see it from a far. Everyone shipped you since first year and now, in sixth year, you are a happy couple for nearly three years with just a few minor disagreements here and there.

"Ah. The usual suspects", Hagrid mumbles as soon as he spots you after opening the heavy door, Fang, his over-sized Boarhound dog, directly running in Harry's direction. "I don't know why I thought it would be someone else. Feels just like yesterday that we went into the Forbidden Forest, right?"

Hagrid's mention of the Forbidden Forest makes shivers run down your spine right away. This reaction of your body didn't go unnoticed though and you feel the warmth of Draco's body as he scoots closer to you.

Despite Draco's cold demeanor outward, he has a very pleasent warm body temperature. You found out about this feature when you started becoming 'more than just friends' over the years. And now it is hard to imagine life without this warmth.

"I thought getting into sixth year would finally safe us these kind of detentions", Ron whines which Hagrid only response to with a laugh. "No matter what year you are in, Ron, there is nothing more beautiful like an adventurous walk through the forest in the middle of the night. Trust me", Hagrid smiles proudly. "What do we have to do this time?", Harry asks, also not very fond of the idea to go into that forest again.

Even though you were friends with Draco for so long, you actually liked the golden trio. You don't have much to do with them, only a few courses together, but you don't hate them at all. In your opinion they are actually very kind, which Draco, obviously, doesn't approve of.

"Not much, in fact. A creature was hurt last night and I really don't know which one it is. All we have to do is to find the injured creature", Hagrid explains while taking a huge crossbow, leading you right to the entrance of the forest. "Not very challenging, is it?"

"But you do know that there are werwolves in there, don't you? Besides all the other.. dangerous animals that thirst for our blood", Ron complains, while Draco seems to have laid eyes on the crossbow.

"What weapon do we get to defend ourselves?", he interupts Ron's expressed thoughts and points to the weapon, which Hagrid answers to with a sigh.

"You're a wizard. I don't think you need any other weapon than your wand, Malfoy", Hagrid scoffs and goes past him. "Now. Since I'm able to learn from my mistakes, not like others..", he mumbles the last part. "Harry and Ron, you will go this way. Draco and Y/N take the other direction. Please make sure to not hurt anyone or anything."

"A-Anything?", is the last word you hear Ron mumble as you started walking in the different direction. Or more like Draco pulling you behind him into the Dark Forest.

You tighten your black cloak around yourself as you shiver. The Forbidden Forest seems to be even scarier in the night. Even scarier than you expected it to be in general. The only sounds you can hear are your footsteps on the mud, caused by the rainy weather these days, and here and there something that sounds like a very aggressive raven.

"Snape should have just deducted our houses points and not let us go into this dumb forest again", Draco mumbles in front of you while leading the way, not really knowing where to search either. The dim warm light of the lantern he holds up makes his hair shine bright and is the only thing that makes you feel at ease a little bit. Something familiar.

A sudden crack behind you, sounding like a branch that has been stepped on, makes you stop in your tracks abruptly. "What was that, Draco?", you ask, the fear in your shaking voice clearly audible.

"Don't worry about it, love. I'm sure it was just a stupid animal. Let's go on", your boyfriend responds and takes your cold hand in his again.

As you kept going through the tall trees for a few minutes you realize that you've gotten very far into the Forbidden Forest already. All you can see now are trees and not even the moon shines through the dense leaves over your heads anymore. The thick layer of fog around you doesn't make the weird feeling in your stomach better either.

Draco keeps strolling around, searching for any evidence for an injured creature and you turn around, still feeling anxious of someone - or something - following you two.

Your heart stops as the lantern, that Draco held up seconds ago, falls to the ground with a loud crash. Your whole vision goes black and darkness surrounds you. A few bats, startled by the noise, fly away.

"Draco?!", you shout and don't dare to move a single muscle. Your breath is so slow, you don't even know if you're still breathing at all. Another sound is heard from your right and you turn around, only to face more darkness.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy! This is not funny at all! Do you hear me?!", you yell again while getting your wand out of your pocket. Pointing it forward, you quietly say: "Lumos."

As soon as the light erupts from the tip of your wand, blinding you for a brief moment, a white, light-lit face appears right in front of you.

"BOO!", the face shouts directly at you.

You let out a scream, stumble back a few steps in shock and rest your hand against your fast beating heart. The next thing you hear are the echoing laughters of your boyfriend.

"You should've seen your face!", Draco laughs and throws his head back. You swallow heavily and take a few moments to calm yourself down, a tear on the edge of falling. "I hate you so much!", you yell at him and hit his shoulder a few times as anger replaces your fear. "You know exactly how scared I am, dumbass!"

