#and there are definitely more than three/four schools in Europe

[foldingdragonsathogwarts]

Durmstrang Headcanons: Rules of Admission and Muggleborns

(Those are not canon, but headcanons based on the idea/implication that Durmstrang is an exclusive private school, as well as the name being based on Sturm und Drang.)

Technically, the rules of admission for Durmstrang did not exclude muggleborns.

That is, there was no written down rule of "Student has to have one or two magical parents".

Instead, the rules simply worked in a way that made it almost impossible for anyone without existing connections in the magical world to comply.

Unlike Hogwarts and Beauxbatons, Durmstrang did not send out invitations. Instead, students had to apply many months in advance, which of course required knowing about Durmstrangs existence first.

With the deadline for applications at the end of January, many muggleborns wouldn't even find out they had magic before it had already passed.

Next, Durmstrang taught students from all across Europe, but most classes were held in German. So, the application also required proof that students could speak the language, easily justified as a means to make lessons go more smoothly.

Of course, if you were a witch or wizard with the means to send their child to Durmstrang, you would start those language lessons early and not run into any problems. And while that still left all the German, Austrian, etc muggleborns born between September and January in play, it still excluded most of the muggleborns outside of those countries.

Which is what the general education test was for. Again, officially it existed to make the selection fair and ensure a smooth integration into lessons. But as this test also included some hard questions about the magical world, it was often the excuse used to deny the few muggleborns that made it that far.

And then there was the price point. Durmstrang charged a pricey tuition for attendance, and didn't hand out scholarships. Again, it wouldn't keep out every muggleborn - but it would keep out "the poor", which was probably even more important for the rich elite that send their progeny here.

Lastly, Durmstrang restricted the number of students that could attend each year, which meant the school made a selection out of all applicants.

There was no official rule that excluded muggleborns. But as long as Karkaroff was headmaster, that selection simply never included them.

[girlactionfigure]

Nice try. 

But NOBODY was calling Yusif Pasha Al Khalidi a “#Palestinian” in 1877. 

Let me fill in some other blanks for you.

To be clear, the Ottoman Empire was #Turkish, not #Arab.

Also, while #Herzl built #Zionism into the political powerhouse it became and was a focused, determined, genius who cared about saving his people and doing the actual job of state-building and planning, he was most definitely not the first person to just come up with the idea of Zionism – not even close.

First, Zionism is baked into the #Jewish soul – there has been a yearning to return to #Zion since Emperor Hadrian brought 12 Roman army legions from #Egypt, #Britain, #Syria, and areas of #Judea to finally put down the three-year Bar Kokhba Revolt (the Third Jewish Revolt against the Romans) in 135 CE – after which Hadrian was so embarrassed by the early Jewish victories that he murdered more than 1 million Jews, he outlawed the practice of #Judaism on pain of death, and he renamed our homeland “Syria Palestina” after our ancient, long-extinct enemies – the Aegean “sea people” known as the Philistines.

The Jewish yearning to return is why, ever since then, #Jews have always faced #Jerusalem when we pray, Jews have always said “Next Year in Jerusalem” at the end of every Seder on Passover, Jewish grooms stepped on and broke a glass to signify the destruction of the Temple and to remind us, even in happy times, that we are a scattered people, and it is why we would recite the Psalm, “If I forget thee O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning.”

Also, waves of Jews from Europe frequently made Aliyah and moved back home to Eretz #Israel over the years. For example, in 1211, a group of 300 #French and #English rabbis made Aliyah back to Israel. And more Jews from both #England and #France followed them in 1260.

Nahmanides also made Aliyah in 1267, which then encouraged other Jews join him and together they built the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem.

More waves of Aliyah came from #Spain because of the Inquisition starting in 1492 – thousands settled largely in Tzfat (Safed), Tiberias, and Jerusalem.

The 1500s saw waves of additional Aliyah from France, #Germany, #Italy, and other European countries as well as North #Africa – these Jews mostly joined a flourishing Jewish community in Tzfat.

Then, on October 14, 1700, a group of 1,500 Jews from Europe, headed by Rabbi Judah Hasid, made Aliyah and settled in Jerusalem.

1764 saw another organized Aliyah, this time of Hassidic Jews who were led by disciples of Ba’al Shem Tov; and they were followed by more Hassidic Jews in the subsequent years and generations.

Then in 1808, the Perushim – Jewish disciples of Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna – organized an Aliyah and established a community in Jerusalem. Others followed them to Jerusalem, while still others moved to Tzfat, Tiberias, and Jaffa.

