#and how just as absurd it is that harry has to confirm or deny it

[daisiesonafield-blog]

A

[takingcourage]

A Bushel and a Peck

Pairing: Jaime x MC

Word Count: 1,850

Summary: After receiving payment for a job, Jaime and Arden get a little more than they’ve bargained for.

Note: Thanks, as always, to @krishu213​ for her request of “The smell of nutmeg and cloves around every corner” for Jaime and Arden. The prompts you choose are always so much fun! : ) 

Fiddling with the drawstring on her jacket, Arden raised her eyes toward the seasonal menu. It was all for show -- she’d known exactly what she was getting before she’d set foot in the shop -- but Friday afternoons always left her a little antsy and eager for home. As the woman in front of her stepped aside to wait for her drink, Arden exchanged smiles with the barista behind the counter. 

“The usual?”

“Please. Thanks, Stephanie.”

“Extra shot today?”

Arden’s lips pursed with momentary indecision. “Sure -- why not?” 

“It’ll be out shortly.” 

After completing her transaction at the register, Arden migrated toward the other end of the counter. A subtle vibration came from the front pocket of her bag, and she quickly withdrew her phone. 

Any plans for the weekend?

She smiled instinctively at Jaime’s text. Did you have something in mind? My schedule is surprisingly flexible. 

Good to know. 

Her brow was still crinkled at the cryptic text when she went forward to retrieve her drink, and things only grew stranger as she made her way back out of the shop and into her vehicle. If she’d been in a more present state of mind, she would have noticed the hints of nutmeg and vanilla that wafted up from the tiny hole in the lid when she took her first blissful sip. As it was, her thoughts were too trained on the mysterious message from her husband. 

Care to share?

I’ve got a project in mind for tomorrow. 

She swallowed a bit too much with her next sip. Had she been a less-experienced drinker, it might have burned on the way down, but she’d been immune to the heat for years. When her phone remained still, she settled back against the seat, slotted the keys into the ignition, and made her way toward home. 

Jaime was waiting for her in the kitchen, his hand slicing the air as he beckoned her in to join him. “You know those repairs I was doing for Mrs. Ellis this week?” 

Arden nodded and kicked her shoes into the corner of the dining room. 

“She couldn’t stand not being able to pay me for them, so she found another method of compensation.” 

That method became abundantly clear as Arden tiptoed onto the tile. From wall to stove, their counter was covered with heaping paper bags. “She gave you a kitchenful of apples?” 

“Two bushels,” he confirmed. 

She crossed to the nearest bag, hooking the side with an inquisitive finger. “Does she think we’re feeding the whole city? What on earth are we going to do with two bushels of apples?”

“I misspoke earlier -- it’s not actually quite that many. I did manage to give  a couple dozen away...”

“We’re two people, Jaime!” she interjected, turning away from the counter to face him. “I don’t think it’s possible for us to eat this many apples if we tried.” 

Jaime rubbed the furrow from her brow with a gentle thumb, then braced a hand on each shoulder. “That’s why I thought we could make a challenge out of it: we’ll see how many things we can make with them in a weekend. Apple butter alone will get us through at least a quarter of them, and we can make applesauce and pie filling too.” 

At the glimpse of his earnest brown eyes, the hilarity of the situation somehow caught up to her in a breathless laugh. “Jaime, this is ridiculous. We can find people to give them to --” 

“Or,” he countered, pausing for a moment in apology for cutting her off. “Or we can make them into something special before we give them away. But I need you with me on this. I don’t know if I can get through them all on my own.”

It was a hollow statement; Jaime was eminently capable of getting through anything he set his mind to, but she wasn’t going to leave him to drown in apples on his own. 

“We need a game plan,” she replied, words already a little distant as she circled the room in search of a pad of paper. Finding an unopened envelope on the table, she began making a list. “If you find the recipes you want, I’ll write down the ingredients we need. We can make a quick run to the grocery store, then pick something up for dinner.” 

Chinese. 

Arden chuckled at the silent interjection. “...then pick up Chinese for dinner. Are you trying to appease me for putting up with you?”

“Nope.” This time, his words were audible. “I’m just taking care of my wife.”

By the end of the evening, they’d accounted for every single apple. Double checking the recipes over cartons of takeout, the two of them shared more than a handful of giggles over the sheer absurdity of the situation. 

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” 

-----

By noon on Saturday, they'd enlisted her father’s help with peeling and slicing -- a process that would have been much faster if the Harry hadn't insisted on tossing pieces of discarded peel to the floor for Opie instead of into the bag for composting. Between the dog's valiant attempts to catch them and Jinx's determination to steal them from under his nose, the whole scene became very distracting.

Even so, there was no denying that his presence made the process go faster. Their last batch of applesauce was finished by 3:00, followed by apple butter some hours later. When the time came to break for dinner, they'd lined their counter with several jars to give away. 

"Just pies left to go," Jaime noted, consulting their list from the night before as Arden and Harry cleared dishes from the dining table.  

"I think that’s my cue to head on home. I don’t know the first thing about pies, except that I love eating them.” 

Arden resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she loaded their plates into the dishwasher. 

“We’ll bring one over tomorrow,” Jaime promised. 

Offering a half-hearted farewell over her shoulder, Arden’s eyes glazed as they fell back onto the final bag on the table. The pads of her fingers felt swollen from the repetitive motion of the knife, and she’d started to worry that no amount of handwashing would ever remove the sense of stickiness from her wrinkled palms. Even after the brief time away, there was a phantom tremor between her thumb and pointer finger. 

“I can finish these up tomorrow.” Jaime sank into the chair across from her, his own hand strong and steady as he reached for her leg under the kitchen table. “I really appreciate all of your help today. I'm glad we did this.” 

Eyes darting upward, she caught the smile she’d heard in his voice. His warm eyes sparked golden when she met his gaze. “I might swear off apples for the foreseeable future, but this has been fun.” With renewed vigor, she glanced back to the bag beside her. “And I’m not leaving you to do these on your own. We said we’d finish these tonight, and that’s what I intend to do.” 

He squeezed her knee, chuckling beneath his breath. 

“Stop!” she urged with an insistent whisper. At his raised brow, she clarified. “You’re thinking about calling me stubborn again -- I know you are.” 

Jaime rose and motioned for Arden to vacate her chair as well. “We can finish tonight, but I want to switch out. I’ll take care of the peeling and slicing. You can measure out the dry ingredients.”

“Deal.” 

Tucking her hair behind both ears, she set to work gathering ingredients and whatever clean utensils she could find. Most of their small stash of measuring cups and spoons had been used for previous recipes, and improvising was easier than washing what was dirty. 

“Are you using the 1/3 cup?”

Flicking the remaining crystals into the mixing bowl, she flashed the tin cup for his inspection. 

“To measure 16 cups of sugar?”

Flushing more from embarrassment than indignance, she scooted the 1/8 measuring teaspoon out of his sightline. He didn’t need to know her plan for the spices. “Don’t make me lose count!”

I could if I wanted to. 

His thoughts cut in, and she very nearly lost track of the scooping despite herself. Offering what she hoped was a stern expression, she retrieved her phone and found a playlist of pop music that had fallen from the top 40 charts a decade before. As she finished preparing the ingredients, she couldn’t help giggling at the memories attached to many of them: trips to the pool in the summertime, dances at prom, basement jam sessions with their very short-lived band phase... 

Jaime brought the bowl of apple slices to the counter, nudging her out of the way so that he could access the dry ingredients and the stovetop. She kept him company as he cooked and cooled, legs dangling from her seat beside the oven. 

Though the raw materials were much different from his usual medium, there was the same undeniable magic in watching him bring them all together. Under Jaime’s care, what started as a few basic ingredients no longer felt ordinary or simple. True to his intentions, the unexpected gift had become something special. 

Finally, the last bag had been sealed and the counters had been wiped down. With one concluding look around the room, Arden cranked the dial on the dishwasher and breathed a sigh of relief. Weariness grew with each step, culminating in a sense of fatigue that prompted her to collapse onto the mattress as soon as she’d made it to their upstairs bedroom. 

“What a day.” Jaime stretched out beside her, sounding much more energetic than she felt. 

Drowning a yawn, Arden tried to recover by taking a deep breath. Her nose shriveled as she realized her mistake. “Everything in our house smells like apples,” she moaned, tossing an arm over her face to try to block the scent. “I smell like apples.” 

He burrowed closer on the bed. “You smell like autumn. I’m getting notes of nutmeg and cinnamon...maybe a hint of clove. I’ll be dreaming of applesauce and pies all night.” Jaime kissed her ear playfully, then pulled away with a soft laugh. 

“Ughhh.” Showering would mean postponing bedtime, but she was starting to think that the delay would be worthwhile. 

“You have a bit of peel in your hair. Here.” He brushed aside a few strands to locate the tiny sliver. 

Prying open her eyes, she turned to face him. “And you’ve got cornstarch...or something... on your ear.” Arden swiped at it with a thumb, relieved when the substance came away easily. 

He caught her elbow as she dropped her hand, his thumb etching gentle circles into her skin. “We make quite a pair, don’t we?”

Arden’s eyes flashed with amusement; she knew he’d intended sentimentality, but the setup was too much to resist. “I have to say, that’s not quite the fruit I was thinking of,” she countered, already bracing herself for the well-earned complaint she knew was coming. 

With a well-deserved groan, Jaime leaned over to capture her lips in a sleepy kiss. 

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Nick Jonas doubled down on his stance as a straight ally after queer baiting accusations, even though I've heard firsthand he's closeted. He's someone who I doubt will ever "come out" (he's also in a PR marriage).With the way H has navigated his closet more recently, being more explicit in his attraction to men while also confirming Camille as an ex-gf, and the way he has not clarified his stance as a straight ally, despite some similar criticism, I wonder what that means. I do find the way 1/3

fandom has always framed the end-all-be-all as this big coming out, but I've never found that useful. I still think that there is a large possibility that will never happen. If Harry or Louis ever come out, it would not be to confirm "Larry is real" and this also negates the fact that so many celebs go their whole life without ever coming out of the closet, and I don't think it's against their will. I just find people in the fandom love to speculate on when they will come out and how they 2/3

will do it as if it's inevitable, and I just don't see it that way at all. I'm not sure if you've discussed your thoughts on if/how HL would ever come out, but I would love to hear them if you have any. 3/3

*********

There’s a lot here anon - and I’ll try and say a little bit about what I think.

The first thing to understand the current environment for celebrities coming out.  Celebrities are coming out more than they used to, but they tend to be younger and not to have actively performed heterosexuality as part of being in the closet.  The effect of this has been to erase any structural elements of the closet.  Coming out is presented as an individual choice, as opposed to something that is mandated by structures of power within the industries involved.

The last person I can think of who publicly performed heterosexuality and then came out was Kristen Stewart.  But she’s never denied her past - it just sits there and people can believe what they want about it.  

What hasn’t happened for a while (and I’d be interested if anyone can think of any examples) is someone saying ‘I’m gay and the story I was telling about myself before was a lie’.  Ricky Martin is the last person I can think about who came out, and made it clear that the relatioship history he had told publicly wasn’t true (this is leaving out people who were clearly outted like Phillip Schofield).

That’s a very tricky envrionment for Harry and Louis to navigate if they’re together and want to come out.  It would be possible I think for them to tell a story that didn’t present everything about their dating life as a lie (definitely possible for Harry and with enough lead time also possible for Louis). But trying to do that would be high risk, because lots of people won’t believe it - and will talk about how they don’t believe it - and there’s a risk of journalists runnig aritcles about why they won’t believe it.

But things won’t necessarily stay as they are now.  Celebrity changes and the experieces of being a public LGBTQ person change.  It maybe that in five years time celebrities are much more able to expose the nature of the celebrity closet in the 2010s. We live in an incredibly unstable time - the idea that we can predict what will happen in the short term is absurd - the medium term is unthinkable.  And there are all sorts of ways that current events could ricochet and create a different environment for LGBTQ celebrities.

We don’t know what they want, we don’t know how they see this, and I try really hard not to pretend that I do know.  But when thinking about whether they might come out - it’s useful to think about things that they might want that would be difficult if they remained in the closet.

First, I may be wrong about this, but I think Louis will struggle to be an interesting popstar in the closet.  And in the current environment you gotta be interesting to get any traction.  

Second, I think it’s very difficult for them to have children together, if they don’t come out.  If either of them were with someone non famous, or even someone famous where the relationship was under a little bit less surveillance, then there are all sorts of possibilities to have kids. But if they stayed together long term, I think they’d have to choose (certainly if either of them was living a public life of any sort).  

Finally, it may be the circles we move in (I have quite a restricted dash), but I don’t see a lot of discussion of coming out on my dash.  What I saw instead - was large parts of fandom turning on a dime.  When it became untenable for those with a grasp on music industry contracts to argue that they were closeted entirely because of their contracts.  I suddenly saw lots of arguments about privacy and their desire for privacy across my dash.  I think it’s very obvious that they have reclaimed a lot of privacy.  But I think it’s a huge leap to claim that that’s the reason that they haven’t come out, partiucularly when there’s a much more obvious answer.

