#and a certain fanon/canon Remus

[yupthisisshe]

James Potter x Reader: Your Own Little Corner of the World

Warnings: none explicitly but small spaces are implied (“reader” likes them though); “not canon James” but be fr there is no canon for Marauders; we do whatever the bloody hell we want with them :D

A/N: fluffffffff aaaaaa; I swear fluff and sarcasm flow out of my veins and into every story I write

You have a bed that lays about a foot -give or take- off the ground. Not quite lofted, but enough that you can crawl underneath and lay there without being squished. Sometimes you like to go under there and just lay there, usually in silence, sometimes you would read or draw or write. It was like a little hideaway spot from the rest of the world. You felt enclosed, but not trapped. It felt safe. Sometimes you even fell asleep there, which to your significant other, made no sense. Speaking of your significant other and your safe space, it was them who found you in that spot when you had dozed off from the rest of the world.

“Love? Lovey are you in here?”

You roused from your sleep, still a bit dazed.

“James?” You began to say something else but were interrupted by your own voice. “Ow!”

“Darlin’?” James began, searching and confusion juxtaposed in his voice. He knelt onto to the ground to look under the bed where he found you. “What are you doing under your bed?”

“Forming a bump on my head, apparently.” You say regretfully, having hit your head when you woke up. You had tried to sit up in search of James, forgetting -in your dozy state- that you were under the bed still.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” you smile lopsidedly. “Besides, I’ve had worse.” The two of you share a smile and James sighs out a laugh. He crawls under the bed to join you and lays beside you. When his face gets close enough to yours, he cups your cheek and kisses you softly.

“You do know that typically people sleep ON the bed right? Like, on top of it?” He questions jokingly.

“Well I’m not typical,” you reply in a non-serious voice. “And besides, I don’t always like to be on top,” you smirk.

“Oh, I know,” James smirks back, smutty acknowledgement of your lewd insinuation trickling through his tone. He giggles, making you giggle as well, and he presses a kiss to your cheek.

“Sometimes I just lay under here. To decompress or relax, and kind of just hide away from it all. It’s nice in a way. Like my own little corner of the world,” you tell James in response to his previous inquiry. He smiles at you and asks softly,

“Can I stay?”

“Yeah,” you smile, “yeah you can stay. I think I’d like that.”

He pulls you close to his chest and holds you, adding a feeling of warmth to your little corner of the world.

“Don’t worry darlin’, I’ll always ask before entering. We all need our own private little corner of the world sometimes. And I’m glad you’re willing to let me join yours sometimes.”

“I love you, Jamie,” you say into his chest, and he can tell you really mean it.

“And I love you sweetheart.” He presses a kiss to your forehead, and the two of you relax in your loving silence. You and your boyfriend, in your own little corner of the world.

[ifyouknowmenahyoudontt]

ranting about the fandom ( TW: opinions)

- remus is so badly mischaracterized, the shift from him being a soft sensitive kid despite the violent nature of his condition was so so important but now he is turned into this mean angry alpha male. i feel like the point of him being so sensitive was to contrast w him being a werewolf ya know. bring back weird and awkward remus

- gay ships that are just there because they’re gay is pretty strange. i’m speaking of the whole jegulus/pandalily/whatever new thing ppl come up with i don’t really understand the point of just thinking that making a couple gay makes them more interesting. seems a little counterproductive .

-jily loosing its popularity is killing me. bring back my 7 year slow burn prophecy beautiful love story they are the most important ship

-sirius being a feminine dramatic gay twink. this man was a motorcycle owning rebel strong guy. and believe it or not he CAN be gay and still be that. him being gay ( in our head canons) doesn’t mean he’s a woman

- turning gay ships into basically a straight relationship by making them so stereotypical ( wolfstar w feminine af sirius and strong man remus)

- shipping character that died and fought against a certain ideology and people that were actively apart of the problem is kinda crazy. like jegulily? my brother in christ regulus wanted her dead.

-fanon regulus. he was a strong willed DEATH EATER he wasn’t forced into it or abused by his family. it.is.stated.in.the.book.

-deatheaters are interesting characters BUT don’t tell me people are babying and glorifying them in a effort to explore their complexity.

-some of you are blinded by the fancasts and forgot all about what the characters are.

- the new fan casts are meeeh. they’re not all supposed to be supermodels…

- jegulus taking over the fandom is insane.

-andromeda should be getting the regulus treatement she is what you made regulus into.

-frank and alice should be more loved.

- the romantization of that whole pureblood supremacist squad is NOT cute.

-james potter my beloved.

- i don’t really like the idea of the casanova being remus. i feel like it would james or sirius based on how remus talked about his high school years

- jily is way too important to the universe to be discredited.

-lily evans being put behind regulus is CRAZY. my girl did not die for this bs

-sirius being criticized for leaving is wild. regulus was not abused and didn’t even want to leave. sirius was mistreated.

- i kind of like the idea of the developed character of walburga. sirius said she wasn’t a deatheater. and i like people writing her as a more complex character.

- as much as i love wolfstar, james and sirius’s relationship stays the central point of the gang.

-ships have taken way too much importance over the friendships of the group.

-i feel like a people make female characters into lesbians ( like lily ) just because they are strong characters and it’s weird.

- yes once she got married to james she was lily POTTER and she was a mother just like james was FATHER they’re is nothing wrong with that.

- jegulus/ any ship between a member of the order and a deatheater is just plain stupid sorry but if your head canons goes completely against the core of a character it’s just a wrong statement.

before you start “LEt pEoPle dO whAT thEy WaNt” these are MY opinions

please share yours i love to debate

[saintsenara]

are you still doing ur asks abt the ships? if u are what r ur thoughts on wolfstar? if not have a very good day!

thank you very much for the ask anon - and thank you in particular for leading me into danger...

my answer to this is going to be - and wolfstar shippers keep calm please - similar to my jegulus one. which means the tldr is: write what you want, but i’m unlikely to read it, especially if you don’t acknowledge the difference between canon and fanon.

i have no aversion to wolfstar coming up as a background ship [let them be happy while harry/anyone are having drama, i’m all for it] but i generally don’t search out fics in which wolfstar is [one of] the central pairing(s) and tend only to read wolfstar-centric stuff if it’s written or recommended by someone whose opinion i trust. 

this isn’t because i think the pairing is unfeasible [the canonical sirius and remus very much have the vibes of people who have enjoyed each other’s bodies…] but because the community which has built up around wolfstar, both among "original wolfstar, y’know, like in canon" fans and their sworn enemies"‘marauders fandom, canon who?" fans, largely expects certain tropes and characterisations which divorce the characters from what i personally think is interesting about them.

the most egregious of these tropes, in my opinion, is the fact that wolfstar which purports to be canon-compliant or which follows the canon timeline deals so infrequently with the fact that both remus and sirius have such little trust in each other that they believed utterly sincerely that the other was a death eater.

it’s crucial that we understand the profundity of this suspicion and - therefore - what it says about the fragility of the loyalty between them prior to 1980-81. this is not a brief flash of distrust in a high-pressure couple of days at the end of october. the evidence of canon is that we’re talking about a period of months - if not a full year - in which remus and sirius not only think it justifiable to doubt the other’s loyalties, but also seem to be acting on that doubt to try to get the other in trouble.

harry is born in july 1980, at a point when voldemort has all but won the war. severus snape defects to the order at some point relatively soon after this, when voldemort decides that the potters are the family referred to in the prophecy. peter pettigrew then defects to the death eaters in the autumn of 1980 [which we know because sirius says in prisoner of azkaban that he was spying for a full year before voldemort’s fall].

snape then evidently tells dumbledore that there is a spy in the order - although he clearly doesn’t, despite a common accusation levelled against him, know this is pettigrew, since the voldemort of the first war has apparently heard of operational security, unlike his resurrected counterpart - and this leads dumbledore to demand a restriction on james and lily’s movements until - by august 1981 [the plausible date of lily’s letter to sirius in deathly hallows] - they are basically under house arrest. the implication of canon is that, by this summer at the very latest, james and lily are aware they’re being spied on, from which i think it’s reasonable to infer three things: that dumbledore has begun to suspect that sirius is the spy over the opening half of 1981; that remus, who canonically always trusts dumbledore’s judgements, uses this to confirm his own suspicions about sirius; and that sirius, whose canonical relationship with dumbledore has an undercurrent of unease, especially in order of the phoenix, picks up on this and assumes remus is briefing dumbledore against him. i think it’s also reasonable to infer that the only person convinced there isn’t a spy among his close friends is james.