"I could not not take this opportunity, love", he giggles, making the blood in your veins boil. But before you can scold him any further, he stops laughing all of a sudden and his suddenly widend eyes are locked on a point directly behind you. "Y/N.. Don't turn around, okay? Don't move", he whispers and points behind you with a slight head movement.

"I'm not that pathetic, Draco. I'm not gonna fall for that again", you roll your eyes and cross your arms over your chest while turning around. As soon as you did, it feels like all life left your body at once.

Two round yellow eyes, emerging from the sinister undergrowth, are directly fixed on you. A small cone of moonlight falls through the rustling leaves as a slight breeze passes and the creature in front of you turns out to be a werewolf.

Your breath gets caught in your throat as the wild creature comes closer, snarling. "RUN, Y/N!", Draco's loud shout makes you flinch and he grabs your hand, knowing that it is too late to not make any noise, pulling you closely behind him. You nearly stumble over all the sticking out, large roots on the ground but the adrenaline that rushes through your body makes you run as fast as you can.

"Stupefy!", Draco casts the Stunning Spell and shoots it at the creature while running. A jet of red light emerges from his wand but misses the werewolf by a few centimeters. It is now catching up with you even faster than before. "Damn it!", Draco curses.

Your legs already start hurting from how fast you were running. You see a dim light between the trees in front of you and a glimmer of hope runs through you. As you get closer by every second you realize that it's not Hagrid, as you hoped, but none other than Ron and Harry. The confusion is clearly written on their faces.

"RUN!", you tell them, grabbing their hands as you pass them to pull both of them with you. It doesn't take them long to realize what you were running away from.

"Bloody hell!", Ron whimpers beside you and lets the lantern fall to the ground. By now the four of you lost every sense of direction and the only thing that keeps you from giving up is to not get torn into pieces.

Again you take a look back over your shoulder to see how close the wolf has come and in this exact moment of unwariness, you trip over and fall to the ground with a cry. Immediately you try to straighten up but a sharp pain runs through your body and leaves you whimpering in pain.

"Stupefy!", Harry now attacks the beast and actually hits it this time. The wolf falls back a few meters through the air and lands on the ground with a thump, motionless.

"Y/N! Stand up, come on!", Draco helps you up and notices your pained expression. From that moment on your fear is reflected in his eyes. He bends down and frantically picks you up in his arms. Unfortunately, the werewolf has recovered from the spell quickly and is running towards you again, growling and barking dangerously.

But before you can escape this time, another creature that you can't really make out because of the darkness at first, suddenly throws itself on the wolf, fighting a bitter fight with it. You can only stand there and watch in shock.

"Buckbeak!", you can hear Hagrid's voice from the distance and the majestic hippogriff lets go of the much smaller animal, which is now also winzing in pain and then finally leaves you alone.

"What did you do?! How did this happen?", Hagrid scolds you as soon as he arrives, his eyes fixed on Draco immediately. You bite your lower lip to hold back tears as you let yourself sink down from Draco's arms and onto the ground with his help.

"The werewolf attacked us out of nowhere", you explain with a quiet voice and touch your ankle, regretting it right away as you hiss in pain. "It was noone's fault, Hagrid."

"This is exactly the reason why students shouldn't go into the Forbidden Forest, you-", Draco aggressivly starts but you pull on his sleeve, making him look at you. His facial expression softens at your action.

Buckbeak stands close behind Hagrid and observes the situation curiously. Hagrid sighs loudly, his breath becoming visible in the cold air of the night, and pets Buckbeak gently.

"Fine. Let's get you out of here first and then we will look at the damage", Hagrid suggests and Draco and Harry help you stand up again. "I c-can't walk", you hiss after placing your injured foot on the ground, withdrawing it straight away.

"Come here, Y/N. Buckbeak will help", Hagrid waves you over to him and before any second thoughts could cross your mind, you were already seated on the hippogriff's back. While you're still busy with getting comfortable on the creature you unexpectedly feel a pair of hands sneak around your waist closly from behind. Draco had jumped onto Buckbeak as well, with Hagrid's permission of course, and whispers an apology in your ear.

Finally you are able to relax a little while you feel Draco's chest against your back. A cozy warmth emanates from him that has always made you feel at ease and the cold air surrounding you makes it even more comfortable.

With a whistle from Hagrid Buckbeak sets itself in motion and leads you out of the forest, directly back to Hagrid's hut. You had completely lost every sense of time while you were in there. While to you it seems like several hours have passed, it was probably just one.