I’m a materialist girl, and so I am going to look at what’s going on financially first, and there’s a huge amount of money on the line for Harry’s career.  I think it’s unfortunate that fandom refuses to discuss that, because I think the implications of that refusal are quite fucked up.  I think there’s a reasonably strong belief that it wouldn’t be OK that Harry is closeted, because a huge part of his audience is invested in a romantic fantasy boyfriend version of him.  And that’s why people don’t talk about the extremely obvious, because they don’t want to acknowledge it.  But I think that ends up blaming LGBTQ people for their oppression. If society cuts off opportunities for queer entertainers if they come out (which it does), the problem there is society.  And I think it’s really homophobic to suggest that there are wrong ways of navigating the closet. 

Ultimately I don’t think the line of question you focus on - how should fans talk about their closet in the future - is a particularly useful one. Thefuture was always unknowable, and feels much more unknowable than ever right now.  We don’t know what Harry or Louis’ short, medium, or long term plans are.  Or what might change so they end up living completely different lives from what they imagine.  I think there is a lot to say about the closet in the present (and their recent past), there’s no need to suggest we know what 2025, let alone 2035 will look like (or not look like).  

[elliemarchetti]

The Deal (part 9)

Previous chapters

Words: 3023

Hermione knew that there was a tunnel under the Whomping Willow but she never imagined it could be so narrow and much less having to go through it not for fun but to save a friend from a huge black dog. They advanced as fast as possible, almost doubled over, Harry in the lead and her in tow, with Draco behind her and Pansy closing the line. Before them, Crookshanks' tail disappeared and reappeared as the tunnel continued uphill and then curved just to end in a deserted, very dusty and messy room, with the wallpaper peeling off the walls and the floor all stained; every piece of furniture was broken as if someone had bludgeoned it and the windows were closed by nailed boards, so the only place Ron could be was the dark anteroom to their right. Obviously they were in the Shrieking Shack and just as she suspected that place wasn’t haunted by ghosts but something far more tangible and dangerous had torn the legs from the chairs and large pieces of wood from the furniture. As quietly as possible, they advanced into the antechamber and began to climb the falling staircase. Everything was covered with a thick layer of dust except the floor, where a large shiny strip indicated that something, probably Ron, had been dragged upstairs. There was only one door open. As they approached it they sensed movement on the other side; a dull moan, and then an intense purring hum. The four kids exchanged one last glance and then, with his wand tightly in his hand, Harry kicked the door and opened it wide, revealing a splendid four-poster bed with dusty curtains on which Crookshanks was laying. At their sight the purrs became more intense. On the floor there was Ron, holding his leg, bent at a strange angle. Harry and Hermione rushed over to him.

"Ron... are you okay?" Hermione asked, while Harry asked him, at the same time, where the dog was, just to find out it wasn’t a dog but Sirius Black himself, a mass of tangled hair going down to his shoulders and eyes shining in dark and sunken orbits. The waxy skin was so tight on the face’s bones to make him look like a grinning skull with yellow teeth that disarmed them with a croaking voice, pointing Ron's wand at them. His eyes were fixed on Harry.

"I was sure you would come to help your friend," he said hoarsely, as if he hadn’t used his voice in a while. “Your father would’ve done the same for me. You were brave not to go call a teacher. I am grateful to you... this will make things much simpler...”

The allusion to Harry's father rang in their ears as if Black had screamed it. The seething hatred her friend felt was evident, but fortunately, before he could do something stupid, Draco tackled him, helped by Pansy.

"Don't you dare mention him! You killed him, as you killed my mother!" Harry shouted in a voice trembling with anger but luckily the Slytherin’s grip was strong.

"I don't deny it," Black said softly. "But if you knew how it went..."

Any attempt to justify himself made Harry angrier and Hermione left Ron and approached him in turn, for fear he might break free, when the sound of muffled footsteps echoing across the floor was heard. Someone was going up and Hermione wasted no time, so she screamed to make their position and Black's presence known. Professor Lupin rushed in, his face bloodless, wand raised and ready. His eyes flickered from Ron lying on the ground to the other students, who tried to hold Harry back, to then speak in a very altered voice, a voice that vibrated with a repressed emotion. "Where is he, Sirius?"

Hermione looked quickly at Lupin. She didn't understand what he meant. Where was who? She turned back to Black, who, without expression, for a few seconds didn’t move and then, very slowly, raised his empty hand to indicate Ron. Totally confused, Hermione also looked at Ron, who looked completely dazed.

"But then..." Lupin murmured, looking at Black so intensely that he seemed to want to read his mind "why hasn't he revealed himself so far? Unless ... " Lupin's eyes widened suddenly, as if seeing something beyond Black, something no one else could see... "Unless it was him, unless you exchanged  without telling me?"

Very slowly, without lifting those sunken eyes from Lupin's face, Black nodded.

"Professor," said Hermione aloud, "what ...?" But she never ended the question because what she saw quenched the voice in her throat: Lupin was lowering his wand and a moment later he was at Black’s side, grabbing his hand and helping him to get up, dropping Crookshanks on the ground, and hugging him like a brother. Hermione felt her stomach broke. She couldn’t believe it. She had saved his back, she hadn't revealed his secret to anyone, and he had always been Black’s friend, maybe even helped him enter the castle to kill Harry. A tense silence descended. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Lupin, who seemed extraordinarily calm, even though he was quite pale. Ron made a heroic effort to get up, but fell back with a groan of pain. Lupin approached him worriedly, but Ron said, breathing heavily: "Stay away from me!"

Lupin stopped abruptly and then burst into a forced laugh. He looked as crazy as Black. "If you give me the chance, I’ll explain.” and when he did, he left everyone speechless.

                                                  ----------------------

It took a few seconds for the absurdity of the statement to strike, then Weasley expressed aloud what Draco was thinking too: it was ridiculous, Peter Pettigrew was dead, killed by Sirius Black twelve years earlier, and there were even witnesses to confirm it, everyone knew it but Draco knew well how the truth could be manipulated easily, how much people see what they want to even if the evidence is different and even his friends should’ve, after what had happened to Buckbeak. Furthermore, something in Black’s grimace and his violent reaction told him to give the unlikely duo the benefit of the doubt. Then Hermione spoke, trying to control the trembling voice, as if to try to convince Lupin to be reasonable: "But Professor... Scabbers cannot be Pettigrew, he knows that it’s not possible...”

"Why can't it be true?" Lupin asked quietly, as if they were in the classroom and Hermione had simply encountered a difficulty in an experiment with the Grindylow.

"Because everyone would know if Peter Pettigrew had been an Animagus. We studied the Animagi at Professor McGonagall's course and I went to do a search in the library when I had to do the homework: the Ministry keeps the wizards and witches that can turn into animals under surveillance and keep a register of what they can be and their particular signs. I went to look for Professor McGonagall on the register, and found that there are only seven Animagi in this century, and Pettigrew wasn’t on the list."

Draco barely had time to marvel at Hermione's zeal that Lupin burst out laughing. Maybe he was crazy, besides being a werewolf: "You're right again, Hermione!" he said. “But the Ministry has never knew that there were three unclassified Animagi that roamed Hogwarts."

"If you're going to tell him the whole story, hurry, Remus," growled Black, who continued to study all of the mouse’s moves. "I have waited twelve years and I'm not going to wait much longer."

"Okay... but you'll have to help me out, Sirius," said Lupin. “I only know how it started...”

Lupin stopped. Behind him there was a loud squeak. The door opened alone. All seven stared at it then Lupin went to look out on the landing.

"This place is haunted!" said Weasley.

"No," said Lupin, looking puzzled at the door. “The Shrieking Shack has never been haunted: the screams and howls the villagers heard were mine."

He brushed the gray hair away from his eyes, thought for a moment and then said: "It all starts here, when I became a werewolf. None of this would’ve happened if I hadn't been bitten and if I hadn’t been so reckless.”

He looked serious and tired. Weasley was about to interrupt him, but Hermione silenced him in turn and looked back at Lupin.

“I was a child when I was bitten. My parents tried everything, but in those days there was no cure. The potion that Professor Snape makes me is very recent. It makes me harmless, you know. If I take it the week before the full moon, I can keep control when I transform: I curl up in my studio, like a normal wolf, and wait for the moon to set. Before it was discovered, however, once a month I became a full-fledged monster. It seemed impossible that I was able to attend Hogwarts. The other parents wouldn't have liked that their children made contact with me but then Dumbledore became Headmaster, and found the solution. He said that if we took some precautions there was no reason why I couldn't come to school…”Lupin sighed and looked openly at Potter. “A few months ago I said that the Willow was planted the year I arrived at

Hogwarts. The truth is, it was planted because I got to Hogwarts." Lupin looked around desolate, "The tunnel that leads here, it was built for me too. Once a month they secretly let me out of the castle and I came here to transform. The tree was placed at the entrance of the tunnel to prevent anyone from crossing me when I was dangerous."

Draco didn’t understand where that story was going but he listened to him anyway. The only noise, besides Lupin's voice, was the mouse’s frightened squeak.

“My transformations were terrible. It's a lot painful to turn into a werewolf and since I had no humans around to bite I would bite and scratch myself. Villagers heard the noise and screams and believed that they were particularly violent spirits. Dumbledore encouraged the rumors, even now that the house is silent for years, the inhabitants haven’t dared to approach. But transformations aside, I was happier than I had ever been.

For the first time I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and of course your father, Harry. James Potter. Now, my three friends couldn't help noticing that once a month I disappeared. I made up all kinds of stories. I told them that my mother was sick and I had to go home to her. I was afraid that they would abandon me once I found out who I was. But of course they discovered the truth, like you, Hermione. And they didn't abandon me at all. In fact, they did something for me that didn't only made my transformations bearable, but it changed them in the most moments beautiful in my life. They became Animagi.”

"My father too?" Potter asked, amazed. Draco glanced at him. Obviously James Potter, the Gryffindor knight in shining armor had done something heroic for his friend.

“It took him almost three years to figure out how to. Your father and Sirius were the brightest students in the school and luckily, because the transformation into Animagus can end very badly, that’s why the Ministry keeps those who try to do it under close surveillance. Peter needed all the help James and Sirius could give him. In the end, during the fifth year, they did it. They were able to transform each into different animals, as they please.”

"But how did they help you?" Hermione asked puzzled while Draco understood that: werewolves don’t attack animals, so every month they sneaked out of the castle under Potter's Invisibility Cloak, but he didn't say it and let Lupin go on with his story while he thought he would do the same for Hermione. Lupin's face had hardened, little self-esteem in her voice.

“I fought with myself all this year, wondering if I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn't. Why? Because I was too coward. It would’ve meant admitting that I had betrayed his trust when I was here at school, admitting that I had involved other people, and Dumbledore's trust meant everything to me. He got me into Hogwarts as a boy, and gave me a job when I’ve never been able to find one because of who I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius tried to enter school using dark arts learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it, so, someway, Snape has always been right about me."

"Snape?" Black said hoarsely, looking away from Scabbers for the first time and staring at Lupin. "What's Snape got to do with it?" he asked with such perplexity that Draco also wondered if there wasn’t something really wrong with Snape.

"He's here, Sirius," said Lupin gravely. "He teaches here too." and then came back to look at his students to tell them that Snape was at school with them and he fought a lot to not entrust him with the Defense Against the Dark Arts chair, which didn’t surprise anyone as it was known that Snape wanted it more than anything else in the world, mainly due to a tacky joke made by Black.

"So that's why she doesn't like Snape," Draco said slowly, "Why did you think she was complicit in the joke?"

"That's right," said a cold voice behind Lupin. Severus Snape was pulling off his invisibility cloak, his wand

pointed at Lupin. Hermione screamed. Black jumped up. Potter winced as if he had been hit by a strong electric shock.

"I found it at the Willow’s roots," Snape said throwing the Cloak to the side, careful to keep his wand pointed straight at Lupin. “Very useful, Potter, thank you.”

Snape was a little panting, but his expression overflowed with repressed triumph. "Maybe you're wondering how I knew you were here?" he said, his eyes sparkling. "I've just been to your study, Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I brought you a full mug and there was a certain map on your desk. A glance was enough to know everything I wanted. I saw you disappear in this passage.”

"Severus ..." Lupin began, but Snape didn’t let him continue.

“I said and told the Headmaster that you were helping your old friend to enter the castle and here's the proof. Neither I would’ve dreamed that you would’ve had the courage to use this old shack as a hiding place.”

"Severus, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently. "You don’t have heard the whole story. I can explain: Sirius isn’t here to kill Harry ."

"Two more criminals ready for Azkaban tonight," Snape said with feverish eyes. "I'm curious to see how Dumbledore will take it. He was convinced you were harmless, you know, a tamed werewolf ."

"This is stupid," said Lupin softly. “It’s worthwhile to lock up an innocent man in Azkaban for a fight between boys?"

Thin serpentine ropes came out of the tip of Snape's wand but Draco was quick enough to disarm him before they could reach Lupin. The others were paralyzed, not knowing what to do, but Draco knew Snape and his friends' temperament well enough to know that if he stayed armed in a short time something terrible would happen. Hermione, just as Draco had imagined, took an uncertain step towards Snape and said, in a broken voice, "Professor, don't you think you should listen to what they have to say?"

"Miss Granger, you're already practically suspended!" he snapped. You’re outside the confines of the school, in the company of a man convicted of murder and a werewolf. For once in your life, close your mouth."