peter visits the potters’ safe-house and is aware of its address, so we can assume remus and sirius are the same. by october 1981, however, there are clearly concerns that james and lily’s whereabouts are known to the death eaters - perhaps also accompanied by information from snape that voldemort, who loves a bit of symbolism, has selected halloween as the day he will strike - which trigger dumbledore’s advice that they perform the fidelius charm. dumbledore’s unease when james picks sirius as secret keeper is confirmation that he had identified sirius as the spy. that remus is never suggested as a potential candidate is confirmation that sirius believes him to be the spy - and possibly also that james is beginning to think his best friend might be onto something [i always wonder if remus’ bitterness when accusing james of being too trusting in deathly hallows is a flash of self-loathing about the fact that james didn’t trust him]. sirius then persuades james to use peter and, within a week of the charm being performed, james and lily are dead, peter has disappeared, and sirius is in azkaban.

[as an aside here, i don’t love the amount of dumbledore bashing in wolfstar, and i think it’s worth doing some dumbledore defence: sirius’ internment in azkaban without trial - a reference to an actual historical event, if you were thinking it sounded far-fetched - is not dumbledore’s fault. the wizengamot acts on dumbledore’s credible belief that sirius was the secret keeper, while sirius - who is cackling his head off the whole time - refuses to speak in his own defence. similarly, dumbledore does not deny sirius access to harry (via hagrid) when he arrives, distraught, in godric’s hollow because he’s contrived a machiavellian plan to keep harry alone and unloved with the dursleys instead of with his true family, but because all the evidence he has available to him is that harry’s life is in danger at sirius’ hands.]

so sirius spends the next twelve years in azkaban, with remus clearly nowhere near his mind. that he stays in prison, and only escapes when he has an unimpeachable chance to get his revenge and protect harry, is because he - like his narrative mirror, snape - is so haunted by his role [indirect, but he canonically thinks that he essentially cast the killing curse himself] in the death of someone he fiercely loved that he considers azkaban a punishment he deserves. 

this links to the next issue i have with a lot of wolfstar: that the defining force in both remus and sirius’ lives is james, not each other.

the dynamic of the marauders is frequently reduced to the following: wolfstar, who are best friends and lovers it would take the heat-death of the universe to pull apart; james and whichever romantic partner the story wishes to pair him with, who are the same; and peter, who is either there and completely futile, or is replaced with a fanonised female character [dorcas, marlene, alice etc. - none of whom, may i say, it makes sense to have in the same school year as the marauders, dumbledore is not actually running the order as a gang of child soldiers] or a woobiefied death eater [regulus black, barty crouch jr., evan rosier etc.].

but in canon, a different dynamic is clear. james is the lynchpin of the marauders’ world, the anchoring point to all their senses of self; and the moment he is out of the picture no bonds of loyalty remain among the other three. [it’s tempting to imagine that remus always harbours a belief that sirius is innocent, but i think that this would be less due to an unconditional affection for his friend and more due to the fact that his own self-loathing needs to believe that he couldn’t have stopped james and lily dying; which he should have done if sirius really was the culprit, since he clearly suspected he was a death eater]. 

if you asked remus, sirius, and peter, clearly each of them would describe james as their best friend [even though james’ eyes are only for sirius - he only has one best man, and harry only has one godfather], but their relationships with each other outside of james are less clearly defined, at least before sirius and remus are the only two left.

this doesn’t prevent pre-1981 [or james lives au] wolfstar - your boyfriend and your best friend being different people is fine, obviously - but it is going to change the dynamic between them in ways i think are significant and which i would like to see explored more, particularly in fics which acknowledge that - for remus and sirius - this dynamic might not lead to the healthiest relationship…

for example, during their schooldays, wolfstar are likely to talk to each other through james, rather than james being surplus to the flirtatious dynamic between them; remus is likely to feel awkward or insecure about the fact that sirius - whose personality is closer to james’ than his - is so happy and gregarious in james’ company; sirius is likely to resent remus’ tendency to stay out of the action, since the fact that he and james mutually encourage each other in their exploits is key to their relationship; remus is likely to resent the fact that sirius is treated by the potters as a second son, while he isn’t, and so on.

during the first war, even if we remove the fact they suspect each other of spying from the equation, they will clash over how to protect james - and remus will undoubtedly take this to mean that sirius cares more for james than for him. during the second war, the long shadow of james - so painful that remus can still barely talk about him, while sirius wants to do nothing but - will hover over everything.

and this leads on to the third reason i generally don’t enjoy wolfstar: that the complicated threads of their canon personalities are removed or reduced to irrelevance to make them fit fanon which has no basis in the books.

now, i’m not going to get into appearance discourse here, although yes, i prefer a tall sirius who tends to wear wizarding clothing and has never heard a single cool piece of muggle music in his life, and i prefer a hollowed and world-weary remus who doesn’t have visible scars. i think background discourse is slightly more important: a great deal of sirius is lost if he is turned into someone who likes being pureblood, who feels more comfortable around his "own kind", or who aspires to sit on the hereditary wizengamot; a great deal of remus is lost if he is turned into someone who didn’t grow up in a loving home with parents who did their best, but whose inability to give him the childhood he really deserved in the face of the prejudice against werewolves in the wizarding world encouraged his absurd gratitude towards anyone who made even a half-hearted effort to act in his interests.

all of my preferred aspects of characterisation are canon-compliant. but deviating from canon is not a moral failing. the term is more flexible than many of its defenders acknowledge, and people are at perfect liberty to imagine that characters look, identify, or behave differently than they do in the canon narrative without that automatically bringing accusations of writing them out-of-character [after all, it’s clear in the books that both harry and hermione are white, but art and fics which portray them as a different race can still meaningfully be described as canon-compliant if that's an aim they're written to have].

similarly, rejecting canon compliance entirely is just as fine - i think you should indicate to your readers if you’re doing that, but i’m capable of using the back button and moving on with my life if you don’t.

the only hard and fast rule is don’t seek out people who do things differently to you and insult them directly, although i would also suggest that it’s worthwhile to spend a bit of time in introspection about how lots of popular wolfstar and the fandom around it - like the fandom around all slash ships - portrays queerness in ways which are heteronormative [i.e. exclusively equating bottoming with femininity] and portrays women in ways which are misogynistic [i.e. how tonks is often treated in wolfstar discourse].

however, with this said, i think there is a difference between rejecting canon compliance and yet still writing the characters in ways which feel connected in interesting ways to their complex canon selves, and just writing original characters named sirius black and remus lupin. 

because i just cannot get on board with a remus who is written as the cleverest one of the four, as assertive and direct instead of avoidant and passive-aggressive, as anything other than incredibly selfish, as anything other than an extreme people-pleaser, as being soft and sensitive [his mild manner hides the fact that he is incredibly cold and calculating - this is a man who is prepared to execute wormtail in front of three children mere minutes after learning he’s still alive], as majorly regretting the snape-versus-werewolf incident [he loves it! snape is terrified of him! he downplays it constantly!], or as functioning as the moral heart of the marauders [when sirius says in order of the phoenix that remus tried to restrain their bullying of snape, he is doing it to make remus - who is incapable of self-criticism - feel better in the face of harry’s anger] when he is in fact quite morally cowardly.

and i cannot get on board with a sirius who is written as a goofy himbo, as a constant flirt and womaniser [more grey-ace sirius, i would like to see it], as the world’s wokest king [a man who’s upset his slave isn’t sufficiently deferential to him isn’t someone who’s going to speak in queer theory buzzwords - this, of course, doesn’t prevent sirius being written as queer, non-binary, trans, femme, and so on, it just means that authors have to deal with the fact that sirius’ way of existing as any of these things will be human, rather than perfect], as a small bean unable to take care of himself [he escapes from prison and swims across the north sea! he charges into danger at the drop of a hat!], as anything other than incandescently loyal to james and harry, as - after james’ death - anything other than completely wrecked by guilt over the fact he caused it, as best friends with his brother and his gang of slytherins, or as lacking the fundamental arrogance and cruelty which make him so interesting.

and wolfstar can work, absolutely, when these things are taken into account. i find the idea of second war remus and sirius, stuck in grimmauld place together, buying harry a joint christmas present, the last survivors in a generation completely hollowed out by loss, incredibly moving. remus' choice to self-destruct in half-blood prince - having lost sirius so soon after having found him again - does, i think, justifiably indicate a change in their relationship during order of the phoenix which can be seen as romantic. i find the idea of first war remus and sirius, each in love with a man they think is a spy, wonderfully bittersweet. i find the idea of school-aged remus pining desperately for a friend who is head-over-heels in love with james to be, quite frankly, canon. 

and i also think that two original characters called sirius black and remus lupin can do whatever they want - i’ll just be closing my eyes, pretending i cannot see, and leaving them to it.