Draco jumps off in front of the hut and helps you get down, his grip very strong on your hip. You gently stroke over the soft head of the hippogriff and smile weakly at it.

Draco doesn't waste any time and takes you to the warm hut, where he seats you down on one of the chairs and carefully places your leg on his thigh. While watching your boyfriend take care of you so caringly and gently - a side not everyone knows of him - you don't even notice that a few tears finally found their way over your cheeks, which you were able to hold back before. Everything that happened tonight hits you all at once in this moment.

Eventually, Draco's gaze meets yours and he immediately pulls you into a warm, firm and loving hug. "I am so so sorry, love. I shouldn't have scared you. If I hadn't been this stupid, then we wouldn-", he stumbles over his words but you place your index finger on his lips softly. "I'm okay, Draco", you smile at him, even though your ankle doesn't feel anywhere near okay.

"I told Madam Pomfrey what happened and she will be able to heal it quickly, and even though she wasn't very happy that I asked for her help at this hour, she would like to see you at the Hospital Wing", Hagrid tells you as he comes back into his hut, Ron and Harry curiously looking past Hagrid and at you. The guilt is clearly written on Hagrid's face.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help but somehow I just couldn't come up with the right spell!", Ron rants while he and Harry approach you. "How about we help you get into that hospital wing?", Harry offers their help with a smile, which you gladly agree to. Draco on the other hand throws a disapproving look at him, his protective boyfriend instincts very active after what happened today.

Still, he lets Harry help him get you out. Your arms are each wrapped around their shoulders so that you can at least hobble and not have to be carried.

"I will talk to Professor Dumbledore about getting rid of these kind of detentions", Hagrid utters, looking to the ground in shame. Buckbeak senses Hagrid's sadness and lays his head on his arm. Releasing your arm from Draco purposely to tap Hagrid's shoulder soothingly, Draco holds you tightly at your waist in an instant, still afraid that you could lose balance any second and fall again.

"Please don't worry, Hagrid. It's not your fault", you try to cheer him up. "Thank you and also you, Buckbeak." At the mention of his name, Buckbeak turns to you and it almost looks like he actually understood what you said, lowering his head a little as if he would bow.

"I hate to admit it but I guess I have to thank that.. chicken of yours as well, Hagrid", Draco clears his throat. "Thank you for rescuing us."

You know exactly how difficult it is for Draco to thank someone. He rarely does, only because he never really learned how. However, the few times he actually does, you can't help but feel warmer inside. This is what distinguishs him from the evil guys.

With these last words and a nod from Hagrid's side, Draco leads the way into the building and they help you to the first floor, Ron opening the doors for you. You arrive at the Hospital Wing, where Harry and Ron seperate from you and go back to their common room.

Madam Pomfrey treats your sprained ankle and only half an hour later you are dismissed from the Hospital Wing. It feels like you've never hurt yourself in the first place, but Madam Pomfrey still wants you to rest and take care of yourself. Your boyfriend clearly agreed to that and insisted on carrying you back to the Slytherin common room, where you arrived only seconds ago.

It is already so late in the night that not a single soul is in the faint green room, everyone fast asleep for hours in their comfortable beds. You feel exhausted after this eventful night and tiredness is slowly overcoming you.

"Where do you think you are going?", Draco's determining voice asks you with a hint of reproach when you were just about to make your way to the girls' dormitories. "To sleep?", you deadpenned.

"You won't go anywhere except my prefect room. Oh, and you will most certainly not go", he commands and before you know it, you're in his strong arms again and on the way to his room. If the way wasn't so short though, you could have fallen asleep right there in his arms, your cheek on his shoulder and one hand against his warm chest.

Despite telling him that you are fine for the tenth time now, he still insists on taking care of you. He borrows you your favorite sweater of his - although you don't quite understand how it found its way back into his closet because the last time you checked it has been in your room - and softly puts you to bed under the thick dark green covers out of silk.

What you don't know, however, is how much he actually blames himself for what happend tonight. He feels guilty because it should have hit him and not you. After all, he accidentally lured the werewolf into your direction by frightening you. He knew you were scared, you told him before. Nevertheless he thought it was funny to scare you. And now you got hurt because of him.

He climbs in beside you and pulls you closely to him, your arm wrapped over his waist and your head on his chest. He gently runs his fingertips over your delicate skin and through your hair. You feel his steady heartbeat beneath you, softly inhale his scent and close your eyes.