"But if there had been a mistake..." ventured Pansy, who hadn't spoken all the time.

"SHUT UP, STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, suddenly losing control. "DON’T TALK ABOUT THINGS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!"

He was scary, with that crazy light in his eyes, as if he had lost his reason, almost as Lucius Malfoy himself, which was the thing that terrified Draco most after the idea of losing Hermione. Fear froze him: he could have hit him or his friends, physically assaulting them as his father did when he lost control. Black also seemed frightened but Lupin, Potter and Hermione acted in unison, throwing three spells that lifted him from the ground and made him go crashing into the wall, where he slipped to the ground with a trickle of blood dripping through his greasy hair. He was passed out.

"The time has come to give you some proof," said Black and then ordered to Weasley, who had no intention to oblige and forced Lupin to snatch it from his hands, to give him the mouse. A flash of blue and white light shot from Lupin and Weasley's wands, which was still in Black's possession; for a moment the mouse was paralyzed midair, a small black silhouette that writhed madly. Weasley screamed when it fell to the ground and a head rose, followed by arms and legs, and a moment later, in the point Scabbers had fallen, a man trying to make himself small appeared, wringing his hands. Crookshanks hissed on the bed with fur standing on his back. He was very short, slightly taller than Pansy and Hermione with thin colorless, untidy hair that left a bald patch in the middle of his head and had the wrinkled appearance of a fat man who had lost a lot of weight in no time. His skin looked dirty and sickly, like the hair of the mouse it had been. He looked around, breathing quickly and irregularly. Draco saw his eyes shoot towards the door and return to all of them, just like a beast, as if he had lost part of his humanity after so long in the form of an animal.

"Well, hi, Peter," said Lupin and with three words he wiped out several great certainties in Draco's life.

[potterwatch-transcripts]

First Broadcast: 1st September 1998.

Lee Jordan: Good Evening all and welcome to the worlds number one Harry Potter fan show, Potterwatch. I’m River, and we are coming to you live from Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Headmistress McGonagall has kindly consented to let us be here for the night and so Rapier and I will be reporting on the pre-sorting excitement.

George Weasley: That’s right River. I think it’s fair to say that this is the greatest thing to happen to hogwarts since James Potter and Sirius Black enchanted the entirety of the teaching staff to look like popular muggle characters ‘the Justice League’.

Lee: I hear Dumbledore made an exceptional ‘Wonder Woman’ whatever that is. A quick update on little tommy Riddle, brought to you by our special guest, Peeves.

Peeves: Voldy is moldy Voldy is moldy!

George: Sheer poetry. Ah now here comes the headmistress herself. Professor!!

Professor McGonagall: Hello gentlemen. It is against my better judgement that I let you attend but I recieved letters from the minister, Harry Potter and a rather odd one from what appeared to be the muggle Queen, so I couldn’t refuse.

Lee: you won’t even know we’re here. Now Professor, is it true, upon Harry Potter joining the Auror office, you were seen high fiving everyone you met, and sent a howler to Dolores Umbridge in Azkaban saying and I quote ‘suck it Dolores you hag’

McGonagall: I can neither confirm nor deny this.

George: did you just wink at us Professor.

McGonagall: don’t be absurd Weasley. Five points from Gryffindor.

George: Professor I don’t even go here.

McGonnagall: Nevertheless

Lee: ok Professor, what in your opinion are Harry Potter’s greatest achievements and lowest points.

McGonagall: an unusually good question. Besides the obvious I believe his O in his OWL defence against the dark arts was most pleasing. He actually scored 103%. Only 3 other students have ever over 100 in an exam. As for his lowest, helping lose 150 point is one night in what I later learned was an illegal dragon smuggling operation. Blast Hagrid.

George: fascinating. One last thing Professor. Is it true you offered Harry the DADA job and he declined?

McGonagall: sadly yes, he wanted to help rid our world of death eaters before retiring from the Auror office.

Lee: Thank you Professor. Now Rapier, as we wait for the students to arrive, you have some news for us.

George: Indeed I do River. Our top story regards a favourite of our fans, Teddy Lupin. My reports indicate that master Lupin now has learned a wide selection of curse words. Rumours claiming they were taught to him by the Weasley siblings, excluding Percy are totally unfounded and just because I may have taught your grandson to say crap is not a good enough reason to hex me Andromeda.

Lee: truely his mother’s son.

George: indeed. next up, Minister Shacklebolt has announced wide reforms to the department of magical law enforcement. The reforms will, among other things, add sectumsempra to the list of unforgivable curses, and provide comprehensive training to all ministry employees on how to resist the impirius curse.

Lee: that would’ve been useful this time last year.

George: you’re not wrong River. And finally, reports are coming in that Harry Potter has just been fined 100 gallons after a muggle saw him attempting to force a reluctant hippogriff through the front door of his London home. When asked for comment Potter said ‘why didn’t I just leave that bloody bird with Hagrid’.

Lee: not even the great boy who lived is above the law hey Rapier?

George: you save the wizarding world ONE TIME!

Lee: At least twice if not more.

George: you save the wizarding world numerous times and you think the laws don’t apply to you.

Lee: I’m going to have to stop you there Rapier, the first students are arriving. Ah I see Hermione Granger, returning to complete her seventh year, and Ginny Weasley, the coolest Weasley.

George: Oi. Hey Hermione, Gin, over here.

*moments silence*

Hermione Granger: Hello boys.

Ginny Weasley: hey guys.

Lee: Hermione you’ve returned to complete your N.E.W.Ts. Why? Are you mad? Has the year on the run with Harry Potter causes some sort of mental instability?

Hermione: No Lee. I believe that the best way to contribute to the magical society, and help further the rights of our fellow magical creatures is to complete my education.

George: How dull. Ginny. What’s it like kissing the boy who lived. I imagine he’s exceptional.

Ginny: oh yes. You can feel the raw power radiating off him. He tastes like victory and treacle tart.

Lee: you’re the luckiest woman on Earth. Hermione, by contrast you ended up with Potter’s sidekick, Ronald ‘less cool than George’ Weasley.

George: cheers River. Is kissing Ron as sloppy as it seems?

Hermione: *sigh* come on Ginny, let’s try and get a good view of the sorting.

Lee: How rude. Ah and here comes Luna Lovegood. Merlin’s nipples what is that?!

*Distant McGonagall voice*: Jordan!!!

George: it appears dear listeners Miss Lovegood has brought one of her special events hats to the sorting. This one appears to depict a giant representation of Harry Potter’s face.

Lee: that is horrifying. Oh look, when she taps it with her wand it says ‘Down with Voldemort’. Luna! Over here.

Luna Lovegood: Oh hello Lee. George. What are you doing here?

Lee: we’re reporting on the start of term at Hogwarts.

Luna: oh how nice. Daddy tried to get a press pass when I was sorted but he had to cancel. Something about a flying car.

George: nice one Ron. Luna I can see the sorting is about to start. Can you quickly comment on the claims made by Rita Skeeter that Harry Potter is in fact, an unregistered animagus, becoming a penguin?

Luna: oh I don’t think that’s true. Harry doesn’t have the aura of a penguin. And besides, birds aren’t effected by wrackspurts, and Harry’s head is full of them.

Lee: Luna I have no idea what any of that means but thank you.

George: she’s mad that one. Lovable but mad. Merlins beard that hat is scary.

Lee: As the sorting begins, we will end today’s show. Thank you all for listening from myself and Rapier. Tune in next time for more Potterwatch. The password will be Hogwarts.

[ravens-crimecollection]

The Croydon Cat Killer

A/N: Now this lovely piece of work here is probably my fifth attempt. Tumble deleted my first draft and its neater version. Then Microsoft crashed on me and took another report which I had re-written twice. Needless to say this report is actually killing me.

 Trigger Warnings: Now as you could probably tell from the title this report focuses on the death of animals. What this guy has done to his targets is pretty gruesome in all aspects. I’ve tried to include in the tags all trigger warnings involving animal harm and death, however, if you want any other warnings included please contact me as soon as possible. I understand that whilst there may be some aspects of true crime that you are ok with, there are others that may trigger you.

 So now, lets be on with the strange and unusual case of the animal killer known as:

 The Croydon Cat Killer.

It was Easter 2017 when I first heard about the Croydon cat killer.

 I was back home from university for the holidays along with all my siblings so the house had been chaotic to say the least. I ended up retreating to my phone when the Twins began fighting again, unwilling to deal with their bickering so soon.

 I know, terrible elder sibling - but they argue all the time.

 Anyway, it was whilst I was on Facebook that I first mention of the Croydon Cat Killer.

 Again, I know what you’re thinking.

 “Raven, a Facebook post? Those things are usually full of shit.”

 And yes I do realise this, however this friend was trustworthy, factual, someone not likely to share fake posts seeking to incite panic.

 Also it was a link to a report written by a reputable newspaper.

 No not the Daily Mail

 Anyway, it was from this report that birthed my interest in the case, in is sheer absurdity and the audacity of the Cat Killer.

 And its really what began this blog, on the stranger lesser known crimes around the world, for this is undoubtedly an unknown case by many, but those who do know of it all share the same fear.

 That one day this Cat Killer will turn his attention to Humans.

  The Initial Suspicion:

 The rise in Cat mutilations and deaths was first noticed by Co-Founders Tony Jenkins and Boudicca Rising of the South Norwood Animal Rescue Liberty Charity, or SNARL for short.

 (Remember them, they’ll come up a lot.)

 More and more calls were coming in from the South London areas concerning strange cat deaths which often shared the same characteristics.

 FINAL WARNING FOR DETAILS OF ANIMAL DEATH

 These cats, discovered in increasing numbers in the South London areas, were mostly found in public areas.

 Public streets, high traffic grassy areas, and a few times in people’s own gardens, and even on the front steps of their owners’ homes. A most notable case was when a cats paw was left on her owners front step.

 These cats were found without their heads and tails, and later other body parts, but alarmingly there was often an absence of blood at the scenes, and any blood found was minimal and congealed. They were often laid out, displayed.

 Later forensic tests done by forensic specialists and veterinarians would show bruising consisted with death by bludgeoning. It is believed by many that the decapitation and mutilation occurred afterwards, though some disagree.

 Most shockingly however, was the fact that several of these cats were found with raw chicken in their stomachs, obviously eaten a little while before their deaths. The owners were insistent that none of them fed their cats anything of the sort before hand.

 A clear sign of luring? Of malicious intent?

 At the time of the initial reports however only the mutilation was known about, and the rising numbers of reports and the way the bodies appeared immediately raised suspicion in Boudicca and Tony. They began collecting reports, and even brought the bodies personally to their vets and third party vets to understand what could have occurred.

 They also began to heavily petition the police for investigation.

 With the families and SNARL working together to raise awareness about the Cat Killer, even reporting the incidents on Facebook, the case soon garnered attention across the country.

 Pets are undoubtedly important members of families. Any sane human being that owns a pet loves them unconditionally.

 Not one of you who own a pet can deny use of the baby voice when talking to whatever animal you own. I once watched a friend coo over their pet snake whilst rubbing its head.

 Pet owners are a weird lot, but our pets are our family, and unfortunately vulnerable members of our family at that.

 Animals have their advantages against humans. But smaller ones like cats, especially those trusting of humans, are always at risk of cruelty and harm.

 Serial killers, and I will count this man as a serial killer of a kind for ease despite the fact his victims are only animals, have always been cowardly by nature. They have always gone for the easier targets, ones that won’t cause too much trouble, too frightened or scared to attack a man or woman that could beat them. They relied on tricks, the good nature of others, and the fact their targets were often smaller and less confrontational than them. Blitzing them, or surprising them so they were incapable of fighting back.

 It is probably why the Croydon Cat Killer selected cats as their main targets. Much smaller than most dogs, less able to fight back, an easier target.

 It is his targets that also brought out such an outrage as well, and led to the quick creation of Operation Takahe.

 Operation Takahe:

 The investigation into the Croydon Cat Killer began almost astonishingly quickly considering the victims were cats, but the sheer number of animals beginning to be attributed to this Cat Killer, in the hundreds already, the mutilation that occurred and the attention the case was receiving meant the Police were quick to establish an investigation.

 This investigation was codenamed Operation Takahe. Boudicca and Tony’s initial suspicions about the reports began in January 2015, and by the summer of the same year Police investigation was already underway.

 The Investigation would last three years, until the August of 2018, and in that time multiple facts became known about the Cat Killer.

 1.       The fact the cats were bludgeoned to death and several were fed raw chicken shortly before death became known through forensic testing and study.

2.       It was shown, and is mostly believed, that the decapitation of the head and tail occurred after death.

3.       The initial victim, the apparent first cat killed by the cat killer, was discovered. It is still believed, though with some uncertainty, that a cat killed in Croydon in early 2014 was one of the killers first victims, maybe even the first. This and the fact he worked mostly in the South of London gave him the name the Croydon Cat killer.

4.       The cats missing body parts mostly remained missing, but horrifyingly a few were returned in other areas  at a later date. Causing the owners further distress to say the least.

 Later facts would show just how expansive the killers range was.

 5.       Reports of similar mutilations began to come in from as far south as the Isle of Wight and possibly as far North as Brighton. Many attacks seem to occur in areas near a motorway known as the M25, a road which circles London and connects the city to other major roads leading out all over the country. This lead him to be known by a new name – The M25 (Cat) Killer.