Then, in 1830, there was a significant wave of Aliyah of Jews from Germany as well as #Holland and #Hungary.

After the Ottomans retook Jerusalem from Muhammad Ali in 1840, Jewish Aliyah more than doubled in the next four decades since Jerusalem was seen as a safer place to live.

Finally, we get to the first writings of the early pioneers of modern political Zionism. Only neither of the two early Zionist pioneers were named “Theodor Herzl.” 

Modern political Zionism started with the writings of Sephardic Rabbi Judah ben Solomon Chai Alkalai  (LEFT) and Ashkenazic Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer (RIGHT) in 1843.

Then in 1852, Alkalai established the Society of the Settlement of Eretz Yisrael in #London, and in 1871 he established a branch of this Society in Jerusalem.

Kalischer’s influence, meanwhile, led Chayyim Lurie to form the Association for the Colonisation of Palestine in Frankfort in 1860, and Kalishcher helped found the Mikveh Israel agricultural school in Eretz Israel in 1870.

Then, still before Herzl, Leon Pinsker published Auto-Emancipation in Germany on January 1, 1882, in which he urged Jews to strive for independence in Eretz Israel.

Meanwhile, the “First Aliyah” of modern political Zionism began in 1882, at a time when fewer than 250,000 #Arabs were living in the Land. About 35,000 Jews moved to Eretz Israel between 1882 and 1903.

It was in 1890 (still pre-Herzl) that publicist Nathan Birnbaum coined the word “Zionism” to describe the Jewish return to Eretz Israel where they could become a “normal” people again and live in their own sovereign nation in the only place on Earth the Jews could call “home.”

Then, finally we get to Theodor Herzl and his famous book Der Judenstaat (“The Jewish State”) in 1896.

That should clear a few things up.

@CptAllenHistory

[insatiablegreed]

narcissa cromwell / greed is an omega-level mutant with the ability of gold manipulation. they’ve been in new york for three weeks where they spend most of their time as maxine’s personal assistant / a government agent. when i think of them, i think of gold dust fingerprints left on wine glasses, perfectly tailored designer suits, a tongue as sharp as a knife. they are affiliated with the seven deadly sins. (katie mcgrath, thirty-four, cis woman, she/her)

basics;

full name: narcissa ciarán cromwell nicknames: narcy, cissy, cece gender: female  birthdate: january 13th species: mutant  affiliation: the seven deadly sins

personality;

alignment: lawful evil zodiac: capricorn mbti: entj positive traits: motivated, disciplined, ambitious, responsible negative traits: stubborn, pessimistic, materialistic, critical

abilities;

title: gold manipulation  category: manipulation/physical power   definition: the ability to create and manipulate gold limitations: metal manipulation can override her control. the things she creates can melt under extreme heat and shatter under extreme cold. gold is a softer metal and can be easily bent and penetrated if she doesn’t make her constructs thick/solid.

backstory;

narcissa is the only child of the mrd scientist, linda mccall. she is also the seventh deadly sin.

she was born a human in new york city, and only a few months after her birth, her mother returned to her research and left narcissa with various nannies. 

throughout her childhood, she had to beg for even a minute of her mother’s time. even when linda was home, she wasn’t really there. she was always buried in paperwork or taking important calls.

her nannies encouraged her more than linda ever did. they praised her good grades, helped her with her homework, tucked her into bed at night. however, to give credit where it’s due, linda always helped with the science homework.

the first time she ever saw her mother express how proud she was, was when narcissa won a science competition at the age of 10. linda kept the volcano her daughter had made in her office. it’s still there now.

she was the perfect daughter, never once rebelling. everything she did was for linda’s approval (not that she got it very often). she passed every exam with flying colours, never turned in her homework late, focused on her studies rather than forming friendships. she’d completely shut herself away from her peers to focus on good grades and expanding her knowledge.

she was sent to a catholic, all girls boarding school in ireland from the ages of 13-16. her grandma lived there and had recommended it to linda. as strict as her teachers were, and as much as she hated some of the girls there, narcissa’s best memories are at that place.

away from her mother and nannies, she started to come out of her shell. she secretly drank and smoked with her new friends, experimented with girls and discovered her sexuality, relaxed and put her happiness before her grades.

at 16, she graduated and spent a year travelling with her friends around europe. linda had tried to call her back home during that year, but narcissa had ignored her in favour of some freedom.