[waxingrunes]

I’m seeing too much of this across all channels and I need to write a little something on my humble blog with my humble amount of followers, because how else am I going to get this off my chest.

Some of you need to remember that this whole world we created is pure, fiction. It’s based off fiction and we are building off fiction, forking off in different directions with characters we love.

The canon vs fanon debate is ongoing and quite honestly, mind numbingly pointless and you all consistently contradict and overlap one another with whatever discourse you’re riding that week. You lot wanna argue a point by saying, “these are my hc’s and I can do what I like with them stop taking everything so seriously teeheehehehe” then uno reverse that the next minute by screaming, “that would never happen *insert name* is this or is that” but fuck canon right? Fuck JKR? Or is it more, fuck the parts of canon I don’t like and I’ll take the parts I do so I can shove them down the throats of creators who represent these characters in an opposing light. The amount of posts I’ve seen floating around these sites that are people preaching to their audiences about how dumb they are (unless it’s meant to be satire, I’m not a brainless sensitive lump with no humour bone) for liking certain things, or enjoying certain things, or preferring certain aspects in a character is astounding. Take pause before jumping on your high horse over a fictional character and shaming people for moulding them into what they enjoy. Is this not the beauty of fiction, imagination; the ability to twist and turn over different traits and appearances within our palms and make them into our own little dress up dolls?

Here’s my two cents as a WOLFSTAR artist, not a Marauders— if I want to make Sirius into a teacup and Remus into a sea slug and have him curl up to sleep every night in his bowl, then I’ll do that with fine china detail. If I want to make Sirius someone who refuses to wear nothing but a specific shade of tangerine and Velcro strapped trainers, I will. One day I might throw Moony into a boxing ring and have him be a middleweight champion, stained by the blood of his opponent whilst his wolf is chomping at the bit to come out just before the full moon threatens to take centre stage. If I want to make Sirius 6ft tall and Remus 5ft1, I will. Why not draw an AU of them as the rocks from Everything, Everywhere All At Once? Maybe, they can be something as simple as a boy and a boy who look the way you want them to look, fuck the way you want them to fuck and fall in love and fight, and scream, and cry, and make up a million different ways.

Let’s get more specific as the seal’s broken. Why not make Remus plus sized and give him a beard or a dad’s bod at age 23. Or maybe because he’s lighter haired he doesn’t have dark hair like that and only has a smattering of it across the ugliest of his scars. Consider this— moony with softer hips but fuller sturdy shoulders. Or long, slender limbs with a deceptively hidden strength owing to his wolf, stronger than James though he doesn’t look it. Onto Sirius, try to tell me I’m not going to put him in thigh highs and fem the shit out of him whilst he holds a bat in one hand covered in the blood of someone who tried to disrespect his Moons. Alert the press when someone erases every single one of his tattoos only to replace them with hyperpigmentation. What about giving him a beater’s build and a long thick trail of naval hair that he likes to call his ‘seeker’s delight’. What about a hairless Sirius who has a soft life and likes to make herself pretty for her 6ft 4 boyfriend every weekend when he gets on the train to visit.

How about, I stick with my personal holy take on the boys and present you with a harmless middle ground where Moony is whatever the fuck I want him to be physically, emotionally, or characteristically but always a wet fucking cloth for Sirius. A grape, under a thumb, you could say. And a Sirius, who is too whatever I want him to be physically, emotionally, or characteristically but will always be Moony’s biggest cheerleader.

Stay with me whilst I offer you the brain stretching, risky, taboo thought for you to ponder on: stop trying to please people. Stop absorbing all these takes that pressure you into thinking you’ve got to include every fucking thing that shaves you down and boxes you into their squeaky clean little creator! Indulge in what you like. Make it public, make it known and make it as loud as you want. Feels good on this side of freedom.

Lastly, quick (none of this has been quick) circle back to myself being a Wolfstar artist, not a Marauders one. I will not be shamed into drawing the women in this fandom, I will not try to even out my art with equal parts women and men, in fear of being called misogynistic. I came here for Wolfstar and I stay for them; I get 95% of my muse from them and enjoy drawing these idiots nearly every single day when I can. I’ve a busy life, a job, the luxury of a family that love me and a couple friends I’d like to keep too. If and when I draw, it’s going to be what I want to draw and want to indulge in, not to check off your boxes of inclusion. I am not going to defend my choice of indulgence to you. I am not going to refute women or wlw ships and in fact, eat up stories or art where they’re prominent. Will I have muse or will to do a piece on them? Probably not. If I do, I will and if it’s not done to a standard deemed appropriate enough by the council, well shit I hope I get an honourable mention in one of your hate threads on Twitter.

Grow up. I am the type of person who has a more or less rigid taste on these boys and what I, enjoy representing them like and you runts will run your throats hoarse before I turn an ear. I am not the type of person to see someone who doesn’t like what I prefer and start slamming my keyboard and slap them with a red card. I’ll move on but appreciate the take in silence. Some of you really, come across like you’re stomping your feet in a tantrum, some of you sound like you’ve never been told to shut the fuck up a day in your life and some of you, some of you, really think you’re a messiah.

Fuck your canons, fanons and righteous attitudes towards people who are quite literally, not real. You are not a deity of the Marauders, you are a fucking loser offline just like the rest of us.

[orchideous-nox]

what are some problematic opinions you have??

I really don't think any of my opinions are problematic? Idk, I guess I'll let the people be the judge of that. I want to preface that these are how I feel personally and I would never try to enforce my opinions on others. Ship who you want to ship, love who you want to love. If you disagree with any of my opinions then that's fine but please don't try and convince me to "see your reasoning", these are opinions I'm pretty set on.

I don't particularly multiship, not because I have no sense of fun but because I genuinely can't understand how people ship Barty with Sirius or Narcissa with Lily or Evan with James etc. It makes so sense and no amount of reasoning will ever convince me that anybody other than Evan can stand Barty to a degree that they want to fuck him. He's so annoying and I mean that with all the love in the world as an Evan kin. I think Sirius needs Remus to mellow him out. Lily and Narcissa is just a no from me. Period.

I think sometimes the fandom forgets that relationships can be platonic. Friends exist, not every character needs to fuck all of their best friends because they understand each other so deeply. Yes, they have great chemistry...as friends. Platonically. Do you want to fuck your best friend? .......actually you're on tumblr and a marauders fan so who knows

People are so desperate in this fandom for others to talk about the girls more but then when people do post about them there is like no interaction. From experience, the boys get more hits, more kudos, more notes etc. I write about Rosekiller expecting not much attention, I'm not in it to get popular otherwise I would stick to Jegulus and Wolfstar rather than my precious murder husbands. But whenever I post about the girls the comments are dryyyyy and it's not fun. I love getting comments and replies so I can interact with others and talk about headcanons. It feels like as soon as I post about the girls people forget that they were encouraging more of that content in the first place.

Fanon and canon are blurring and not in a fun way. There are certain headcanons that people take from fanon or even from specific popular fics and start stretching canon to fit the fanon and then get angry when people don't stick to it. Saying a character is canonically a certain way because of implications in the canon can be really harmful.