6.       Foxes and rabbits were also starting to be discovered, in the same conditions as the cats killed previously. This lead SNARL and others to refer to the killer as the UK Animal Killer.

7.       The kills were also shown to happen in under-surveilled rural areas, and urban areas with little traffic.

 Whilst this all occurred the case garnered more and more attention, the Cat killer became a mystery figure. Profiles of the killer were made, and descriptions of his appearance.

 He was described as a white male in his 40’s, with short brown hair, dark clothing, and acne scaring on his face based on sparse witness reports as he was never caught on camera. They also declared he could be wearing a headlamp.

 His personality profile was as such:

 1. He often travelled, possibly for work.

 2. It was eventually believed he lived in Addiscombe, considering the amount of attacks occurring there.

 3. Profilers and psychologists also theorised his hated for cats in particular could have stemmed from a hated or fear of women, and the mutilation of the animals after, and the distinct need to leave these animals in the open and for their owners to find, was for sexual gratification.

  Celebrities and politicians alike were drawn to the case, tweeting descriptions and drawing attention to the case in hopes of an arrest.

 All the information together seemed to present the idea of a prolific sadist, a human one.

 A suspect was arrested but released.

 A man who was on the sexual offenders list for raping an older woman had his home searched.

 Which is why it is so shocking that in September 2018, the Police shut down Project Takahe with news that the killer had been found.

 The common Fox.

  The End?

 Police revealed that they had seen a few images of foxes carrying the missing cat parts away from scenes. They also found fox DNA on the corpses as well.

Stephen Harris, a retired professor of environmental sciences at the University of Bristol who had studied fox behaviour for fifty years, asserted that there was no killer.

 He asserted the lack of blood or its congealing, as well as the lack of heads and tails, and other body parts was absolutely due to car collisions. Other say it was a moral panic.

 He does not go on to explain how the cars could have put a cat paw print on their owners front porch.

 He also explains that foxes commonly chew of the head and tails of their prey as well. Nd yes he was called in on a case prior involving the death of cats in the late 1990’s in London, and confirmed they were Foxes.

 SNARL and many other could only react in disbelief. I myself included.

 Cats laid out, obviously dissected, and they call it the work of cars and foxes.

 Cats in accidents leave massive amounts of blood in the road, of which I have been unfortunate witness to, and the foxes scavenger nature (especially London) which could easily explain why foxes were seen with cat parts.

 This theory leaves many things unexplained:

 1.       The display of the animals in open areas, the repeat of pattern, the openness these cats were found in.

 2.       The sudden increase of cat death as a whole, enough to make those who recorded such things suspicious.

 3.       The animal parts returning at a later date, especially the paw that appeared on their owner’s door step.

 There is also the fact that shortly before the closing down of the investigation a man was arrested for arson AND cat mutilation and gave up his fellows as well, claiming there was still someone who was out there committing crimes.

 It is the opinion of many that this is a vast oversight by police, nearly negligent in fact.

 I myself have, as you do, spoken with several of my friends on this topic. Some who work in civil service and are of the heavy opinion that this closing of the investigation was due to budgeting by the higher ups who probably withdrew funds due to the cases length and the victimology.

 Many believe that this may be another group, a single man with possible copy-cats, or simply one man.

 Very few appear to believe it is a fox.

 The believe not looking to catch this killer now is a grave mistake, and not just for animals.

 Because there is one main worry that still persists amongst people who worked on or who have looked into this case.

 That this man, whomever he is, will one day turn his attentions to people.

 Animal killing and mutilation are a precursor to killers after all, most notably serial killers.

 But here’s hoping it’s a fox, I hate to think what would happen otherwise.

 And please, have a lovely night.

[queenofthyme]

Seamus and Harry are a couple. Draco really doesn't like that. (fanon) Pansy is just the person he needs

“Quick, Pansy, kiss me.”

Pansy stares at Draco, her face screwed up at the absurd suggestion. There are so many things wrong with that statement. First, ew, she is not nearly drunk enough. Second, she doesn’t like to be rushed. And third, most importantly, nobody tells Pansy what to do.

“I will do no such thing. Why would you– “ her eyes scan the Gryffindor common room, following Draco’s gaze, and fall on Harry Potter sitting on Seamus Finnigan’s lap. “Oh, I see now.” She sighs loudly, accepting her duty as best friend, but also making sure Draco knows just how unappealing she finds the idea. “Fine.”

The kiss is brief and methodical and, all in all, incredibly disagreeable. Pansy only hopes that Potter glances their way to see it so it isn’t all in vain. As soon as her mouth is her own again, Pansy downs the rest of her firewhisky.  “Never, ever, make me do that to your chapped lips again.”

“Sorry,” Draco says, looking past Pansy – she’ll forgive his inattentiveness this once – “It’s just–”

“You needed to make Potter jealous?”

“Yes and–“ Draco pauses, and his eyes finally land on Pansy. About time. “How did you know it was Potter?

Pansy snorts. Draco really is an idiot sometimes. “Well, you hardly have a crush on Finnigan, do you? And Blaise told me sometimes you say his name while– “

“I’ll have a word with Blaise later,” Draco says quickly, a small blush appearing on his face – that he would certainly deny if Pansy were to mention. “Now hold my hand, make it look like we’re an established couple. I don’t want Potter thinking I’m easy.  If you put your arm– “

Draco’s voice falters, his gaze back on Potter. Pansy turns to witness Potter and Finnigan locking lips in a rather exaggerated fashion. It’s not romantic or erotic. It’s just a kiss. The two must have zero chemistry, much like Pansy and Draco.

“Although, clearly, Potter is very easy.” Draco puts on his cold, taunting voice but his own jealously is obvious.

Pansy rolls her eyes. Sometimes dealing with Draco is like dealing with a small child. She moves beside him and wraps an arm around his waist so they can stare at Potter and his current boy toy together. The two have stopped kissing and are now drawing patterns on each other’s hands. Gryffindors, honestly. “Would you look at that, Draco dear? They’re holding hands. They must be an established couple as well.”

“Do you really think so? Finnigan doesn’t seem like Potter’s type at all. And I’ve never seen them alone together before. I would have noticed it if– “

“How about we go over and find out?” Pansy shoves Draco hard and is pleased when he stumbles forward. She enjoys catching him off guard.

“Wait– Pansy, no.” Draco tries to protest but it’s too late. Potter has spotted them. He extracts himself from Finnigan and stands up to greet them, a hand running through his hair. Pansy has to hold back a smirk – she knows Draco loves when Potter does that. Not that he’s ever said anything. He doesn’t have to.

“Malfoy. Parkinson,” Potter says without even glancing at Pansy. Typical. And predictable.

Finnigan stands up beside Potter. Draco – what a surprise! – ignores this. “Potter.”

“Finnigan,” Pansy adds, only to annoy Draco. He gives her a reproachful side eye before returning his gaze to Potter. She suspects it’s the last time he’ll glance her way tonight.

They all stand there in silence. Potter staring intently at Draco. Draco staring intently at Potter. And Finnigan sharing a knowing look with Pansy. At least he’s not as stupid as he looks then.

Finally, Potter speaks up. “I didn’t know if you’d come tonight.”

“I never miss a party…even if it is hosted by Gryffindors.”

It’s not true. Draco has missed several parties over the years. But at this stage, Pansy doesn’t think Potter or Draco would even notice if she spoke so she keeps her mouth shut.

“Might be time for a Slytherin party next,” Potter says.

Draco is clearly holding back a smile. Pansy bets he is creaming his bloody pants at getting to have an actual conversation with Potter. “We get a little wild in the dungeons.” They don’t. “Are you sure you could handle it, Potter?

“I think I could rise to the challenge.”

“Subtle,” Pansy whispers to Finnigan. Honestly, Potter’s clearly got it as bad as Draco. It’s embarrassing to watch this train wreck unfold.

“So, Finnigan, that’s new.” Draco doesn’t even acknowledge that the person in question is still by Potter’s side. Finnigan shoots Pansy an amused look at being blatantly ignored. Things are clearly not serious with Potter.

“Very. And Parkinson?”

“I’m right here you know?” Pansy interjects, unable to hold back. But it makes no difference anyway. Only Finnigan hears her.

“It’s been a while,” Draco lies. Pansy wants to smack him around the head. Sure, she is happy to help make Potter jealous but there’s no need to exaggerate.

“Really? I always thought you were just friends?”

“Yes, well, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.”’

“Like how he calls out your name every night in bed,” Pansy mutters underneath her breath. Finnigan, at least, catches and appreciates the jab if no one else does.

“Of course. Sorry Malfoy, I didn’t mean to question you. I’m just having a hard time grasping you and Parkinson together. I thought you were…you know.” Potter trails off, a hand rubbing the back of his neck.

Pansy holds back a groan. It’s like listening to children with these two.

“Gay? Like you?”

“Actually, I’m bisexual,” Potter corrects. “But yeah.”

“Finnigan doesn’t seem like your type.”

Finnigan flips a half-hearted bird at Draco. Not that he notices.

“And Parkinson doesn’t seem like yours.”

“Because I’m out of his league,” Pansy points out, flipping her own violent bird at Potter. She doesn’t know why she’s even bothering standing here anymore.

Draco takes a step forward. “So, what’s my type then, Potter?”

Potter mimics Draco’s action so that they’re almost chest to chest – Really? “What’s mine?”

“You need someone who doesn’t hero worship you, someone who will hold you accountable for all your actions, someone who isn’t afraid of your temper. You need someone who challenges you.”

Pansy shares a confused look with Finnigan – did they rehearse this or something? Draco’s not usually this smooth with his words, especially with Potter in such close proximity.

“And you need someone who understands your vulnerability but doesn’t use it against you, someone who treats you gently, someone whose affection is unwavering. You need someone who forgives you.”

They must have rehearsed this. Pansy has never heard Potter say anything remotely intelligent before. And she hasn’t known him to be particularly observant either.

“And I suppose you could never forgive me after all that I’ve done?” Draco hits back, still just as smooth. This is getting ridiculous.

“I already have,” Potter responds immediately as if reading a line from a script. From a terrible cheesy muggle romance movie that Pansy would never be caught dead watching. Yet here she is witnessing this sappy display.

“What about Finnigan?”

“I was using him to make you jealous,” Potter admits. Pansy looks to Finnigan for confirmation – he winks. “Did it work?”

Despite using the exact same trick himself, Pansy can see Draco is outraged at being manipulated. “Fuck you, Potter.”

“You wish.”

And then they’re kissing. Enthusiastically. Way too close to Pansy’s face. She can see every stray strand of saliva, hear every lubricated slide of their mouths. It’s revolting. And worse still, they’ve become the centre of attention at the party, eyes drawn to Draco and Potter’s embrace with Pansy and Finnigan standing by awkwardly, looking like dejected fools.

Pansy could spoil it by pinching the hairs on the back of Draco’s neck in vengeance for being ignored. Luckily, she’s feeling particularly generous tonight, and she’d never admit it, but seeing Draco with Potter is sweet. In a disgusting, horrible, sappy way of course. But still, sweet. Now she just has to focus on her own happy ending. She spies Hermione Granger’s amongst the watchful eyes around them and takes her moment:

“Quick, Finnigan, kiss me.”

[plusorminuscongress]

New story in Politics from Time: Why 2020 Democrats Aren’t Highlighting the Rape Allegation Against Trump

It’s been three days days since the writer E. Jean Carroll accused President Donald Trump of rape, but the allegation has caused barely a ripple in the 2020 campaign.

The nearly two dozen Democrats vying to unseat Trump have issued statements expressing the usual sentiments: shock, disgust, calls for investigations. Senator Elizabeth Warren may have captured the reaction best: “We know Donald Trump’s character. And it’s revealed every single day,” she told reporters last week. “There aren’t any real surprises. Just the details.”

In a cover story in New York Magazine, the longtime advice columnist wrote that she remembered Trump “forcing his fingers around my private area,” and recalled that he thrust “his penis halfway — or completely, I’m not certain — inside me.” She told two friends about the incident immediately afterwards, and both confirmed the incident to New York, although TIME could not independently confirm the allegations.

Trump has repeatedly denied the charges. He said in a statement that he “never met” Carroll, even though the author published a picture of them together at a party. On Monday, Trump again denied the allegation in an interview with The Hill. “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type,” he said. “Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?”

It was the most serious allegation to date against a President who has been taped bragging about grabbing women “by the pussy” and accused of sexually assaulting or harassing at least 21 other women. (Trump denies them all.) Carroll is the first woman to publicly accuse Trump of rape. (His ex-wife Ivana Trump once privately accused him of raping her, but later walked back her claims, saying she didn’t mean it “in a literal or criminal sense.”)

Yet the allegation against the President of the United States has not shifted the dynamics of the 2020 race, and most of the Democratic candidates responded with the bare minimum of condemnation.

Former Vice President Joe Biden called it a “serious allegation.” Senator Kamala Harris said through a spokeswoman that she would “support any investigations—law enforcement or otherwise.” Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke called for “accountability and justice.” Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, whose campaign has emphasized her record of supporting sexual assault victims, never tweeted about the story.