landed back in new york a couple of days after her 17th birthday. linda gave her college brochures as a birthday present. narcissa went to nyu to study law that fall. after three years of blood, sweat, and a few tears, she graduated. linda looked on proudly.

for a couple of years, narcissa worked at a local law firm. it was hard work, but also extremely rewarding. during this time, she learned of her mother’s experiments. she’d even met a couple of the sins. 

growing jealous of linda spending so much time with kids that weren’t even her own, narcissa became resentful. her mother kept telling her how important the experiments were and how respected she was going to be once her project was completed. she called them her children.

every family dinner, every shopping trip, every phone call — every time they spoke or met up, conversation always circled back around to the sins. how strong they were, how talented they were, how goddamn fucking perfect her new children were.

eventually, narcissa asked to be the final mutant. after years of being thankful to be human, her mother had turned her so resentful, and desperate for her love, that she allowed her to manipulate her and wear her down to the point of asking to become one.

the dna being injected, the fear of dying, the experiments, the training, the figuring out who she was all over again. it’s all a painful blur to narcissa now.

eventually, the sins were released into the wild by linda. some of them left the city, some of them stayed. narcissa went back to ireland. she took care of her grandmother during her final years, working part time at a tourist bar. after her grandmother passed, she stayed in dublin and worked at a law firm.

skip to june of 1998 and narcissa gets a call from linda telling her it’s time. it’s finally time for the deadly sins to assemble and do what they were created to do. she drops her job and returns home post haste to a loving mother so excited to see her children.

narcissa is now working as maxine brandt’s assistant at brandt & goetsch. she’s ready to cause some trouble.

[giangrua]

Week 5. Digital Citizenship

The idea of citizenship has been extensively studied in education, communication, and political science. Within academia, there's a growing focus on digital citizenship, which has become an important part of many school systems' goals. Recent events like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the Covid-19 pandemic have underscored the significance of understanding digital citizenship, especially in how it impacts marginalized communities.

1. Definition: What is digital citizenship? (Council of Europe 2022)

Digital citizenship involves the skills needed to actively and responsibly engage online and offline, from local to global communities. It emphasizes the ability to adapt to changing digital technologies from childhood onward. Digital citizens participate in various online activities such as creating, sharing, learning, and working, while also respecting the rights and differences of others. These skills shape how individuals behave and interact in the online world, encompassing principles, attitudes, abilities, and knowledge necessary to navigate the digital landscape responsibly. They enable individuals to influence technology according to their needs rather than being solely influenced by it.

2. Approaches to Digital Citizenship (Choi & Cristol 2021)

There are three main approaches to digital citizenship.

(1) Unidimensional Approach: This approach focuses on specific aspects of digital citizenship within different disciplines such as education, communication, journalism, and political science.

(2) Multidimensional Approach: This approach emphasizes various dimensions of digital citizenship. 

It categorizes digital citizenship into four main areas: digital ethics, media and information literacy, participation/engagement, and critical resistance. 

Additionally, it proposes a digital citizenship scale model based on five levels of complexity: technical skills, local/global awareness, networking agency, critical perspective, and Internet political activism.

However, while the multidimensional approach is comprehensive, it lacks a focus on critical aspects of digital citizenship.

Therefore, there's a need for a more critical and radical approach to digital citizenship education. This approach should acknowledge and address unequal power dynamics and social injustices presented on the Internet as well as social media platforms.

A critical and radical approach to digital citizenship aims to make visible the social relations embedded in technology and advocates for emancipatory technological practices to promote social justice.

This sets the stage for introducing a framework in the next section.

3. Using An Intersectionality Framework for Digital Citizenship Education (Choi & Cristol 2021)

Intersectionality is a framework that recognizes how multiple aspects of identity intersect and interact across social determinants, contributing to complex inequalities.

This framework has been applied across various disciplines and topics to understand social and health inequities.

In the field of education, intersectionality has been used to analyze differences in educational experiences based on the intersection of gender and race within different age groups.

Intersectionality offers valuable insights for gaining a deeper understanding of digital citizenship and participatory democracy, particularly in relation to how social identities intersect with online activities and experiences.

4. Participatory Democracy and Digital Citizenship (Choi & Cristol 2021)

To begin with, the main aim of digital citizenship education is to promote participatory democracy, focusing on diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice. Achieving participatory democracy involves everyday actions like expressing opinions and engaging in personalized politics. This can include discussing politics with friends, talking to public officials, working on political campaigns, or persuading others to vote for or against a candidate. 