I don't particularly care for OCs in fics. I read these stories for the characters I like and if an OC has like a massive chunk of a chapter on their own or even whole chapters or whole fics I will likely skip or even DNF because that's just not what I'm here for. Like I don't care.

If a character isn't attractive in this fandom, people don't care. Just because someone doesn't have rippling abs and perfect skin, it doesn't mean you can write them off as being bad. People can be hot and fat, ugly and fat, ugly and skinny, ugly and a good or interesting person!!! As a plus size person, I have spent my whole life looking at media portrayals saying that I am not worth attention until I am skinny, only then can I be attractive, and this fandom can be just as guilty sometimes (I'm looking at you people who make Snape hot to justify liking him, and making Peter have no personality besides being fat).

People are way to eager to interact with content they don't like to tell them they don't like it. Look up what an algorithm is, hun, I'm begging you. (this isn't controversial unless you are one of those people who does that)

Okay, hopefully I've not lost anyone along the way. Like I said, don't try and convince me I'm "wrong" in the comments, these are opinions and cannot be factually incorrect < 3

[severus-snaps]

new headcanon: snape & karkaroff

So this might only be new to me but I guess them's the breaks when you (re)join a fandom after a few decades but

Snape and Karkaroff knew each other reasonably well - very well, given that Karkaroff is happy to hound him and hover around him at the drop of a hat, he named Severus in his trial some years prior so they must have spent some time together (and most DEs were split up or anonymous to one another, for various reasons).

Obviously at the time that they're in GoF together, Snape is in his early-mid 30s. Karkaroff is presumably older, at whatever age that a gentlemen goes from having black hair (during his trial 14 years earlier) to white hair (at the time of the Tournament). (Google informs me that "Half of all people have a significant amount of gray hair by the time they turn 50." so presumably he's about or over 50, as his hair is now entirely white). He is also a Headmaster by this point, which suggests a certain level of maturity (given the general ages of the deputy/headteachers at Hogwarts, anyway, and wizarding lifespans).

So (and please do correct me if I'm wrong bc I haven't read GoF in ages so I'm working off of the chapters I've gone through recently) in theory Karkaroff could've been the Dark Arts teacher OR the headmaster at Durmstrang already, by the point Snape graduates from Hogwarts himself.

In a world with little to no higher education, but mostly 'on the job' and similar work experience counting for something, where might Snape have gone to get the 'CV experience' or an apprenticeship he needs to get the DADA job he later applies for?

Durmstrang, of course; where they teach the Dark Arts, and not just defence. I don't think it's a leap that Lucius and/or one of the other Death Eaters or Slytherins would've known Karkaroff before Snape did, and made a connection for Snape to study/apprentice there.

And where did Snape learn to teach? From the very man who outright favours Krum, at the rude expense of other students, perhaps?

“Back to the ship, then,” he was saying. “Viktor, how are you feeling? Did you eat enough? Should I send for some mulled wine from the kitchens?” “Professor, I vood like some vine,” said one of the other Durmstrang boys hopefully. “I wasn’t offering it to you, Poliakoff,” snapped Karkaroff, his warmly paternal air vanishing in an instant. “I notice you have dribbled food all down the front of your robes again, disgusting boy — ”

It's giving:

[Snape] was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus’s cauldron into a twisted blob... “Idiot boy!” snarled Snape.

(Also, such a Snape complement)

Minor evidence for this also includes the fact that Karkaroff calls Snape "Severus", meanwhile Snape calls him "Karkaroff" - a sign of respect or formality, how Snape always calls Dumbledore, 'Dumbledore' - or a sign of dislike, like how Snape is "Severus" to Lupin who's 'playing nice' meanwhile Snape always calls him 'Lupin' and not 'Remus'? Who can say. Possibly both; he's both outranked and irritated by Karkaroff.

By the time Snape meets Karkaroff again, he's somehow cultivated his slightly cooler persona (given how awkward and unpolished Snape was as a student vs how he tries to present himself as a professor at Hogwarts). He is also a much braver man and, arguably, in a safer position than Karkaroff (having over a decade of information on Dumbledore for Voldemort vs having sold out a bunch of other Death Eaters and widely denounced Voldemort), Snape's riddled with grief and even more bitterness - so Karkaroff's constant worrying is, undoubtedly, genuinely irritating to him, as well as the fact that he's genuinely unsettled by Voldemort's possible return as well, even as he tries to hide it.

Now, I can't remember whether it's canon or fanon that Snape first applied for the DADA position on Voldemort's orders, or whether he did it under his own steam, but I think either way this would fit; young Snape would want and/or need the 'relevant' experience of teaching the Dark Arts either way to get the job, and if nothing else he was too young to get it, so how better to fill his time than to prepare somewhere where the Dark Arts aren't only taught to be defended, but in their own right?

Travel isn't really an issue, either; with Portkeys, Floo, Apparition (questionable at that distance and given Hogwarts' own Apparition ban), and a giant magical boat, they could be doing their thing in Durmstrang by day and doing... whatever it is Death Eaters did by night, but I think being at Durmstrang would also be a stronger position, with more resources, to be experimenting with Dark magic and potions than trying to do it in the Malfoys' back garden, for instance

(Also, where did Voldemort like...live during the first war? Did he just pitch up to the Malfoys' every time? Has he got his own house? Have I forgotten that? Was it mentioned?)

Anyway please do correct me if I've gotten anything terribly wrong, but otherwise I'll be holding on to this

[suncchaser]

There are several things that frustrate me about this fandom but one of the main ones is the claim we have almost no canon information on the Marauders Era characters and that the fandom was built on headcanons. That is a LIE.

James, Lily, Sirius, Remus (and to a certain extent Peter) are the backbone of this fandom. Wolfstar and Jily are the original ships that started it all, over 20 years ago. Do you think the fans just made it all up? Jily is a canon ship and Wolfstar as so much canon lore, and so do those five characters as individuals and that's on how the fandom was built. As someone who has been in online spaces of the Marauders fandom since I was about 12/13 years old, canon always mattered. You were always encouraged to read the books. Marauders fans were simply Harry Potter fans who had a primary interest in this particular era of the story, not a whole separate fandom as a whole. This mindset only started around 2018 and became worse post-2020, with the popularisation of fanfiction with out of character portrayals and the fandom growing on Tik-Tok.

You can ignore canon all you want and do whatever the fuck you want with the characters but stop telling older fans, many who have been in the fandom since some of you were eating grass on the playground, what the "point" of the fandom is. You can prefer fanon without denying canon exists.

Also, just some food for thought: if you feel the need to change everything about your "favourite" character, maybe you don't like them all that much...

[shivstar]

why do u hate wolfstar lmao like u saying ur getting harassed is funny as hell it’s just a ship 😭😭

For me to explain you that, I have to explain a bit of psychology.

In psychology, reactance is an unpleasant motivational reaction to offers, persons, rules, or regulations that threaten or eliminate specific behavioral freedoms. Reactance occurs when an individual feels that an agent is attempting to limit one's choice of response and/or range of alternatives.

Reactance can occur when someone is heavily pressured into accepting a certain view or attitude. Reactance can encourage an individual to adopt or strengthen a view or attitude which is indeed contrary to that which was intended — which is to say, to a response of noncompliance — and can also increase resistance to persuasion. 

In crux, my hate for wolfstar stems from reactance.

Wolfstar works on the structure that it is a canonical ship because jkr was playing hide and seek and sprinkling around crumbs of clues that Remus and Sirius are boning each other. (Or should I say Sirius was getting f*cked by his moony, because that is what 90% of wolfstar is about. A top Remus and a bottom Sirius- add this to my reasons for dislike list)

But anyways whenever anyone says to (most) wolfstar side of people why the literal soulmate guys - James and Sirius are not much famous as a ship, the reply is 'ew, why would you want to downplay the importance of a friendship' ' I can never see James and Sirius in a romantic setting' 'but there is no chemistryyyy!!!!! '

But when the same reply is given that oh I see Sirius and remus as casual friends who dont know each other well because they distrusted each other, the fandom and it's defenders comes bearing weapons.