The muted response sent a loud message: even in a post-Me Too era, Democratic candidates don’t believe condemning the President’s alleged sexual crimes is a winning political issue. TIME reached out to four prominent presidential campaigns for further insight into internal deliberations, and none wanted to comment on the record. Staffers for three of them described a calculus that was at once practical and defeatist: at this point in the race, they’re running against each other, not Trump. Days before the first primary debates, the candidates are busy prepping their talking points about their vision for the future, and don’t want to get sucked into the President’s vortex of accusations and denials.

Those staffers noted that in a week dominated by tensions with Iran and new details about “appalling” conditions for migrant children at the border, a rape allegation against the President barely made front-page news.

“The media has a responsibility to elevate this stuff, and folks are already noting how it’s absurd that the media is treating a rape accusation against the President of the United States as, at best, C-block news,” said one staffer to a top-tier Democratic presidential candidate. “Candidates jump in once it is elevated.” Of course, the allegation came to light on the cover of a major magazine, was covered by every major news outlet, and Carroll appeared on major cable news shows.

Instead, the campaigns’ decision not to take up the issue more aggressively reflects a political calculation. Multiple allegations of sexual assault didn’t stop Trump in 2016, the staffers pointed out. And it’s not clear they’ll do much to hurt him now. Roughly 50% of registered voters believe the allegations against Trump are credible, according to a 2017 Politico/Morning Consult poll, including 39% of Trump voters. That means there’s a significant number of voters who believe Trump probably sexually assaulted women—and voted for him anyway.

It’s too early to know how the latest allegations will play out in the 2020 campaign. But what seems clear is the Democratic candidates have all reached the same private conclusion: if Trump loses, it won’t be because of this.

By Charlotte Alter on June 24, 2019 at 08:38PM

[harryimaginedstories]

Unwanted Attention

Hi guys! This has been in my drafts for ages and I completely forgot about it until yesterday! Hope you enjoy. :) Plot: Harry has this one friend who loves hitting on Y/N.

Warnings: Curse words and handsy moments while dancing. Nothing smutty and nothing violent though. 

There was something off about Jordan. His icy blue eyes followed my movements like a hawk observing his prey and when he noticed me staring back at him he flashed me one of his sleazy grins. He was a handsome guy, there was no denying that, but from the moment he'd been introduced to me I could sense that he simply wasn't one to take a hint. It wasn't even about me being too pretty and him just finding me irresistible, not by any means. It was that Jordan couldn't bear a girl not wanting him. His brain simply couldn't comprehend how I hadn't fallen to his feet yet. I shuddered under his sharp eyes and shrunk further into the warmth of Harry's side. Harry didn't look at me but responded by resting his arm around my shoulders and leaning his head against mine momentarily while chuckling along to one of Nick's jokes, giving me comfort without having even noticed that I needed it. My eyes found Jordan's once more and my heart dropped when he was still grinning, wider this time and with his brows raised. Almost as if he was trying to say that he accepted the challenge. 

Harry laughed loudly, squeezing me to him and I straightened my posture staring back at Jordan confidently. My hand rested on Harry's chest, the other arm wrapped around his back and my temple leaned against his arm. I was saying something back clearly. The only reason I was here was Harry and Jordan could fuck off.

....

It was a friday night what naturally meant that Harry wanted to go out. From the moment I opened the door for him to enter my apartment he'd been talking about nothing else other than this bar which had only just opened in East London. Thanks to his ever charming soul he'd become friends with the owner and owned one of the few invitations to the opening party tonight.

"You've got to come with me," Harry insisted, "Nick and Jordan are coming, too."

"Sounds like a guy's night out then," I murmured, trying to decline his proposal as nicely as I could, "I don't think I should intervene, Harry."

"As if you'd intervene," Harry said quickly, rolling his eyes as if I was being completely absurd, "You couldn't possibly. C'mon, love, you've got to!"

Honestly, a night out with Harry sounded perfect. I loved seeing him dance, hearing him sing and laughing along to all of the silly puns tipsy Harry could come up with. We had spent many fun nights out together, starting with him helping me choose a dress and me painting his nails and ending with the both of us dropping on either his or my bed, too drunk to care about sleeping in our cloths and in each other's arms. Harry was the best company and every moment I got to spend with him was one I treasured. I didn't like having to avoid Harry in order to avoid Jordan, but he'd already invited him and no matter my feelings for Harry, his friend truly was the last person I wanted to spend my night with. But at the same time... ugh. I groaned and let my head fall back onto the couch, turning to look at Harry who was sprawled out next to me. He wore a hopeful look, his sparkling eyes wide and his lips set in a pout.

"Please," he whined, "Nick's been bugging me by calling you 'Harry's best friend who never turns up' and he's kinda right with it."

"Oh shut up," I laughed.

He rolled onto his side and began pulling at my arm, making me lay down as well so we were both facing each other. I hummed when his hand found mine so he could move his thumb over my palm in a soothing motion and I smiled at him lovingly, enjoying to just be able to appreciate him without him noticing, his gaze set on my fingers. His forehead was furrowed and his lips still in a pout, his expression resembling the one of a little boy who failed to understand something.

"We don't even have to stay long," Harry mumbled, focus still on my hand, "let's just go, please."

"Ugh," I groaned and let my head drop against his shoulder in defeat, "fine."

"Yehi!" Harry cheered, surprising me by jumping up with a sudden energy bolt and he threw himself onto my body, not caring one bit that his weight was crushing me.

His lips met the skin of my cheek in a loud kiss and I grimaced, batting his face away while laughing.

"It's going to be great, you'll see," Harry promised, his cheeks stretched in a wide and confident grin. I smiled and chuckled at how happy and cheery Harry was all of a sudden, but at the same time I couldn't help a tiny pang of guilt in my tummy. He was thrilled to be going out and looked forward to spending the night with his friends and all I could think about was how this meant I would practically be exposed for Jordan to ogle me all night, silently undressing me with his eyes. I watched Harry laugh as he went on with a story Jeff had told him and I wrapped my arms around his chest, cuddling into his side and I made a point of humming whenever it fit, letting him know that I was listening. Maybe tonight wouldn't be all bad, I thought as I noticed the crinkles around his eyes and breathed in his familiar smell. After all, I wouldn't be alone.

....

The alcoholic liquid left a heavy taste on my tongue and wrapped my head in a cloudy daze making me dizzy momentarily. My throat burned and I mentally cursed Harry for making me engage in his stupid drinking games. Still, I set the empty glass down only seconds after Harry smashed his own onto the countertop, scoring in second. Harry cheered and let his dimples show when he grinned widely and he held out his hand to high five me just when Jordan and Nick finished their shots too.

"I'd say we all know who's the winner," Harry announced proudly with a drop of tequila running down his chin and Nick rolled his eyes.

The bar was as crowded as I had expected it to be on a friday night, causing people to stumble into me whenever someone tried to reach the bar. The music was loud and everyone around us was dancing and laughing, enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of the building. So far Harry had been right, at least up until a few minutes ago. We'd been drinking good drinks and my tummy ached from laughing so hard at his stupid jokes, so it was hard to deny I was having fun. The best thing was that Jordan hung out with a group of girls for most of the night so far, only joining us minutes ago when he was done bathing in the girl's attention. I'd lowered my gaze under Jordan's watchful eyes and had hoped he'd just leave again. Harry had stayed oblivious to me scooting a little closer to him and so had Nick. Only Jordan had noticed and his eyes had narrowed, never letting me out of sight.

"Such a show off, Styles," Nick laughed and playfully pushed Harry by his shoulder, "Your victory was a close call between you and your bestie over there so don't get too cocky."

"I'm aware," Harry laughed and send me a proud smile. I giggled and shrugged, fist-pumping Harry. He looked incredibly handsome, especially with the newly gained growth of his hair, the stubborn curls already fighting their way back. I knew he missed the length of his hair, but I secretly loved the short strands crowning his head. They were less likely to shield his pretty face from my view. Though I admired him for his effortless attractiveness, it bugged me how he could pull off anything and looked good even with his typical jeans and dad-shirt look. Everything suited him, which was surely caused by his confidence.

"But that's on me, too," Harry continued proudly, pushing our used shot glasses together so he could pick them all up in both of his massively big hands, "Who do you think taught her?"

Nick raised both arms with a laugh and looked at me for confirmation. A giggle fell from my mouth at the memory of Harry spending the night at my place many months ago, the counter of my kitchen littered with shot glasses and different spirit bottles as he lectured me on how it was my tongue's fault that I couldn't do it right. He'd even argued that the muscle in my mouth must have been to big and that I'd need to move it to the side more. The result of me trying had been a stained shirt and wet chest and of course a laughing Harry, but at least I was good at it now.

"S'true," I agreed, "You won't admit it but your instructions only worked 'cause I'm a talented student."

Harry laughed. "Oh, so my teaching skills are shit, then? S'that what you're trying to tell me?"

I was about to reply when Jordan's rough voice interrupted us in a snarl, "Jesus Christ we get it. You guys are fucking each other just stop bullshitting us."

He rolled his eyes, no humor in his expression and he seemed as if he was completely done with Harry and me. I shook my head and wanted to bite something back, but reconsidered and stayed silent. Harry had been so excited to spend time with his friends, I didn't want to ruin it by starting a fight.

"Oh, piss off, Jordan," Harry scoffed with a laugh.

"Oi," Nick called, raising his brows at me with a teasing grin on his face, "What did I miss?"

He looked at me expectantly as if I was about to tell him the greatest story he'd ever heard. I gave him a playful push back.

"You guys," I began, "are assholes."

Harry chuckled, shaking his head, "I'll get us another round."

He nodded to the other end of the bar where all of the bartenders were gathered and turned to walk towards it, taking the glasses with him. How the hell could he fit them all in both of his hands? Thinking the same, Nick was quick to offer help and so he was gone and after Harry before I could beg him to stay. Well... fuck. I was left in the exact situation I'd hoped I wouldn't be in, one I'd dreaded so much it had made me want to avoid coming here in the first place. Already I could feel Jordan's creepy vibe on me almost like a haze covering my body and my skin prickled. Silently I climbed to sit on Harry's barstool, hoping to get away with distracting myself by my phone and to avoid any conversation with the unpleasant guy until my friends returned.

Jordan seemed to have other plans.

"You're ignoring me now?" Jordan laughed mockingly, "Really? That's ridiculous of you, doll."

I tensed at the nickname and bit the inside of my cheek, then I turned off my phone and met Jordan's eyes. You're a prick, my head screamed at him and my hands clenched in need to smack his stupid grin off his face.

"How about we just wait in silent for Nick and Harry to come back?" I asked, my voice surprising me with a lot more confidence than I'd anticipated.

Jordan laughed once more, throwing his head back. "Well, I'm a rather vocal guy. You'd know if you'd quit playing hard to get and just give in to me."

I visibly cringed and jerked back from the guy when he scooted closer, leaning into me so there were only few centimeters separating us. He picked up the abandoned beer bottle he'd been sipping on throughout the night and took two more gulps, allowing his eyes to stay fixated on me. Again he resembled so much a hawk who had found his prey of choice and was not going to stop before he got it.

"So," He began, voice now sweet like honey, "You're hooking up with him now, huh?"

I but my lip at the mention of Harry and shrugged his words off with a muttered "no", raising my head to search for Nick and Harry in the crowd, hoping to see them on their way back. Unfortunately they hadn't even reached the bartenders yet and when I looked back at Jordan, I could tell we were thinking the same thing. I'd be alone for a while with no one coming to save me.

"Looks like they're going to be gone for quite a bit," Jordan commented and he grinned at me, exposing his perfectly white teeth, "would be a shame if we just sat here moping, wouldn't it?"

"I'm good," I replied calmly, hoping he would let it go which of course he didn't.

Jordan stepped closer, titled his head to the side and looked at me closely, similar to how a costumer checks the meat at the butcher's when selecting what to have. My breath hitched when his fingers rested on my knee and he chuckled, moving them in a scratching motion and squeezing every now and again, making sure he prevented me from moving away. His tongue slipped out, wetting his lips and I pushed his hand away forcefully, only for him to grasp my wrist.

"C'mon," he announced, pulling me from the stool and to my feet in a swift yank, "If Harry can teach you how to drink with a man, I'll show you how to dance with one."

Waiting for an answer or my consent seemed to be a waste of time to him and before I could react he'd pulled me off my stool and away from the bar. Soon we were surrounded by sweating and moving bodies, the music over here so loud I could feel the beat drum through my body. Jordan pulled me further and deeper into the crowd of humping people until he seemed satisfied with our location, far away from the counter to which Harry would return to soon. Jordan came to a swift halt and turned around to face me, releasing my wrist but encircling my waist so quickly I couldn't move away. His arms tightened and he hummed, pulling me into his body so my chest was pressed against his. My hands settled onto his waist and I tried to push him off with as much strength as I could muster, yet I failed. His skin was hot and sweaty beneath my fingertips and I shuddered upon feeling his breath at my throat when he leaned in. His head pressed against mine and his fingers squeezed my hips.

"Jordan," I urged into his ear, "let me go."