Nevertheless, participatory democracy extends beyond politics to include communication, engagement, and personal development in various aspects of life. Teaching digital citizenship should encompass different forms of participation, not just political involvement. By integrating digital citizenship education, participatory democracy can empower younger generations who are familiar with expressing themselves online across diverse areas. This can also amplify the voices of underprivileged students, making them more visible and heard.

5. Social Media, Hashtag Publics and Activism (Choi & Cristol 2021)

Social media is often used in schools to encourage civic engagement and political involvement among students. Teachers should understand the influence of social media in the public sphere and tailor it to meet students' individual needs. Social media allows marginalized groups to express their views publicly, as shown in Gleason and Von Gillern's study where participants supported Senator Wendy Davis in the #StandWithWendy movement to defend reproductive rights.

Teachers working with marginalized and/or under-represented students using technology or social media should recognize the biases present in current educational systems, which can perpetuate social inequalities. They should incorporate digital literacy into their teaching methods to accommodate diverse learners, thus enhancing learning outcomes and empowering students with various identities to express themselves.

In a study conducted at Thai Nguyen University in Vietnam, educators and students devised innovative strategies to enhance digital citizenship education. (Hoang et al. 2020)

While the teachers’ plans focused on improving students' digital etiquette in social media groups, students' action plans were more practical and specific, suitable for students' everyday life and academic study.

Teaching Action Plans

• Target disadvantaged students with limited digital access to online homework.

• Plans included:

(1) Assigning students in groups with device sharing 

(2) Proposing extended library and computer lab hours 

(3) Focusing on teaching teachers about important aspects of technology issues through workshops. (They understood how crucial this knowledge is for educators who regularly work with students online. This would help teachers better prepare students with the skills and knowledge for responsible technology use.)

Student Action Plans

• Plans included:

(1) Designing an application for time management and digital health

(2) Integrating digital citizenship into teaching internship programs

(3) Creating a YouTube-related video for parents to explain the dangers of letting children watch YouTube videos.

Overall, 70% of action plans received the highest score range for their good understanding of digital citizenship and applying the concept to real-life problems.

Last but not least, the article includes recommendations for institutions, such as creating open discussions, integrating digital citizenship content in syllabi, and providing accessible resources for students and parents.

In conclusion...

...understanding digital citizenship through an intersectional lens is crucial for fostering participatory democracy through digital citizenship education. Teachers should emphasize the intersectionality of race, gender, class, and language when addressing digital citizenship and related topics. This approach influences how educators, administrators, and policymakers perceive and support students' academic success and challenges in school.

Reference list

Choi, M & Cristol, D 2021, ‘Digital Citizenship with Intersectionality Lens: Towards Participatory Democracy Driven Digital Citizenship Education’, Theory Into Practice, vol. 60, no. 4.

Council of Europe 2022, 2022 Edition of the Digital Citizenship Education Handbook, Digital Citizenship Education (DCE).

Hoang, DTN, Tran, TTT, Nguyen, NTB & Nguyen, LT 2020, ‘Digital Citizenship Awareness in EFL Context in Vietnam : a Project Evaluation’, The Journal of AsiaTEFL, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 225–233, viewed 16 December 2020, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340331318_Digital_Citizenship_Awareness_in_EFL_Context_in_Vietnam_A_Project_Evaluation>.

[alsjeblieft-zeg]

294 of 2023

Created by brelee

What is something you're afraid of?

Failure and losing, and death.

Have you ever used the app Duolingo to learn a language?

No, we learn enough languages in school.

When did you last hear thunder?

Last year, I think.

What all have you put in the trash today?

Trash. What else?

Do you enjoy blueberry muffins?

It’s not popular here.

Do you prefer juice or lemonade?

Lemonade is not a thing here.

What did you last eat that was fried?

Deep-fried potato thingies.

What's something you will never forget?

That brain incident from 2021.

What's the most bitter pill you've ever taken?

Almost every pill is bitter XD I’d go with Keppra, they’re big and hard to swallow for me, and then they leave such awful aftertaste.

How many pillows are on your bed?

Four. Three for me and one for my husband.

What was the last text you sent?

One of the most boring questions ever.

How many boats have you been on in your lifetime?

At least three.

Do you ever go to a lake and feed ducks/geese?

We don’t have lakes in my area.

Did you know bread was bad for ducks?

Is there anyone who doesn’t? We learn things in schools in Europe.