"I love you so much, Y/N. I'm sorry for everything", Draco whispers barely audible and places a kiss on your forehead, then another one on your temple. "I love you too, Draco", you absently smile and put your hand on his jaw, lift your head slightly and then give him a kiss on his chapped lips. "And please stop apologizing, alright? It was not your fault."

You can clearly see that he thinks about whether or not to reply but you beat him to it. "Listen. I don't blame you at all. It was a misfortune, nothing more and nothing less. All I need is your company right now. I need you by my side, Draco. Always", you explain and give him a genuine smile in hopes to make him feel better and to finally stop blaming himself.

He replies with an equally genuine smile and gives you one last kiss before he pulls you even closer, as if he's scared of losing you. Still, after your kind words, he actually feels better now and he smiles to himself when noticing your quiet snoring.

And that night Draco definetely made sure you wouldn't have any nightmares at all.

[yogsandchaos]

Why Strife Keeps Attracting Blood Mages, an Extensive Meta Look at Strife and Blood Magic

Strife has always had bad luck when it involves blood magic. Despite his intense distaste for the magic, it dogs his steps, never too far behind, but why? Why are most of the people he talks to in some form blood mages out of every possible magic? I think it is relatively easy to trace why it always returns to blood magic with him out of every magic.

First of all, his career, soul-sucking capitalists aren’t exactly known to hang out with the nicest people. With a career made from stepping on others with lots of exploitation and brutality, anyone with a strong morality could not be around him for long without turning on him. The only people who can genuinely be around him for long periods are other people who also see nothing wrong with stepping on others to advance, maybe not always to the same extreme as Strife. Still, they do not care for the suffering of others considered beneath their notice on some level.

Those willing to step on others would, of course, see nothing inherently wrong with blood magic’s extremes either, as it is a natural progression of the dog eat dog attitude of anyone Strife hangs out with. While mages who gain proficiency in other forms of magic are not inherently inclined to the cruelty that so often comes with blood magic, thus filtering out people who would not use blood magic from his potential acquaintance pool. Making it seem like blood mages are insanely common when they aren’t. Along with the fact that other mages likely require space and resources that Strife would need for his work or cut into his ‘free labor’ blood magic is just the inherent best fit for the magic to get deep into while working with Strife.

Of course, the next thing to consider is that while Strife pretends to be the top dog, he isn’t, and everyone knows it. Strife survives by putting on airs and facades of power; some he can back up, some he can not, and anyone who looks closely at the picture can see the cracks. As discussed above, people he can hang out with are people who step on others to advance in some form, and those who can do that are often on the hunt for things to exploit. Thus the fact Strife seems not to have quite as sturdy a pedestal as he pretends incites curiosity. Along with the fact Strife is heavy, fake it till you make it, means anyone with enough know-how can swoop in and start causing trouble for him with ease. With so much to gain by doing so, along with him just being inherently entertaining, it’s no surprise those like Kirin or Parvis flock to him. With blood magic being such a prominent sore spot for him, it makes it the prime place to dig in thumbs to turn him into exactly what whoever they want.

Along with this, while he may deny it heavily, Strife is a meddling person who gets attached to things he deems as his. He enjoys cleaning up messes and putting stuff in their rightful place and thus will follow those who caught his eyes and clean up after them, complaining the entire time to hide the fact he’s trying to help, of course. If you can get an in, it is not hard to win Strife over and make him want to stay around you. He can’t let go of things he enjoys, including people, so he stays nearby while he may lie and complain about them. 

These are all traits that make him an excellent guard dog or follower; even if you hurt him dearly, if he’s attached enough to him, he’ll always come back. Of course, this is heavily exploitable and makes him the ideal person to feed a blood mage habit as even if he swears to heaven and hell that he won’t touch it. A few pouts and huff, and he’ll practically leap into the altar himself, unable to resist helping and cleaning up after what is his.

All of this, of course, combines with the fact Strife has a rather addictive personality type. Strife is shown repeatedly that he can’t just leave things unfinished, that no matter what something is, not to finish it bothers him immensely. Strife is unable just to quit and walk away because something isn’t finished grinds at him, and that’s not a good thing. So if he can’t leave something unfinished and encounters something that only takes and never ends, he becomes stuck. It’s an endless loop that, without external influences to stop it, Strife becomes stuck forever doing the same thing over and over because it’s not done, and if he doesn’t finish it, it will bother him. 