Panic started to crawl through every vein of my body until I went rigid and my skin was littered with goosebumps. My throat was dry and all my brain screamed at me to do was to get out of the situation, to run away and hide from this gross man. Only how? His hold on me was too forceful and tight I had no chance of fighting him off. The only people who could help me were Harry and Nick and they had no idea where I was and would surely not be able to spot me in the sea of people either. Ignoring my request, Jordan grabbed my hips tighter, his hold almost bruising and I gasped in shock when he began to move his own hips forward in a rough thrust, allowing our crotches to meet. I squealed and flinched back immediately, only to be pulled forward and held against Jordan's body.

"C'mon, babe," he laughed and repeated the movement of his hips, "Bet you'd let Harry have a go, huh? Why not me? S'it 'cause I'm not as rich as him? Or famous? Trust me babe, I can show you a better time, you'll see."

My stomach sunk and I shook my head. Unwanted tears shot to my eyes and spilled over when he moved both arms so he could rest his hands on my back, pushing me against his own body and moving me so I was forced to dance with him. He treated me like I was a doll and that sickened me more than anything.

"Let go," I demanded, my voice now nothing more than a weak whimper, "You're hurting me."

To my great luck one of the girls dancing around us slipped in that moment and tumbled into Jordan, catching him off guard and knocking him right off of me. His arms loosened and I took my chance to push them away before fighting my way through the mass of people and away from him as fast as I my feet could carry me. I didn't care how ridiculous I must have looked and didn't stop until my eyes landed on the familiar and comforting sight of Harry and Nick standing at the bar where they'd expected me to wait for them. Neither of them saw me coming and when Harry looked up I had already thrown myself at him, embracing his shoulders tightly. "Wow," Harry laughed and Nick chuckled, but I didn't react and only pushed my face closer into Harry's warm neck in an attempt at shutting everything around me out.  

My body was still trembling and I swallowed repeatedly to keep stop crying. Only now did it truly sink in how forceful Jordan's hands had been as I felt his hold on my skin as if it was still there. The skin tingled and burned. Surprised by my sudden neediness Harry wrapped his arms around me loosely and leaned his head against mine, allowing his nose to run along my cheek. With him it didn't feel threatening or harsh, quite the opposite. With simple touches and without intending it, Harry calmed my distraught emotions.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked with a gentle hum, amusement clear in his tone. I just shook my head and loosened my hold on him reluctantly, only enough to not be strangling him. Harry pulled me into his side and held me there, smiling down at me with warmth in his green orbs.

"Where were you anyway?" Nick chuckled in, "We go get drinks for you guys and you reward us by disappearing."

"There she is!" Jordan's voice roared from my right and I whimpered quietly, scooting further into Harry's arms and away from Jordan. My head turned into his direction and I caught him staring at me with piercing eyes.

"Back with your lover," he spoke in a chuckle, shaking his head, "fucking perfect."

My face burned and I clenched my hands into fists. "Go fuck yourself, Jordan."

Nick's eyes widened at my sudden outburst and raised voice and he stepped closer. I could feel Harry's fingers curl against my bare back, yet he didn't loosen his hold. Instead he turned his body so he was facing Jordan as well and when I looked up his jaw was set and his eyes narrow, yet not at me but at Jordan.

"You guys what is going on?" Nick demanded to know.

Jordan faced Harry's hard stare. "Have fun with her, I'm done."

"Excuse me?" Harry demanded perplexed, though I could hear a hint of anger and his body froze.

I let my hand drop and rest against Harry's chest, earning his attention and shaking my head at him. "Leave it."

Jordan sighed exasperatedly and rolled his eyes once more. "I need a drink. Let me know when you're done gawking at each other."

He stormed off before either of us had a chance to reply. Nick turned to me and Harry let go of his hold so he could look at me as well. Their expression said the same. What on earth had just happened?

"Bloody hell," Nick blurted, "What was that all about?"

My cheeks still burned and I closed my eyes, brushing against the heated skin of my face as I tried to collect my thoughts and form a proper sentence, one that wouldn't send Harry off and after Jordan.

"We danced," I began timidly.

"Yeah, we figured that much," Nick nodded, "And? What set him off? Your lack of sense for rhythm?"

"Nick," Harry barked and the smile faded on Nick's face, slowly realizing the seriousness of the situation.

"Well," I cleared my throat, "I didn't exactly want to dance. He sort of made me and I got really uncomfortable after he wouldn't let go and once he did I came back here. That must have pissed him off."

"He made you dance?" Harry inquired, his eyes hardened and he held his breath, "How?"

I looked at him hesitantly and bit my lip. There was no easy or harmless way of saying this so I stayed silent all together. Honestly, I felt bad. Though Jordan hadn't been part of Harry's friendship group for long, I knew he liked him and me having a problem with Jordan would complicate things. Harry's tongue slipped out, wetting his lips. Suddenly his attention fell down to where his hand had subconsciously taken ahold of my wrist. Something in his expression changed and my chest felt tight. Harry's worried gaze met mine momentarily, then he raised my arm up so he could get a closer look of my skin. One glance sufficed.

Harry's fingers interlocked with mine and he gave them a gentle squeeze, his eyes full of sudden sadness and set on my face, silently communicating that he was sorry. My eyes watered and I bit the inside of my cheek, my own fingers squeezing his hand reassuringly. It wasn't Harry's fault.

"I'm going to kill him," Harry promised me, voice stern and his eyes wide, "I promise."

"Wha-" Nick began but Harry interrupted him.

"Her wrist is red, Nick! That'll bruise for sure! Where else did he touch you, Y/N? Does it hurt?"

"Maybe my hip," I replied hesitantly, tightening my grip on his hand.

A small noise left Harry's mouth and he responded by wrapping me into a hug.

"I'm so sorry," he repeated quietly into my ear, his breath tickling my neck.

"And that was Jordan?" Nick asked form behind me, "I never knew he was such a prick." "I did," I muttered into Harry's chest, my words quiet but he heard.

Harry's hands set on my ribs and he slowly pushed me off, careful to be tender. When my eyes met his I shuddered. He looked incredibly angry.

"Are you saying he's done that before?" Harry growled.

"No," I replied quickly, "But... he'd stare. Longer than he needed to and especially when I'm with you he wouldn't stop. And whenever you guys would leave he'd make stupid innuendos."

Harry shook his head, sighing and closing his eyes momentarily. "I should have noticed."

A frown took over his face and he pouted, adapting his child-like look and I couldn't fight the smile from crawling onto my face. I reached out one hand and squeezed his arm.

"Don't be silly, Harry."

Nick watched us observantly and nodded. "He's right though. We should have payed more attention. And I was the one who brought him around for the first time, too. I'm sorry."

"Wait 'till I get my fingers on him," Harry promised, his eyes fierce as they locked with mine, "He has no right to so much as think of you in that way, let alone touch you. I won't have it."

His head shot up and his eyes searched for Jordan's face. I shook my head and stepped closer to him, raising both hands to his cheeks so I could guide his head and force him to look at me.

"Harry, leave it, okay?" I spoke sternly, "Please. I'm fine, I swear."

"Fine?" Harry barked, "Your skin is red! Because of him! Y/N if you think I will just stand by while some dick mistreats you then you're wrong. I will-"

"No, you won't," I interrupted, "It doesn't matter anymore. He's gone. And in the future you'll know not to leave me alone with him."

"As if I'd let him near you again." Harry rolled his eyes and shot Nick a warning look when he began to quietly laugh behind us.

"Jesus, Harry. Don't go all caveman on us."

I turned to look back at Nick and smiled at his big grinned expression. My hands moved down Harry's arms and I let one of them linger and grasp Harry's fingers. Nick noticed my action and his face lighted up.

"Let me deal with Jordan," he proposed, looking at Harry, "And you take your girl home, yeah?"

Harry shifted his weight from foot to foot and raised a brow at his friend, then he sighed and let this thumb caress my wrist.

"You tell him to never come around us again," Harry commanded sternly, but something in his tone had changed and I could sense that he was calmer now, "Or else I'll fucking ruin him."

"Want me to quote you on that?" Nick laughed but nodded, then he leaned in to kiss my cheek softly before making his way into the direction Jordan had taken earlier.

Harry looked after him with almost an envious expression and I clenched my fingers around him, trying to get his attention back.

"Please," I quietly begged, "Just take me home."

My eyes pleaded with his and Harry bit harshly into his pink bottom lip. He sighed and frowned at me, saying: "Are you sure that you don't want me to go after him?"

"Yes," I answered without a pause for a thought, "Please."

"Alright."

....

Harry's hand felt good in my own, this I had to admit. He was warm, soft and knew without me having to say when I needed him to hold on tighter. We'd slipped out of the club without saying goodbye to any of the people who'd recognized Harry and had hurried to catch a cab on the busy Londoner street, which lucky for us wasn't difficult. On the backseat was where I'd allowed myself to drop any of the boundaries I normally lived by when I was in public with Harry and instead had crawled into him without hesitating first. And he'd welcomed it. Harry's hands had settled onto my hips and he'd leaned in to cuddle his head into my neck while I'd led my face bury itself in his chest to breathe him in. "I'm sorry," Harry had whispered, "You're the most important person to me. I should have sensed that something was wrong."

I'd shaken my head against him. "I should have said something."

Shortly after our messy car ride we were stood in front of my home, still holding on to each other's fingers and without any sign of letting the other go. Harry's head was held low and I noticed how he turned my hand around so he could look at it closely. A huff fell from his lips and I shook my head.

"Don't freak out again, please?" I asked quietly, "It'll be okay."

I wasn't as shaken up about the incident anymore, Harry's comforting nature having its usual calming effect on me. There was no denying that I had been in danger tonight with Jordan's endless game having reached its peak but it was over now and given Harry's reaction to his friend's lack of manners I was sure Jordan wouldn't be a problem any longer. Maybe I should have gone to find the girl who'd saved me by stumbling just in time. The feeling of Harry's mouth meeting my cheek in a tender kiss brought me back to the present and I smiled widely, humming when he let his cheek rest against my own. His eyes were squeezed shut and his hands found my waist, pulling me into his body. I breathed in his familiar scent and relaxed against him, loving to finally have him to myself. "We should tell them," Harry began quietly.

"Do you really think that would have stopped Jordan?" I asked with raised brows, moving back so I could look at him properly, "He's been suspecting that there was something going on between us for ages now anyway."

My hands took hold of his shirt's collar and I allowed my fingers to scratch his neck.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Fucking hell. The way he kept running his mouth tonight I already thought Nick was actually going to believe him. Wanted to punch him even before you told me about what he did."

"Don't you think he'd rub it into our faces even more if he knew he was right all along?"

"Hm," Harry shrugged, leaning his body into mine, making me giggle, "So you think we should just continue to hide our relationship?"

His palm cradled my face and he leaned in to connect our lips in a quick and tender kiss catching me off guard in the best way possible. He didn't allow his mouth to linger but pulled back and looked at me with pleading eyes.

"I want them to know, Y/N," Harry begged quietly, "Hate worrying 'bout some bloke trying something the moment I turn around 'cause he thinks you're still single."

I shrugged in his hold and gently scratched his chin, "I'm all for telling our friends, my love."

My lips met the corner of his lips and I smiled softly. "But don't feel like you have to. It's really only been Jordan who'd behaved like a dick to me. All your other friends are fine."

"Well, good to know," Harry chuckled, pressing a kiss to my jaw, "Seriously though I want people to be aware of you and me dating. Maybe not the media, but at least our friends.

"They'll never shut their mouths about it," I predicted, wrapping both arms around Harry's neck.

He shook his head and let his arms sneak around me and I laughed softly when he began to sway us slowly. He was so beautiful, I thought. How could Jordan ever think he'd stand a chance compared to the amazing and wonderful man in my arms? Harry kissed my shoulder, chuckling when I squealed under the tickling feeling of his hair against my skin.

"We're just two friends," he began quietly, "who fell in love with each other."

I nodded and sighed. "They'll understand."

Hope you enjoyed it!  Rest of my writings are here:

 http://harryimaginedstories.tumblr.com/post/156817411518/all-my-writing

[thisdaynews]

Trump couldn’t stick to a policy position this week

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/trump-couldnt-stick-to-a-policy-position-this-week/

Trump couldn’t stick to a policy position this week

From taxes to Greenland to gun control, President Donald Trump has flipflopped on several positions this week. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

white house

The president offered whiplash-inducing shifts on guns, taxes and Greenland.

President Donald Trump offered a head-spinning range of policy positions this week, contradicting aides and even himself multiple times on gun control, tax cuts and his interest in buying Greenland.

Trump is no stranger to whiplash-inducing policy shifts that leave his aides and congressional allies flat-footed. And it’s well-known that he often parrots the talking points of the last person he talked to on any hot-button issue.

Story Continued Below

But Trump’s recent reversals were notable for their breakneck pace and their far-reaching impact, as they left lawmakers, foreign leaders and voters scratching their heads.

Below are the most notable comments from Trump and his aides on the evolving views from the White House:

TAX CUTS

Aug. 18:National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow, pressed on Trump’s left-field promise during the midterms to enact another round of tax cuts for the middle class, says on “Fox News Sunday,” they’re on the table: “We are looking at it. Tax cuts 2.0. We are looking at all that.”

Aug. 19:The Washington Post reports that there is chatter among some in the White House about pursuing a temporary payroll tax cut as a means of juicing the economy. Officially, the White House rejects that suggestion in a statement: “As [National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow] said yesterday, more tax cuts for the American people are certainly on the table, but cutting payroll taxes is not something under consideration at this time.”