Do you know anyone who is a real estate agent?

Not in person, I guess.

What was the last online review you left?

Five stars for the local bookstore, without saying anything.

How many photo albums do you have?

Three, but I keep postcards in them.

What is something you have recently forgot to do?

Going to CM (health insurance) and ask about payments. I’ll have to do it at Monday, because now I live off my little salaries and savings.

What's a memory you have that involves animals?

One of my cats having fun in the washing machine.

Would you rather plant a vegetable or flower garden?

When I was a kid, we had a garden with both and so I would choose both.

Is yellow one of your favorite colors?

No, it’s not.

When did you last exercise?

Thurdsay. Or today, if walking counts.

What color is most dominant in the room you're in?

Beige, I guess.

What is a popular TV show or movie that you do not like?

All movies.

How many beverages have you consumed today?

Two or something?

What was your favorite snack when you were a kid?

Cheese.

Is there anything currently bothering you?

I’ve bitten myself and it hurts.

What is something you love that is blue?

The sky and the sea.

What's a horror movie that has scared you?

Horror movies are stupid.

Do you think Bigfoot is real?

I don’t care.

What's your favorite flavor of candy?

I’m not a big fan of candy, but if I have to, I’ll definitely choose sour ones.

Do you think you could win a cooking competition? What would you cook if you were in one?

I wouldn’t. I like cooking, but I don’t thinkit’d be suitable for any cooking competition 😂

How many doctors appointments do you usually have within a year?

More than 10, with four different doctors. Neurologist, ophtalmologist, psychiatrist and the sports/rehabilitation doctor.

What last made you emotional?

Seeing my friend being overwhelmed with his troubles.

How is your day going?

It was pretty cool. I was at the sea.

[biggerbodybo]

Another horny morning

Michael lay naked in bed, with only his phone for company. His fat body hidden under the covers because it was cold and dark. He had already turned on the computer. Then he could immediately start gaming later. He had received a new game from a friend last week, which he had been playing with for quite a few hours. Gaming, a healthier way to escape reality than drugs or alcohol, he thought. School was stressful, as was contact with his family. Much had changed since the bankruptcy and the game had been a welcome gift. Too bad that friend lived in Europe, otherwise they could have played together more often.

Michael had woken up early again this Saturday morning. He had never been a late sleeper, but now it was also worries that made him sleep badly. His roommates were still asleep. Or they were still at a club. He didn't care much where they were. Michael did not have good contact with them. He was glad no one had seen him in the kitchen preparing a snack. Fortunately, the eight leftover pancakes from last night were still in the fridge. A few minutes in the microwave, sugar and jam on top and it was a delicious snack to wake up with. Last time he had a argument with one of the housemates. She thought he ate too many leftovers and left too little for the others. Life is already expensive enough for students, she thought. Michael thought otherwise. They always had money to go out, and besides, most of the leftovers came from the food he paid for himself. She shouldn't whine like that.

His name was Oliver, that tanned boy at school. Michael grabbed his cock tight and began to jerk on it, holding the blanket up with his other arm so it wouldn't keep rubbing against his big, pink head. He had seen him for the first time a few months ago. Definitely a freshman from the first year. He was popular with the lower class girls. Good at football and judging by the muscles he liked to show, he could also be found regularly in the gym. Oliver, with his beautiful eyes and bleached hair. Michael released his cock for a moment and reached for his phone. There were beautiful videos of Oliver on Tiktok. Especially the one where he smiles his white teeth. What a cutie.

Hastily, Michael jerked on. His cock wasn't very big or thick, but it was extremely hard and his circumcised head swollen. Michael sighed. Maybe he should do something about his fitness after all. Or eat a little less. The pancakes got in the way. Why did he have to eat all eight of them? Three or four would have been enough, wouldn't it? His stomach rumbled and Michael released his cock again for a breather. A soft burp left his mouth.

‘264 pounds, that's way too heavy!' His mother's voice suddenly echoed through his head.

He placed his phone next to his pillow again and the image of Oliver disappeared from his mind. Michael couldn't deny that he had put on a lot of weight in recent years. A well-stocked school canteen, the pressure to perform and a lack of sportsmanship had ensured that he blew up from 165 lbs to 275 lbs in two years. Michael knew he would only gain more weight if nothing changed. He took out his phone and watched videos of Oliver. New blood filled his now limp cock and within seconds he started jerking again.