My point is I was pretty neutral towards the ship.

Then i went looking for Jegulus. Because I was interested in marauders side kf stories. I found jily to be bland. Wolfstar was downright signaling towards toxic relationship I was never interested in. (I believe that canon Sirius deserved so much better than canon Remus, who is such a rag tag kf a guy) ( you guys have found a cure to that too by innovation of fanon Remus. The macho man. The alpha leader. The casanova. The sex guru. But the problem is that his name is still Remus Lupin and I have read hp books with all devotion. I can only see him as a guy shirking away from his personal responsibilities. Not checking up on Harry. Running away from pregnant wife. Naming a 17 year old kid with the biggest target on his back as the godfather to his child. Hitting Harry when he was trying to explain to Remus that he is a coward. Not telling Dumbledore about Sirius's animagus status. {Please do not romanticize his reasoning, I beg you. It is about hundreds of students's life. Including James's son. Also do nit say that he thought that Sirius didn't do it. Then he should have done a better job in helping Sirius out of azkaban. Atleast found him in yr 3 and helped him than. CLUE - he is the co creator of marauders map, don't tell me he didnt know where Sirius was} You get it....

Still I was pretty neutral towards wolfstar. I never interacted with it because I was nit interested.

But reading Jegulus comes with the added bonus of free wolfstar. All the time.

I left the fandom not liking how the marauders I loved were never found in either jegulus nor wolfstar. Disappointed.

But then i entered the World of Prongsfoot. Found mostly writers doing justice to the James and Sirius and Peter and Remus I was initially intrigued as a kid.

Also I am not talking about following canon plot in the fics... I am saying the wibe is always off. Like my hc is Sirius and James as top dogs and then Remus and peter. While the basic given in wolfstar and jegulus is Sirius+James + Remus and then Peter, if they are feeling charitable. Otherwise it is Remus and then James and then Sirius and then Peter.

Then tumblr through - 'you may like this because you like this' and extra excited wolfstar and jegulus fans through wrong tagging decided that I should see these incorrect marauders era post . Where Sirius is always dramatic or stupid or idiot and a combination thereof. That was the day where this intense dislike begin.

Now this unnecessary shoving in my face something I am not interested in, made me hate wolfstar.... The reactance theory I explained earlier. I am just reacting to this incessant need to believe wolfstar is canon. That Sirius only belongs to his moony and no one else. That Remus and Sirius are soulmates. ...

PS - do not comment or message me etc to make me change my opinion or make me see things from your side. The truth is that i cannot suddenly make you like a ship say Prongsfoot in the Romantic light when all you see is two friends. Similarly I won't suddenly start liking wolfstar Or Remus Lupin. This is my post with proper tagging so that I am nit hurting sensible feelings of anyone. I have right to have my own views and opinion. And that in this case is that I despise wolfstar and Remus Lupin. I am not inviting people to make me see light. I am just answering to a simple ask.... 😊

[starrylayle]

My fave marauders ships and dynamics as a multi-shipper !! Ok so, there are certain ships I like to imagine as canon in the canon universe, and there are other ships that I prefer in aus and such but still ship them so much!! So I thought I’d just ramble abt them here lol.

My fave ships that are canon/I think I should be endgame:

First off, Jily ofc. My loves. I’m generally not super excited abt str8 couples but they’re just too cute. My fave dynamic with them is that they’re academic rivals — well at least lily thinks they are, James is just hopelessly in love with her and enjoys competition lol. Lily thinks he’s an idiot, immature and a bit of a bully at first but slowly warms up to him as she sees his kind-heartedness and stance on justice. Plus, she’s always found him a little hot :)

Wolfstar, duh. I don’t think I have to go into detail coz I already do so much on my blog lol.

Dorlene — aaah I love my tragic, angsty lil lesbians. Sucker for the quidditch-rivals-to-lovers trope. Ooh and i headcanon Dorcas as transfem. But yeah if you’ve read ‘the hands that feeds’ by rollercoasterwords that’s basically how I see their dynamic.

Fralice — cuties and did not deserve the ending they got ;((

Rosekiller — ok, ok. I know I’ve ranted abt how I don’t like the fanonization of their characters in fandom,, but I will admit I do like them together. Especially when they’re depicted as the awful people they are lol. I like to think that they’re still hooking up in GoF on nights where barty’s poly juice wears off lmaoo. Also random but I hc Barty to be in ravenclaw.

Pandora x Xenophillius (idk how to spell his name) — I like to imagine Pandora as a goth who runs an underground magical weed business and Xeno as a hippie weirdo and conspiracy theorist. Both are bi/pan tho and have def hooked up with ppl of the same gender before.

Andromeda x Ted Tonks — iconic. Love them. Andy was the og rebellious black family child.

Emmary — love, love this ship. For context, I picture Emmaline as a little older than Mary (maybe 2 or 3 years) and they meet when Em’s at the order. Mary’s a bisexual girlie who’s predominantly been with men at this point, and Em’s a big Butch lesbian who loves Mary so much but isn’t sure if Mary likes her back, at first. Ofc they end up together after the first war but when Em wants to join the second war, Mary oblivates herself and retreats to the muggle world entirely because she cannot bear more pain.

My fave ships that I like to think are semi-canon, as in their unrequited, or right person wrong time, or both have feelings that the other doesn’t know — they just don’t workout for some reason:

First off, Marylene — my absolute fave, right person, wrong time ship. Love the whole, ‘Marlene loved her too early, Mary loved her too late idea’. I’m a sucker for best friends to lovers ahhh. I imagine that Marls had crush on Mary since they were eleven and came out to her later, and although Mary was supportive she didn’t like her back at that point. Then Marls got with Dorcas and maybe Mary got a tad bit jealous. And then Marlene was killed ofc so Mary moved on and went with Emmaline, but she never really stopped loving Marlene.

Nobleflower — bi narcissa and Alice rights!! I like to think that they had a bit of a homoerotic friendship back in their hogwarts years, but the fact that they were on opposite sides eventually pulled them apart. And so Alice gets with Frank and Narcissa with Malfoy. Aaah so tragic I love them

Lily x Remus — I like to think Lily had a little crush on Remus when they were younger but she got over it and they became besties !!

Bellatrix / Lady Zabini — Toxic murder comphet lesbians!! Tho I imagine they ‘broke up’ their fling coz Bellatrix was murdering with pure blood fascism in mind,,, and lady Zabini was just like,, why can’t we just kill ppl for the sake of killing them?? 🥺🥺

Jegulus — ok so I don’t like jegulus as a canon(ish) ship, buuut I love me some unrequited jegulus, specifically from Regulus’ side coz sorry I just personally don’t see James ever liking Reg in canon. I imagine Reg goes into hogwarts wanting to hate the guy who stole his brother but ends up falling for him just the same. He has internalised homophobia and hates the fact that he’s gay, esp for someone like James lol.

Bartylus — My hc is that neither of them liked each other romantically, but they settled and got off each other to pass time. It’s transactional, at least it’s starts off being..maybe barty’s a little more into it than reg thinks they are.

Peter/Bertha Jorkins — I like to imagine they dated for awhile during hogwarts — until Bertha got bored of him and dumped him. Peter never really got over it and was still bitter.

Peter/Sybil — oooh I remember this one was trending on marauders tik tok awhile back but I’m still not over it. Happens after Bertha/Peter. Sybil breaks up with Peter maybe coz she gets a prophecy that he becomes evil. Peter is confused and heartbroken.

Snily — ok hear me out!! I don’t care for their portrayals in a lot of fics coz I think the pro / anti Snape bias is always there — but I would be open to exploring the complexity of their dynamic in a fic when snapes actions aren’t justified or excused, but he’s not portrayed as a one dimensional bad guy. And I think it would be interesting to explore more of Lily’s character and why she stuck by him so long.

Ok, now onto ships that I only enjoy in aus:

Marylily/macevans — by far my fave ship in aus. Best friends to lovers >>>> also half the marauders edits saved on my phone are marylily edits lmaoo they’re just so cute!!