Aug. 20:Trump contradicts his aides, confirming to reporters in the Oval Office that he is considering a payroll tax cut, among other things.

“We’ve been talking about indexing for a long time. And many people like indexing, and it can be done very simply, it can be done directly by me. We’ve been looking at that,” he says. “So we’re talking about indexing, and we’re always looking at the capital gains tax, payroll tax. We’re looking at — I would love to do something on capital gains, we’re talking about that, that’s a big deal, goes through Congress. Payroll tax is something we think about, and a lot of people would like to see that.”

Aug. 21:Trump reverses himself, telling reporters outside the White House, “I’m not looking at a tax cut now. We don’t need it, we have a strong economy. Certainly a payroll tax cut. President Obama did that in order to artificially jack up the economy.”

GUNS

Aug. 5:A day after back-to-back massacres in Texas and Ohio killed 31 and wounded dozens others, Trump expresses support for “strong background checks,” writing on Twitter that “we cannot let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain.”

Aug. 7:Trump reiterates his support for advancing some kind of background check legislation.

“I’m looking to do background checks. I think background checks are important,” he tells reporters, stopping short of calling on Congress to return from its August recess. “I don’t want to put guns into the hands of mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate, sick people. I don’t want to — I’m all in favor of it.”

Aug. 9:The president predicts the NRA will fall in line with his call for background checks, telling reporters, “We have tremendous support for really commonsense, sensible, important background checks.”

Aug. 13:Despite his resistance to taking up House-passed background check bills, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell supports strengthening them, Trump claims.

“I believe that Mitch — and I can tell you, from my standpoint, I would like to see meaningful background checks. And I think something will happen.”

Aug. 15:The president begins to retreat from the issue of background checks, pivoting to mental health when asked for a progress update.

“I’ve been speaking to everybody about it. And we don’t want to see crazy people owning guns,” he tells reporters ahead of a campaign rally. “But I also want to remember that mental illness is something nobody wants to talk about. These people are mentally ill and we have to study that also.”

Still, in response to a question about whether he supports universal background checks, Trump says he backs “strong, meaningful background checks.”

Aug. 18:Trump backpedals even more when speaking with reporters on his way back to Washington after an extended stay at his club in Bedminster, N.J.

“Congress is looking at it very strongly. Bipartisan,” he says. However, he adds, “I’m also very, very concerned with the Second Amendment, more so than most presidents would be. People don’t realize we have very strong background checks right now.”

Aug. 20:Trump suggests he would support a more incremental background check bill, stepping back from the sweeping language he’d used even a week earlier and beginning to caution against going down a “slippery slope” of gun control.

“We have very strong background checks now, but we have sort of missing areas, areas that don’t complete the whole circle,” he tells reporters. “And we’re looking at different things. I have to tell you that it is a mental problem — and I’ve said it a hundred times, it is not the gun that pulls the trigger, it is the person that pulls the trigger.”

At some point in the afternoon, according to The Atlantic, Trump calls NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre to inform him that universal background checks are off the table.

Aug. 21:Trump again moderates his background check rhetoric, insisting he still has “an appetite for background checks” and pledging that “we’ll be doing background checks. We’re working with Democrats. We’re working with Republicans. And we already have very strong background checks. But we’re going to be filling in some of the loopholes.”

The president denies telling LaPierre that he no longer plans to pursue the issue, and pushes back against reporters pointing out that his “slippery slope” language echoes the gun lobby’s talking points.

“We have background checks, but there are loopholes in the background checks. That’s what I spoke to the NRA about yesterday,” he argued. “They want to get rid of the loopholes as well as I do. At the same time, I don’t want to take away people’s Second Amendment rights.”

GREENLAND

Aug. 15:The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump has repeatedly broached the idea of purchasing Greenland, the semi-autonomous Arctic island that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. According to the Journal, it’s unclear how serious Trump is about such an acquisition.

Aug. 16:Greenland responds bluntly to Trump, with the territory’s foreign ministry tweeting: “We are open for business, but we’re not for sale.”

Aug. 18:Trump confirms that he’s mulled the idea of purchasing Greenland, explaining to reporters that “the concept came up, and I said, ‘Certainly, I‘d be. Strategically, it‘s interesting, and we‘d be interested.’” He adds: “It’s not No. 1 on the burner, I can tell you that.”

He notes that he may have a trip to Denmark on the calendar, and claims that Denmark is losing hundreds of millions of dollars carrying Greenland.

Aug. 19:Trump tweets out a photoshopped picture of a Greenland village with Trump Tower superimposed on it. “I promise not to do this to Greenland!” he writes.

Aug. 20:Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen calls Trump’s eyeing of Greenland “absurd.”

“Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously,” she told newspaper Sermitsiaq. “It’s an absurd discussion, and [Greenland Premier] Kim Kielsen has of course made it clear that Greenland is not for sale. That’s where the conversation ends.”

In response, Trump abruptly cancels his upcoming trip to Copenhagen.

“Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time,” he said in a tweet, thanking Frederiksen for saving “a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct.”

Aug. 21:Trump escalates his spat with Frederiksen, dismissing her comments as “nasty.”

“Greenland was just an idea, just a thought,” he tells reporters. “I thought that the prime minister’s statement that it was ‘absurd,’ that it was an ‘absurd’ idea, was nasty. I thought it was an inappropriate statement. All she had to do is say, ‘No, we wouldn’t be interested.’”

Trump laments that he had been looking forward to visiting Denmark and points out that he’s not the first U.S. president to consider buying Greenland.

“This has been discussed for many years. Harry Truman had the idea of Greenland. I had the idea, other people have had the idea. It goes back into the early 1900s. But Harry Truman very strongly thought it was a good idea, I think it’s a good idea, because Denmark is losing $700 million a year with it. It doesn’t do them any good,” he argues.

Read More

[marymosley]

The Trolling Of Bill Barr: How Politics Has Outstripped Meaning

Below is my column in the Hill newspaper on the rising attacks against Attorney General Bill Barr even before the redacted report has been released. Many in the media has notably omitted critical facts like Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein helped write the summary and also concluded that there was not case for criminal obstruction to be made against President Trump. There may be grounds to criticize Barr for his redactions, but critics omit the fact that Robert Mueller’s office is assisting in those redactions. I have a long relationship with Barr and testified in favor of his confirmation. However, I will not hesitate to criticize his actions when it is warranted. For example, I do not approve of the Justice Department refusing to defend the Affordable Care Act — disregarding the function of the Department to defend duly passed laws. Yet, Barr’s conduct with regard to the report and thus far been open and consistent with what he said in this confirmation hearing.

Here is the column:

In the novel “1984,” author George Orwell wrote that “if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.” Democrats appear to be taking that idea to heart this week with their bizarre outcry over Attorney General William Barr referring to the government “spying” that targeted Trump presidential campaign figures. Suddenly, the term “spying” was declared as categorically exclusive of any intelligence surveillance.

As someone who has done classified national security work since the Reagan administration, I was surprised by the new Democratic dialectic, but it is not the first time that I missed the memo on the updated meaning of common terms, from “wiretapping” to “collusion.” The problem for Barr is that contemporary politics has outstripped common meaning. That was evident in his two hearings in Congress this week. His answers appeared immaterial to the discussion, and lawmakers raised the objection that Barr could not possibly have read the special counsel’s report and conclusions in the 48 hours that it had taken to issue his summary of the findings.

Of course, after the report was submitted, many pundits suggested that Barr might just “sit” on it or give no information at all while refusing to release any part of it. Instead, he took only 48 hours and the narrative changed. At the House hearing, Representative Nita Lowey sarcastically called it all “quite extraordinary” that he “received a very serious detailed report, hundreds of pages of high-level information, weighed the factors and conclusions at length, outlined, prepared, edited, and released” the memo in less than 48 hours. “To me, to do this, it seems your mind must have been already made up. How did you do it?” Lowey asked him.

The response from Barr was as clear as it was crushing. He explained that he did not just get the conclusions of Robert Mueller but that the basic findings had been disclosed weeks earlier. He said that his conclusion on the lack of criminal obstruction by President Trump was reached together with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who Democrats have maintained for almost two years is essential and unassailable in reaching such findings. Finally, Barr disclosed that the special counsel staff is assisting in making redactions, the report came with summaries and Mueller had been consulted on his prior letters.

None of that mattered. It did not matter that Rosenstein described the questioning of the intentions of Barr or the necessity for redactions as “completely bizarre” and that, in his view, Barr has been “as forthcoming as he can.” The narrative has continued unabated, and billionaire Tom Steyer has even funded a national commercial repeating how ridiculous it is that Barr could have determined the conclusions of the special counsel report in just two days. His words simply did not matter until they did.

Senator Jeanne Shaheen asked why the attorney general was evidently looking into the basis for the secret investigation into the 2016 campaign. Barr explained that he was concerned about any kind of spying, foreign or domestic, on our political process. Shaheen was shocked and said, “You are not suggesting, though, that spying occurred.” Barr was again very direct and measured when he answered, “I think spying did occur. But the question is whether it was predicated, adequately predicated.” He then continued, “I am not suggesting it was not adequately predicated, but I need to explore that. I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred. I am saying that I am concerned about it and looking into it. That is all.”

Washington went into its now signature feigned vapors. Speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced the use of “spying” and said, “I do not trust Barr.” Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer called it “peddling conspiracy theories,” while House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said the word meant that Barr was “spewing partisan talking points” and striking yet “another destructive blow to our democratic institutions.”

The most mortified observer was fired FBI Director James Comey, who took a moment on his book tour and declared, “When I hear that kind of language used, it is concerning because the FBI and the Department of Justice conduct court-ordered electronic surveillance. If the attorney general has come to the belief that that should be called spying, wow.”

That was also my reaction. Just wow. For years, “spying” and “surveillance” have been synonymous. Indeed, Democrats and the media have used the terms interchangeably, until another language change was spontaneously declared this week. It was all too familiar. Early during his administration, Trump accused the government of “wiretapping” campaign officials. The media went into a frenzy, calling that a “fake scandal” and a “diversion.”

It was later shown that campaign figures were targeted by the FBI and that secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act orders were based on an application that relied on the Steele dossier funded by the Clinton campaign. Obama national security adviser Susan Rice categorically denied that she ordered the “unmasking” of the names of Trump associates under surveillance but later admitted that was a lie. None of that mattered again. Instead, the media chose to focus on the use of “wiretapping” to insist that no literal wiretapping occurred.

From the outset, it was an absurd point. “Wiretapping” was previously often used as a generality for surveillance. “Surveillance” was a term that came into vogue later. Indeed, the Supreme Court has commonly used “wiretapping” or “eavesdropping” for “surveillance” in its opinions. There is no physical splicing of wires needed in modern surveillance. However, the entire point was that the discussion was focused on the lexicon.

The same thing occurred at the start of the special counsel investigation. Some of us supported the appointment of Mueller but warned that there was no crime of “collusion” and that related crimes such as conspiracy were highly unlikely to be established. The media discussed whether Trump was guilty of collusion, despite there being no such crime in the federal code. It did not matter until an actual alleged crime of obstruction became available, and then suddenly collusion was the context for any possible crime.

Trump is equally untethered by language. He calls his critics “traitors” and nimbly changes the meaning of even the clearest statements such as “Mexico will pay for the wall.” Neither language nor facts prove a burden for the president. If all of this is confusing, it is because you have not spent any time recently on college campuses. Speech codes are now common, and the meaning of terms is based on how language is received rather than intended. Language is now indeterminate and can easily be declared “microaggressive” solely on how it is received rather than intended.

In the same way, it does not matter that what Barr meant was reasonable or that he immediately clarified “wiretapping” as “improper surveillance.” It was important to portray as an absurdity any suggestion of the Obama administration spying on a Republican campaign, even though two key officials were targeted during the campaign. So language now reflects our politics as unhinged and undefined. We have been reduced to a language of trolls. As explained in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” it is not hard. “Anyone can speak troll. All you have to do is point and grunt.”

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

The Trolling Of Bill Barr: How Politics Has Outstripped Meaning published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[maxwellyjordan]

Judge Kavanaugh on the Fourth Amendment

Orin S. Kerr is the Frances R. and John J. Duggan Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s views of the Fourth Amendment have drawn significant interest following his recent nomination to the Supreme Court. This post takes a close look at Kavanaugh’s key Fourth Amendment opinions. It does so with an eye to guessing how he might rule in search and seizure cases if he is confirmed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has a large Fourth Amendment docket. How might a Justice Kavanaugh approach those cases?

My analysis is tentative for two reasons. The first is probably obvious. Circuit judges are supposed to follow Supreme Court and circuit precedent, while Supreme Court justices have much more room to roam. Given that, translation is hard. You never know how much of a circuit judge’s rulings simply reflect a lower court judge’s commitment to stare decisis.

A second reason for caution is that Kavanaugh’s Fourth Amendment record is modest. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit doesn’t get many search and seizure cases. A Westlaw search revealed around 35 cases in the subject area in which Kavanaugh sat on the panel or considered a rehearing petition en banc. Most of those were unanimous and pretty easy. I found only five Fourth Amendment decisions, and one recent speech, that I think might reveal something significant about his approach.