It is always needing another hit of Redstone, always getting to fix something that’s broken, never able to leave well enough alone. These are horrible traits for getting away from a magic that never really finishes, like blood magic. So when he’s given a chance to go back to it, the perfectionist completionist in him is practically forced to pick back up the knife because the only option is to let it bother him forever. Things that are broken, things that are dirty, things that need more work, it’s a siren song to him, and few things need more work than dirty, broken magic that is blood magic. Of course, he easily gets hooked on it, it’s the epitome of one more stab, and then I’m done, one more stab, one more stab, one more stab... It’s a miracle he survived college.

Now, these are all well and good reasons that blood magic just can’t leave him the fuck alone, but that can’t be it. While this would indeed heavily weight the dice towards blood magic, but with now even Tevela getting in on the bloody fun on streams, there has to be more to it. The only thing I can think of as to why it is present in his life, but actively harasses him, is his ego. Strife’s pronounced small dog syndrome.

Strife is someone who acts proud, untouchable, so strong, even when he’s not, you won’t catch him dead admitting he’s anything less than god’s fucking gift. It’s so obvious a lie, but Strife is so caught up in it, it makes it tantalizing to see how far you can push it. Nearly everyone he talks to wants some sort of power over him; they want to take him down a peg, they want to break that ego and forcibly remind him he’s mortal at least a bit. People want to strip him down to his bare-bones to expose him as the foolish self-conscious liar he always was, whether because he’s more useful like that, he’s a threat, or because they want him to gain some humility, people want to break him down to his core. 

Of course, to break someone down, you must know their weaknesses, and for someone who prides himself on being coy and powerful, he sure does scream his shortcomings to the sky. Magic, how he scowls, how he grimaces, how he spits, it’s so clear he doesn’t like magic, that magic is his big blind spot. Strife does not understand magic, so anyone who wants to go up against him is in their best interest to pick up some form of magic because he can’t defend himself as well from it. He can get so vocal about blood magic as well, and he has such a visceral reaction to it more than any other magic; it becomes evident to anyone looking to exploit him that if you want to scare Strife, you go into blood magic. 

Blood magic is the ultimate leash for Strife, Strife may be unsteady, but he can also be a threat, Blood magic makes him even more unsteady but less of a threat, the perfect state to nudge him in the direction you want. Blood magic is the ultimate not well hidden weak spot of Strife. It’s only practical that if you want to use him or just get him out of the way, you would consider looking into it. With how he currently is, there is no more poisonous yet tempting fruit for him, just the thing to get him to get into line without him ever needing to realize how he’s falling.

With how obvious he makes this weakness, with how his personality and mind works, along with the fact he’s a threat but one with so many cracks, it all paints a target on his back in blood. There is no reason not to go into blood magic if you desire some form of control over Strife, and as long as your careful enough, his inability to let you go will bring him to his knees under you. It’s so easy, so tempting. It’s not surprising even those that don’t really mean serious harm like Tevela will dig into the stuff. It’s just too easy.

He can only escape it by getting over his hang-ups with not just blood magic, but all magic. He has to begin to view all magic as a neutral sum thing. He has to have no emotions beyond maybe a mild preference not to use them. It can no longer pull a reaction from him, even one he hides if he wants people to stop using it against him. He has to become apathetic to it, or else people will always see how he reacts and act on it. 

He needs to learn how to walk away, that it’s okay to leave something unfinished, and it’s not a black mark on his record not to finish something that is hurting him. Even if someone else is asking him to finish it or saying they need his help, no matter how much he wants to fix it, he needs to say no and stick with it. He needs to learn to disconnect from the situation and make it not his problem and make it clear that it’s not his problem, not just say it’s not his problem, then do it anyway because it’s itching him to be fixed. Even if he can never get away from his hate and distrust for magic, he’ll be a much saner and happier person for it if he can do this one thing.   

Unfortunately, all that would require Strife to actually admit he has facades up and dare risk emotional vulnerability, and Strife would rather die, let’s be honest. He can’t admit to himself any weakness he has or realize what other people mean to him. He can’t self reflect because if he self reflects, he has to face his past, face the fact he is vulnerable. Few things are scarier to Strife then being vulnerable after all, and if blood magic is the price he pays to never admit he is so vulnerable, he’ll pay it every time. Blood magic is the ultimate symbol of everything wrong with Strife’s mentalities and actions, and to truly move past it, would mean admitting he has something wrong with how he operates, that there is something wrong with him. Strife can’t face that, and who knows if he ever will be able to. So until then, by the altar, he will stay, wondering why he can never truly walk away. 

It’s a cold, cruel cycle, but Strife has no one to blame but himself.