Jegulus — requited this time!! If it’s an au and James is not reduced to a generic sunshine people pleasing character, then they’re a little cute I’ll admit. Not the biggest fan of the 'best friend's brother' trope but the drama is entertaining at least.

Mary/Dorcas — I don’t think they’re a very popular on here but I personally like it. In a way they’re opposites but they’re motivations are a lot more similar than they realise.

Pandalily — so, so cute. Fanart is spectacular

Dorlily — so academic rivals to lovers coded

Prongsfoot — specifically in aus where James and Sirius are on opposing sides, for example, slytherin!Sirius au

Wolfstarbucks — James and sirius share everything!! Including their lovers apparently. Mostly enjoy it as a crack ship tho.

Well this was fun!! I love multi-shipping <33

[in-flvx]

It actually makes perfect sense for anties to be stans of regulus black and jegulus as a ship. Their dream of having no control over the fascism they spew, and then being absolved by the love of James Potter, who is carried through the narrative as a main antagonist of the fascist overlord, who they (or regulus, who they want to project on to) don't actually disagree with, is a pretty appealing narrative. They get to cringe about two assholes being hugely important for the fight against fascism. Meanwhile their perfect blank slate to project on to, gets to have 0 accountability to his own world view (which, according to them is Sirius' fault, bc sirius gate kept critical thought from him), or his desire for love (something James Potter will force on him, selfishly, with no account for how either regulus or Sirius feels about it)

They make Sirius the worst person to ever exist, by going to school a year earlier than regulus, by being the whipping boy of their parents, by having a friend who loved him so much he took him in when the antagonism of his entire family became too much, by doing an illegal and life altering transformation to help a disenfranchised friend, by working directly against their parents ideology. But they have to make James, Peter and Remus silent martyrs for only insulting Sirius at every single turn, while not throwing him out of the group (though their insults show they really truly want to), and they have James showing his first Ever self interest by going after a regulus (who never really shows him any attention, other than accepting James' heavy infatuation) while finally stopping to... Idk catering to a Sirius who, even in their fantasies has to fight for any kind of attention, even more so if he wants it to be at least somewhat positive

Yea no sorry I can't string that together more cohesively. I also have read some nice jegulus stories; this is more a rumination about a certain stance I observe in Canon/fanon.

[burstbubbbles]

maybe im a bit lost because i was really into the marauders like 5 years ago and then i left the fandom, but like. why did we adopt ATYD!remus as *canon-fanon!remus like ??

the whole reason remus is that way in ATYD is that he was raised in a completely different context than canon!remus. he had a different upbringing than the canonical character so he obviously grew up to be different. that's okay! it's an AU after all, and everyone is entitled to their own characterization of their favorite characters — especially with the marauders, whose content is 75% fan-made.

BUT.

how did Remus John Lupin, the responsible, witty, smart and just a teeny bit softer bookwormish marauder — which is how he was usually characterized back in 2017-ish — become the edgy one ??

it's a really funny concept to me, because i remember all the memes from back in the day and they went sort of like,

remus, after finding out the marauders know he's a werewolf: but ?? you guys should be scared of me now.

sirius: moony, you literally fold your own socks.

peter: and ours!

james: beware! beware the very dangerous sock-folding werewolf!

and it's not like remus had No Edge™ in the old characterization because he was generally thought to be a smoker who lived on coffee and tea. now it's always like. remus telling people to k!ll themselves for complaining about life being difficult.

maybe im exaggerating a little bit, but it's for the sake of the point. it's weird. it's not even that i dislike the new characterization of the marauders — which has actually evolved for all of them. i just find it funny, and i would like to know how it sort of just... happened.

tl;dr: i wonder how old fanon!remus became new fanon!remus.

maybe someday i'll make a longer post explanaining how i think all of the marauders characterizations have evolved because there are two cases in particular that i find really cool. but that's for some other day ;)

*note: by canon-fanon i mean the generalized view and characterization of a certain character by the majority of the fandom.

[sofoulandfairaday]

Lupin hc I’m begging!

Okay, so.

I hate Fanon Moony with a passion. So before I even say anything here are some Remus Lupin posts so we're on the same level with his characterization: 1) the best marauder characterization post, 2) canon Remus, 3) CANON Remus p.2

Good? Great.

Loving parents. Was absolutely the apple of both his parents' eyes; they loved him immensely and would have given him the world. The guilt Lyall felt over Greyback's attack was unspeakable and he did everything in his power to make Remus' life as comfortable as possible. Overprotective. Overbearing even, but always for his own good. They tried to protect him and comfort him with all that they had.

There were definitely incidents when Remus was a kid. Not only were his transformations extremely painful when he was a child but they were also hard to manage. Lyall and Hope did try their best but it broke their hearts to see him hurt & it was very difficult for them to deal with young Remus' injuries. They couldn't take him to a Muggle doctor after all and

The stigma towards werewolves in the Wizarding World is huge. There aren't enough stories that deal with what it's like to be one. If you're looking for a good read that integrates (not so) small details of the thousand small obstacles that being a werewolf poses while integrating them in an overarching (marvellous) plot, read Moonlit Marriage by @celestemagnoliathewriter (Remadora).

Constantly worrying about money.

He didn't even grow up poor, that's the thing. He grew up fairly decently (his parents weren't rich by any means but they had enough to stay afloat). However, they had almost no savings and when they died (First Wizarding War period) he was left with nothing. Being a werewolf also meant that he couldn't hold down a job.

So many insecurities. So many. About his appearance, his magical talent, his place in the wizarding world, himself.

Speaking of. Not a Greek god. Not a smooth-talking seven-foot-tall Casanova type. He was shorter than both Sirius and James, thin, covered in scars. Kind face.

Awkward. Might have even had a little stutter as a child.

Kind. Helpful. Grateful. Glad and still a little incredulous, after years, that James (& SIrius) might have picked him to be their friend.

The day James&Co announced they had become Animagi so that they could be with him was the best day of his life. Running with his friends under the moonlight is still the memory that first comes to mind when he's trying to cast a Patronus.

Disliked Sirius and James' mistreatment of Snape to a certain degree, but never enough to say anything, never enough to try and stop them (I doubt they would have, even for him).

Like the other Marauders, he adored James.

Sorry to break it to you, but Sirius and Remus were friends through James. They became extremely close only after Azkaban when they were all the other had left from the happiest time of their lives.

Could not grow a whole beard for the life of him.

The ultimate people-pleaser.

Polite.

The definition of passive-aggressive. (Y'all make him plain aggressive.)

An introvert.

A sub if I ever saw one.

Kind. Did I say kind? Maybe he didn't do enough for the victims of the Marauders' bullying because he definitely didn't have the balls to stand up to James & Sirius (and we clearly see this in SWM), but he would be helpful to any and all younger students who needed him.

Lily's study buddy, especially the last years. Remus was like her: good in school, but not as naturally gifted as Sirius and James. He wouldn't be the type to do well even without studying and he definitely had much better grades in his written tests than in practical classes.

This, combined with the fact that he was a massive bookworm meant he had a Hermione-like encyclopaedic knowledge of various subjects.

Unlike Lily, not the best at Potions (he says so himself in PoA)

Loved Care of Magical Creatures, they were always his area of interest as we see in PoA. Also (unrelated), something I've always asked myself: is there any curriculum at all for Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts? Every teacher just seems to teach whatever they like/enjoy more or their particular area of interest. I would have really liked to know what Lupin taught sixth and seventh years for example.

Tea over coffee for Remus (he's a bit of a tea snob, and drinks industrial quantities of the thing)

Not a big alcohol drinker - he doesn't like how it makes him lose control, and has never drunk alone without the Marauders in his youth. However, when times were tough after October 1981 he did indulge too much in it.

I can see him smoking a little bit of weed, not even for the feeling itself but because it helps him with some of his chronic pain.

Sweater vests and old comfy jumpers

If the Marauders had a Feminist king TM (WHICH THEY DIDN'T) it would have been him.

The Prank soured his relationship with Sirius exponentially. It was one of the reasons he thought Sirius was the spy. Everyone was paranoid at the time, questioning friends and allies left and right, but after spending seven years sleeping, eating, living alongside meek, shy, snivelling Peter Pettigrew, he could not picture him as a Death Eater.