With those two important caveats, here’s my overall sense of things. In tough Fourth Amendment cases that divide the Supreme Court, a Justice Kavanaugh would likely be on the government’s side. He is wary of novel theories that would expand Fourth Amendment protection. And he often sees the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of reasonableness as giving the government significant latitude. If we had to associate Kavanaugh with a familiar justice, the limited evidence suggests that his approach in Fourth Amendment cases is probably somewhere in the ballpark of Justice Anthony Kennedy or Chief Justice William Rehnquist. I’ll now run through the five key cases, and Kavanaugh’s recent speech, to explain why I think that’s the case.

1. The balancing cases: Askew and Vilsack

The first two cases to consider involve balancing of government and privacy interests. In both cases, the majority held that the government practice violated the Fourth Amendment. Kavanaugh dissented, largely on the ground that he would have balanced the interests differently and therefore would have ruled for the government. In a close case that requires balancing of interests, the cases suggest, Kavanaugh is more likely to approach the case from the government’s perspective than from the individual’s perspective.

The first case is United States v. Askew, a stop-and-frisk case. The police stopped the suspect based on suspicion that he had just committed an armed robbery. After an initial frisk for weapons came up empty, an officer unzipped the suspect’s outer jacket to see if his clothing matched eyewitness descriptions of what the robber was wearing. It turned out the initial frisk had been poorly done: Unzipping the jacket revealed a gun in Askew’s waist pouch. Remarkably, the D.C. Circuit went en banc and divided sharply over whether the outer-jacket unzipping was allowed. As I joked at the time, the D.C. Circuit’s 85 pages of serious constitutional analysis, spread over three opinions, was “the latest in zipper jurisprudence.”

Askew is factually messy and a bit hard to summarize, but the most significant legal issue was whether the Fourth Amendment permits the police to move a suspect’s clothing to facilitate an eyewitness identification during a stop that is otherwise valid under the Supreme Court’s 1968 decision in Terry v.  . There was no obvious answer from Supreme Court caselaw. The en banc D.C. Circuit did not reach a majority view on the issue, although five of its 11 judges, Judges Harry Edwards, Judith Rogers, David Tatel, Janice Brown and Thomas Griffith, argued that identification searches were not permitted. Kavanaugh wrote a 32-page dissent, joined by then-Chief Judge David Sentelle and Judges Karen Henderson and Raymond Randolph, that argued that the unzipping to help identification should be allowed. In his view, the reasonableness framework that applies to Terry stops generally also permits reasonable identification procedures.

The most interesting passage in the dissent is probably Kavanaugh’s policy argument. “Prohibiting the police during Terry stops from conducting identification procedures that constitute searches,” he argued, “would lead to absurd and dangerous results.” For example, imagine that the police detained a suspect in a rape case and the victim claimed that the suspect had a distinctive tattoo on his forearm. If the police detained the suspect on reasonable suspicion of having committed the crime, Kavanaugh argued, the police should be allowed to pull up the suspect’s sleeve to see if he has the tattoo the victim claims. Not allowing limited moving of clothing to identify suspects would “hamstring the police and prevent them from performing reasonable identification procedures that could solve serious crimes and protect the community from violent criminals at large.”

You can see a similar focus on public safety in National Federation of Federal Employees v. Vilsack, a case about whether the Fourth Amendment permitted random drug testing for Forest Service Job Corps Center employees. The employees ran a residential job corps program at public schools for at-risk students aged 16 to 24. Under the Supreme Court’s caselaw, resolving the constitutionality of the program required weighing the non-law-enforcement public-safety interest advanced by the drug testing against the degree of privacy invasion it caused. Rogers, joined by Judge Douglas Ginsburg, held that the program violated the Fourth Amendment under this test because it was “a solution in search of a problem.” There was insufficient evidence that a drug problem existed among the staff to justify testing, they reasoned. In addition, testing every employee was too broad because different employees served in different capacities.

Kavanaugh dissented. In his view, the drug-testing program was clearly reasonable. “Indeed,” he wrote, “it would seem negligent not to test” the employees for drugs. Many of the at-risk students had a history of drug problems. “To maintain discipline,” Kavanaugh argued, it was important that employees who ran the program were drug-free themselves and were not potential sources of illegal drugs for the students. As a result, the government had “a strong and indeed compelling interest in maintaining a drug-free workforce at these specialized residential schools for at-risk youth.” On the flip side, the privacy invasion was modest. The testing only required providing a urine sample, and it only revealed the presence of certain illegal drugs.

2.  The flagging-for-SCOTUS cases: Wesby and Maynard

The next two cases show Kavanaugh writing on the Fourth Amendment in dissents from denial of rehearing en banc. In both cases, the original panel reached a surprising holding that the government had violated the Fourth Amendment. In both cases, Kavanaugh dissented from the full circuit’s refusal to review the outlier panel opinion. And in both cases, the Supreme Court subsequently granted certiorari and handed down a majority opinion that largely echoed Kavanaugh’s reasoning. I think of these cases as the “flagging for SCOTUS” cases because it’s possible that Kavanaugh’s dissents were written to flag the cases for the justices. And whether or not Kavanaugh intended it, his dissents appear to have done just that.

The first case is along these lines is Wesby v. District of Columbia, which involved trespass arrests at a loud party held in a vacant house. When the police arrived, and the people in the house had trouble identifying whose house it was, the police arrested everyone for trespass. The group sued the officers under the Fourth Amendment. In an opinion by Judge Cornelia Pillard, the D.C. Circuit somewhat remarkably held that the arrests violated the Fourth Amendment and that qualified immunity did not apply. Kavanaugh penned a dissent from denial of rehearing en banc that was joined by Henderson, Brown and Griffith.

Although Kavanaugh’s dissent mentioned the Fourth Amendment merits in passing, it focused primarily on qualified immunity. In Kavanaugh’s view, qualified immunity plainly barred the suit. Both the facts and the law created lots of room for a reasonable officer to believe the arrests were based on probable cause. “To be sure,” he added, “I do not dismiss the irritation and anguish, as well as the reputational and economic harm, that can come from being arrested. Police officers should never lightly take that step, and the courts should not hesitate to impose liability when officers act unreasonably in light of clearly established law. But that is not what happened here, not by a long shot.” The Supreme Court granted cert and reversed unanimously, ruling that probable cause existed (a view held by seven justices) and holding that in any event qualified immunity applied much as Kavanaugh had argued (a position taken by all nine justices).

A roughly similar dynamic occurred with Kavanaugh’s dissent from denial of rehearing in United States v. Maynard, later reviewed by the Supreme Court under the name United States v. Jones. Investigators placed a GPS device on the suspect’s car and tracked its location for 28 days. In an astonishing opinion for the D.C. Circuit, Ginsburg created the “mosaic theory” by which the monitoring was not a search at first but over time became a search because the government collected a search-like amount of information. The en banc D.C. Circuit denied the petition for rehearing 5-4. Kavanaugh joined Sentelle’s dissent from denial of rehearing, which argued that the panel opinion was inconsistent with Supreme Court and other circuits’ precedents and deserved en banc review.

The most interesting part of Kavanaugh’s approach to Maynard is that he wrote a brief separate dissent that flagged an alternative ground for ruling that a search occurred. Maybe it was the installation of the GPS that was a search, Kavanaugh suggested, rather than its use. Fourth Amendment caselaw before Katz v. United States had held that physical intrusion onto property was a search. If that caselaw was still valid – “and I see no indication that it is not,” Kavanaugh added – then installing the GPS device could be a search because it was an unauthorized physical encroachment on to the property of the suspect’s car. “I do not yet know whether I agree with that conclusion,” Kavanaugh wrote, “but it is an important and close question” deserving en banc review. When the government petitioned for certiorari, the lawyers for the defense added Kavanaugh’s theory as a second question presented in their brief in opposition.

The Supreme Court took up Kavanaugh’s suggestion. The justices granted certiorari under the name United States v. Jones on the Fourth Amendment implications of both installing the GPS device and its use. The majority opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia essentially adopted Kavanaugh’s approach. Installing a GPS was deemed a search because the installation trespassed on to the car. Jones sharply changed Fourth Amendment blackletter law by recognizing two different ways of establishing a search: the Katz test and the pre-Katz trespass test that Kavanaugh had proposed. To be sure, Kavanaugh’s view didn’t come from nowhere. There had been something of a split on the question, and I agreed at the time that this should be the big question. But Kavanaugh was the one who best articulated the theory and teed it up for the justices.

3. The Section 215 opinion in Klayman

The last Kavanaugh opinion to consider is the one that has drawn the most attention. In Klayman v. Obama, Judge Richard Leon had ruled for the district court that the National Security Agency’s Section 215 call-records program violated the Fourth Amendment. Under the program, the NSA was getting the numbers dialed (but not the contents) for millions of Americans’ phone calls. Leon ruled that the program was unconstitutional but then stayed any remedy while the appeal was pending. The D.C. Circuit sent the case back to the district court on procedural grounds. With the Section 215 program about to expire, Leon quickly handed down a new decision that the program was unlawful and refused to grant a stay. The next day, the D.C. Circuit issued an administrative stay; plaintiff Larry Klayman then sought an emergency petition for rehearing en banc, which the full court denied.

Kavanaugh filed a two-page solo concurrence in the denial of rehearing. In his view, the Section 215 program was “entirely consistent with the Fourth Amendment.” That was true for two reasons. First, the Supreme Court had held that collecting telephony metadata was not a search in Smith v. Maryland. Smith settled the Section 215 question, in Kavanaugh’s view: “That precedent remains binding on lower courts in our hierarchical system of absolute vertical stare decisis.” Second, even if a future court adopted a different a view of what is a search, the Section 215 program was still reasonable under the balancing of interests of the “special needs” exception (see the discussion of Vilsack above). “[T]elephony metadata serves a critically important special need – preventing terrorist attacks on the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote, citing the 2004 9/11 Commission Report. “[T]hat critical national security need outweighs the impact on privacy occasioned by this program.”

What to make of Kavanaugh’s Klayman concurrence? On one hand, his view that the program satisfied the Fourth Amendment under Smith was doctrinally correct, in my view, at least before Carpenter v. United States last month. It’s surprising that Kavanaugh didn’t develop the Smith argument more. He gave the whole point only two sentences. But the argument was sound, and it matched what several district courts had said at that point (one example being the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in 2013 in United States v. Moalin).

On the other hand, I’m less persuaded by Kavanaugh’s argument that Section 215 would fit the special-needs exception if call-records collection is a search. I would think the question is how much the program actually advances the interest in preventing terrorist attacks, not just the importance of its goal in the abstract. But note the echo of Kavanaugh’s Vilsack dissent. In both cases, Kavanaugh applied the special-needs exception in ways that construed the government interests as very weighty and the privacy interests as comparatively light.

4.  Like Rehnquist, or perhaps like Kennedy?

A final data point for Kavanaugh’s Fourth Amendment views is his recent speech on Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Kavanaugh celebrates Rehnquist as Kavanaugh’s “first judicial hero.” As a law student, “[i]n class after class,” Kavanaugh found that he “stood with Rehnquist.” Kavanaugh is quick to say that he doesn’t agree with every Rehnquist opinion. But in the course of a rather glowing overview of Rehnquist’s impact as a justice – one that Kavanaugh describes as a “labor of love” to deliver — Kavanaugh describes how Rehnquist “led the charge in rebalancing Fourth Amendment law” after the Warren Court’s criminal-procedure revolution had expanded the rights of criminal defendants.

Kavanaugh mentions three areas in particular. First, Rehnquist wrote opinions making the probable cause standard “more flexible and commonsensical.” Second, Rehnquist wrote decisions “expanding the category of special needs searches,” which is a particularly interesting reference in light of Kavanaugh’s separate opinions in Vilsack and Klayman. Finally, Rehnquist opposed the exclusionary rule as a “judge-created rule” that “was beyond the four corners of the Fourth Amendment’s text and imposed tremendous costs on society.” Although Rehnquist did not succeed in having the exclusionary rule overturned, he “dramatically changed the law of the exclusionary rule” over time through the good-faith exception and other doctrines.

One takeaway from Kavanaugh’s speech is that his Fourth Amendment views probably aren’t too far from Rehnquist’s. Rehnquist was a pretty reliable voice for law enforcement interests in Fourth Amendment cases. The affinity may be revealing.

With that said, it’s also worth noting that Rehnquist’s views in Fourth Amendment cases also weren’t too far from that of Kennedy, the justice for whom Kavanaugh clerked and whose place Kavanaugh has been nominated to fill. Like Rehnquist, Kennedy tended to take a law-enforcement-oriented view in Fourth Amendment cases. You might say that Kennedy’s views of the Fourth Amendment were Rehnquist-like but without the broader agenda of “rebalancing” the rules after the Warren court.

If so, perhaps Kavanaugh’s views are better described as Kennedy-esque than Rehnquist-like. Like Kennedy, Kavanaugh seems to take government interests very seriously. At the same time, Kavanaugh’s opinions don’t seem to reflect a broader agenda. Recall Kavanaugh’s Maynard concurrence in particular. Although Kavanaugh was unpersuaded by the panel opinion’s novel theory, he wrote separately to provide an alternative basis for concluding that the GPS installation was a search.

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