The truth is that Sirius, for reasons we've already said, would have made Remus into a murderer. He would have killed Snape. One of their classmates, and when Remus was at his lowest too. It was such a huge betrayal of trust that their relationship fundamentally shifted forever.

He did not love his lycanthropy, would not wear it proudly. He was scared of himself in those moments, and extremely full of self-loathing. If they discovered a Cure tomorrow, he would take it without thinking twice.

[dufferpuffer]

hi! i love your metas of Remus and other hp stuff, it seems pretty much canon complicated to me, and i love it more than fanon alpha version of Remus and his relationship with others

but also i wanna ask bc i see that opinion and i wanna know what you think of it: is Remus is abuser? abuser to Snape, to Tonks, to other possible romantic/platonic partner or friend?

and if he IS a abuser is it possible to him to be heal? especially in AU without V and war when his friends were alright and with him ( in canon world if he survived it also interesting 🤔)

*sorry for bad grammar English is not my first language, its pretty third and its really bad🥲

I wouldn't say Remus is an abuser - but he does have toxic, harmful habits that could lead to being abusive if he isn't careful and doesn't have support.

He does unhealthy things out of fear, trauma and trying to protect himself and others... but they are almost always mistakes.

This can very easily lead to being an abuser. He does HURT Tonks. It isn't fair to her. But I don't think it crosses over into abusing her (yet), because he is struggling to do the right thing in difficult times.

There is a war, they are being hunted, he is a werewolf, she has an unplanned pregnancy only weeks after he married her... that's all very difficult, and he has always tried to solve problems by removing himself from them. He knows he can be irresponsible, he knows he is dangerous - and he is doing his best not to cause more problems for people he loves. He isn't being 'unreasonable' by leaving - just mistaken and hurtful.

Abuse can be repeated toxic behaviour with no attempt to fix it... but generally it has a goal, you know? Leaving when you get scared or overwhelmed is different to trying to make someone act a certain way by leaving/threatening to leave.

Remus doesn't want Tonks to change - other than maybe give up on him. He isn't trying to control her. He's just struggling mentally.

If he continued this pattern and never tried to change - yes that would be abusive, hurting her over and over for his own comfort. But we see him trying to change in the last book when he went back. He is already healing, thanks to their friends supporting him.

Was Remus abusive to Severus? Yeah.

As a kid AND as an adult. As a kid he was more 'a willing bystander' - but at least TRIED to defend Severus a little by telling his friends to stop. It isn't good enough, he was still being bad, but he was a kid. He was more of a bully as an adult: he liked putting Severus in tough positions where he couldn't talk or act freely - and had to do what Remus said. He lied to him, embarrassed him - and had fun with it.

In a relationship... I don't think he would want to do that. I don't think he COULD do it. Severus wouldn't let him. Severus was a dog on a leash as a teacher, he had rules to follow. As a boyfriend? He would stand up for himself more. Severus is a very strong man, and Remus is very weak.

However, Severus is weak to feeling unlovable and having his trust broken. Remus leaving, over and over... that'd hurt Severus deeply.

Severus finally opening his heart to someone who seems to understand him, who loves him despite his 'flaws'... only to have them constantly want to leave him alone whenever there's an issue? Severus has to solve all the problems by himself because Remus only wants to be around when things are good and easy and nice...?

It might bring out Severus' own toxic behaviour - being controlling, angry, cruel, unreasonable. They might BOTH become abusive.

Severus tries to control Remus with anger, demands and threats - and Remus tries to stop him by threatening to pull out his love. But pulling away his love is what scares Severus the most, once he is used to having it... which makes him more angry.

In a world without Voldemort/War...

Hm... this would be a world where his friends survived. Where James and Lily raised Harry, where Sirius was a godfather, where Peter wasn't a piece of shit... It's just so different. Remus would have money, safety, love... At the same time, his friends encouraged his bad habits: taking risks, ignoring responsibilities, treating his condition lightly... But he had support. He had many people he trusted that showed him 'It isn't so bad, being a werewolf. We love you as you are.'

I think part of his toxic 'leaving' behaviour is from childhood: he grew up without friends, and every time anyone suspected he was a werewolf his family had to move house. But it was made worse when all his friends 'died'. Overnight he lost everyone, and his sick self-hating brain said 'None of this would have happened if I wasn't a werewolf. It's MY fault.'

If that never happened...? I think he would have been a healthier man. A more confident man, one that just had a 'furry little problem.' If he got in a relationship with someone - his friends would NEVER let him just 'run away' when he got scared.

~~~

I think if he went off on his own, tried to have a relationship in secret without any friends to help... he would eventually become abusive. He is a very broken person who hates himself, but is desperate to feel love and acceptance. That isn't easy to heal, especially by yourself. One person can't heal it for him, either - Tonks alone isn't enough.

He needs many people patting him and telling him he is a good boy. He needs to know he isn't just loved, but he belongs - he doesn't need to run.

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Hi there can you tell me how fanon sirius is and how different he is from canon sirius?

And also do you hate all fanon sirius?

Hey there!

Usual disclaimer, I think you would have a more comprehensive answer from someone who is an old school marauders fan. Honestly, most of the fics I have read and enjoyed tend to be about teen Sirius.

Fanon Sirius is kind of like fanon Draco: girly, gay, the type to gossip and paint nails with the ladies, short, submissive, a poor helpless victim and overall boring and woobified.

Canon Sirius as I know him is tall, masculine, harsh, dominating, passionate, loyal and complex. Canon Sirius does not care about Remus as much as his fanon counterpart who seems to worship this loser's shadow. Everytime I see the wolfstar pairing in a fic, I immediately abandon all hope that the fic is good or that Sirius won't annoy me.

Do I hate all fanon Sirius??? Hard to say. Since I have not fully read the books, I think I have more tolerance for certain aspects of fanon Sirius compared to a more hardcore Sirius fan. Like I don't mind fics where Sirius is a sexy womanizer even though in the books Sirius showed little attention to women - like they weren't worth his time lol. Given how rebellious Sirius is, I doubt he would respect conservative pureblood marriage traditions. Plus he's handsome, rich and a bit immature. So yeah I could see Sirius running through women (even though I hate that kind of behaviour in real life). I also don't mind fics where Sirius is a little domestic, eg liking to cook. Especially in fics which are centered around godfather!Sirius.

But I dislike everything about fanon Sirius when it comes to Wolfstar. I was reading this non sexual age play fic with Harry and Draco and one of the reasons why I stopped reading it was because I couldn't take the Wolfstar anymore. Pretty sure I mentioned that to the author too...

Anyway I am sure you can find more hate for Fanon!Sirius by checking out the anti wolfstar tag :)

[narcissa-black-supermacy]

Ohh elaborate on the Mena house of Black :D

ok so. I think after all the time i spent ranting about this, it's time for the official dissertation. If someone reads this and is still not convinced that the Blacks are mena-coded, talk to me (that's a threat). @soloorganaas feel free to add on if i missed something

Note: MENA is short for the geographical region of Middle East-North Africa which includes a variety of ethnicities and cultures that share certain traits and stereotypes I'll be addressing here.

Disclaimer: I have lived my entire life in the Levant. I am speaking from my own experience with these cultures not within British diaspora. If anybody can provide input on that, it will be great.

my main points (going from the more superficial things to the more niche topics)

Very obvious non-white features and appearance among the majority of the members

French being used as a second native language in many mena regions ("toujours pur")

Big, multi-sibling families in comparison to most pure-bloods in canon

Cousin intermarriage (is second cousin marriage incest?)

Frequent reuse of names

The tapestry

Pure-blood mania as a parallel to mena religious Sectarianism

12GP being located at the heart of muggle London

Family values, betrayal and "all or nothing" approach (= mena blood feud culture)

JKR's tendency to let her internal biases seep through her writing unintentionally

Let's tackle these one by one, I will try to be short (HA that's funny. under the cut):

(I will highlight the main points in bold for those of you who don't want to read through all of my ramblings)

Very obvious non-white features and appearance. I think this one is self-explanatory. Sirius, Bellatrix, Regulus, Walburga - except for Narcissa, who is intentionally altered to resemble the Malfoys since page one, all of the Black are described to have very non-white features and appearance. Black curly hair and grey eyes are extremely common in the NA + Levant region, regardless of skin colour.

The most wide-spread fanon ethnicity for the Blacks appears to be French. Genuinely no idea where that came from. I am guessing that some of it stems from the "toujours pur" line, to which, I must point out: tons of regions in MENA have been French colonies. French is taught at schools (I learned French at school before English), spoken alongside Arabic/Hebrew/etc within the family, used for things like slogans and mottos. Kill the idea that French is only spoke in France and if a character speaks French it gives us a clear idea of where they come from.

This is something I don't see talked about, but the Blacks have very abnormally large families in comparison to the rest of the pure-bloods we are presented with in canon. Most are only children (James, Remus, Peter, Draco, Lucius, so on) and the only exception to the rule is the Weasleys, who are constantly ridiculed for it by others. Cygnus and Druella have 3 daughters. Walburga has 2 sons and she comes from a family of 3 siblings. Orion's parents are 3 siblings, Walburga's parents are 3. The generation before their parents are 4 siblings. The one before it is 4 as well. Anyway. There's a pattern. See? The average number of children for the Blacks appears to be 3, while for most pure-blood families, even 2 is way above the average.

Cousin intermarriage - also pretty self explanatory? Might be a bit of a harmful stereotype here, but it's true - second cousin intermarriage is not seen as a big deal in most MENA cultures, to this day, and definitely not back then. It is much more widespread than in most European cultures, I believe.

Reuse of names - another very common trait in all MENA cultures. My husband has 7 Mordechai's and 8 Moris'es just in the last 3 generations of his family. Half of my cousins are called Muhammad. Typical.

The tapestry - another example of something that's portrayed as strange in canon, but is actually typical MENA culture. I don't think I know a single Arab or Jewish family that does not have some kind of equivalent of the Black family tapestry showing off their lineage generations back. And the disowned family members get taken off, yes, that's a thing.

Pure-blood mania as a parallel to MENA religious sectarianism Now, THIS is something I want to focus on. Most MENA cultures are very sectarian. Not in a "well, duh, it's the middle east" kind of way - I am talking about the most progressive regions and cities. People will consider themselves progressive, support women's and LGBT rights, but still view intermarriage as a dirty thing. Religious intermarriage between the different sects of Christians, Jews, Shias, Sunnis etc is strictly forbidden and frowned upon almost everywhere. Now, you might say - well, isn't this just a general pure-blood thing? No. The Blacks are NOT modal pure-bloods. They are a very radical, extreme version of it. I would argue that the average pure-bloods look like the Malfoys - who are stated to be rather moderate, not accepting muggle-borns, but having no problem with half-bloods. The Blacks' pure-blood mania dates back to before Voldemort's rise, it's a family trait passed through generations, and it goes beyond the regular pure-blood snobbism. This is typical, by-the-book sectarianism.

12GP being located at the heart of muggle London This is an interesting one, I think, because it might not be as obvious as the others. The Blacks are very known bigots and muggle-haters, but surprisingly, unlike most pure-bloods we know (even the muggle friendly ones!), their house is located at the HEART of muggle London. Why the hell is that? This actually makes PERFECT SENSE if you understand how Sectarianism works, which ties back to point N 7. Typical religious sectarianism does NOT look like western racism or bigotry. Sectarianism is NOT hatred or fear. Different sects across MENA work together, study together, even make friends on occasion, but they make this very strict separation between accepting the presence of someone different in their immediate surroundings, and actually letting them into their circle. In other words: we can work with muggle-borns and blood-traitors. We can study with them. They are allowed to exist. Actually, we will go out of our way to live among them, state our existence, remind them who is the boss, but we will not engage. We will not marry them, we will not let them into our house. This is sectarianism. It's a behaviour VERY specific to the Blacks in the HP universe, not pure-bloods in general.

Family values, betrayal and "all or nothing" approach (= mena blood feud culture) Blood feud culture is a strong thing in all MENA cultures, even to this day. Blood feud can be used to mean revenge on someone who hurt a member of your family, OR it can also mean "honour killing" within the family itself. If a member of the family is considered to be a disgrace and brings shame with a certain type of their behaviour (that is typically a young unmarried woman who slept with a man outside of a permitted relationship, an openly LGBT individual, someone who speaks against the political stance of the family). Reminds you of something? Yep. Disownment, disinheritance, the only thing we do not see here is the Blacks actively seeking to kill the members who have left. Again, this is NOT typical pure-bloods behaviour, this is something we see specifically within their family. Just like with Sectarianism, this is classic, by-the-book Blood Feud culture and honour killing.

JKR's tendency to let her internal biases seep through her writing unintentionally Do I think JKR consciously sat down and said "let's write the Blacks as mena-coded characters"? Of course not. Just like she did not intend for many things to come off the way they did (like wolfstar, desi potters, etc), but that happened. I think it's natural that when you are raised with certain biases and stereotypes towards a certain group, it will seep through when you're writing characters that are meant to be "evil" and "bad". Again, maybe it's just me. But there are simply way too many similarities and coincidences. I remember reading and watching HP with my siblings when the books/movies were just coming out, and we were all 100% convinced that the Blacks being Arab is just... common knowledge. It wasn't until I started engaging with the Western fandom that I realised it wasn't.

This is all, I think. Well, not nearly all, but these are my main points. It's been long overdue. Feel free to shoot me an ask if you want me to elaborate on something.

[i-looove-dillydallying]

I’m a wolfstar-shipper, but I actually really like the Tonks x Lupin pairing as a concept; it had a lot of potential that, unfortunately, was not met (though I am a sucker for tragically bittersweet endings, as well as characters who deem themselves unlovable being loved unconditionally, so kudos for that). Part of the perceived poor execution comes from the fact that the Harry Potter series is told through limited narration: we know what Harry knows, and we may be more curious about certain relationships that exist within his periphery than he is. There could’ve been an entire contextual build-up to their seemingly abrupt feelings for each other that Harry - and by extension us as readers - simply did not experience. Personally, however, I feel like we could’ve been thrown a bone regarding their developing romance here and there, considering that it has already been established just how much Harry eavesdrops. Granted, we did get Molly mentioning how people rush (romantic) decisions in trying times: “Its all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who coming back, people think they might be dead tomorrow, so they're rushing all sorts of decisions they'd normally take time over. It was the same last time he was powerful, people eloping left, right, and center...”

And now for the potential in dynamic I mentioned: after losing the rest of the Marauders, Tonks’ whimsy might have been just the thing to reawaken Remus’ playful side and create a light in the darkness of war (remember Dumbledores quote about turning on the light?), and Remus could’ve helped cultivate her mature side. As with any good ship (imo), there was also plenty of room for angst: Tonks was an auror, Remus classified as a “Dark Creature”. You can imagine the rest.

I don’t mind their 13 year age-gap as much as I thought I would (and other people seem to do), but that might just be a matter of personal taste (and my complete and utter trust in Remus as a good, if occasionally self-destructive and cowardice person). They’re both consenting adults.

What I do mind is the way Tonks’ character changed for the worse as her feelings for Lupin became apparent. What used to be a fun, likeable character turned bratty and unable to read the room (perhaps it is not the time to publicly press for a relationship label - especially with a notoriously private future partner - when he is in mourning). It has however been ages since I last read the books and God knows the films don’t do Remadora justice, so I won’t go too much into that (unintentional?) negative character arc.

As a final note I’d like to say that Wolfstar could be canon-compliant (or pretty much any Marauders-era ship involving Remus) as Remadora happens later on, and bisexuality exists. Luckily, because Harry Potter and the fanon around it are works of fiction, you can interpret the characters and their interpersonal interactions however you like, which is why I politely ask to remain civil in discussions about this post, which I genuinely do hope will occur. No but seriously. I’d love if you voiced your opinion (regardless of whether you agree with me or not) - you’ve already read this far anyway! Thanks for that by the way.

Tldr: I like Remadora conceptually because of their potential, but it (mostly) fell flat.