He had never told Oliver about his feelings for him. Michael preferred not to think about his feelings for men in general. He had known for some time that he liked men, but only recently did he dare to give it a name. He was gay, he was sure of it, but he didn't tell anyone. Others didn't talk to him about it either. He wasn't gay by default, he was too manly and too fat for that. He didn't care much about his looks and he certainly didn't care about going out. At first he thought it was a phase that would pass, but that turned out not to be the case.

Michael pushed the blanket off him and panting, jerked harder on his cock. He was almost there. He put the phone down again. Oliver's videos played through his mind. His large, swollen head gleamed in the dim light of the computer monitor. His balls tingled. Oliver had such a nice, round ass. Would he have a big dick? Michael moaned loudly as thick jets of cum collected on his flabby belly. That was the only downside to cumming, it was so much. Lazy Michael left his bed to grab the towel hanging over his office chair. Oh, what a handsome boy that Oliver was. A month ago he thought he was dirty because he had so many feelings for a boy. Now he was used to it. Not a day went by without Michael thinking of him.

As he started up the game he remembered that later today he had a job interview at Pigsby's, the local fast food take away. Working at a take away was not what he aspired to, but Michael needed money. His parents could no longer pay the study costs since the bankruptcy of his father's company. Just one year, then he would be graduated and he could finally find a decent job, hopefully in the game industry. Pigby's was a nice interim solution. It made good money and there was free food. Michael's stomach rumbled. The thought of food at Pigby's made him hungry. Like everyone in the neighborhood, he regularly went there to get a snack. It was always busy. Another two hours, then it would open and he could go there for a snack, he had just decided. Let's play some games first. For a moment he gripped his flaccid cock tightly. A thin wisp of fluid hung from his head. Michael let it hang.

[iliveiloveiwrite]

Love Me Now, Love Me Always // F.W.

Summary: Five times Fred has been in love with you, and the one time he tells you.

A/N: This is my entry for @kalimagik‘s magical winter writing challenge. My prompts were friends to lovers and my other is in bold in the text. I hope you like!!

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Fem!Reader

Warnings: pining, light angst

Word count: 3k

One:

It was in the height of summer when Fred Weasley came to the realisation that he was in love with you.

It was the height of summer; temperatures teetering on the edge of the twenties – no mean feat for a British summer. It had been dreadfully humid; to the point where Fred was pulling his shirt away from his torso in a futile effort to keep the sweat from soaking through the thin material.

Cold drinks and ice creams were on the menu the day that Fred realised he was in love with you. From fairytales and stories, Fred wondered whether he would feel this grand moment in which he knew he had found the one he wanted to love for the rest of his life. His own mother had regaled him stories when he was a young boy about witches and wizards like themselves who had found their one true love; of brave princes who fought magical beasts to save the princess and ask for her hand. He had heard them all from being a youngster.

However, for Fred, it had been a smile and a laugh.

You had spent the majority of the summer with Fred at the Burrow. Your family travelling abroad to see distant relatives in Europe, and you had chosen not to go with them; instead, asking Molly Weasley whether she would mind you staying with the Weasley family until school started in September. Molly had accepted; she would never leave one of her children’s friend out in the cold.

It had been weeks of laughter and mischief filled smiles. Fred felt certain that he had not felt this happy in a long time; the attention he so happily soaked from you bringing colour to his cheeks.

A smile and a laugh; that was all it took for Fred’s heart to skip a beat and his mind to come to terms with the knowledge that over the weeks you had been staying with his family, Fred had been falling deeply and irrevocably in love with you.

The realisation knocked him breathless as he continued to listen to your laughter; your reaction from a story told by Ron. The words faded to white noise as he focused his entire attention on you; your smile, your laugh, the way your eyes lit up under the summer evening sun. His eyes poured over every inch of you and he simply couldn’t help but question whether he had always been in love with you or whether this was a new development in your long friendship.

Tossing your hair over your shoulder, flashing a warm smile in Fred’s direction before returning your attention to Ron, Fred thinks that no, he’s always been in love with you.

Then and there, he’s more than certain that he always will.

Two:

“Are you trying to get yourself killed or expelled, is that it?” You demand, hands firmly on your hips as you glare at the redhead.

Fred has the decency to look somewhat ashamed of himself as he avoids your gaze, looking absolutely anywhere else in the room than at you and the disappointed look on your face.

“The prize money…” He trails off, making a dismissive gesture with his hand; wanting to explain it further but not able to find the right words.

Your eyes soften at his explanation, understanding dawning across your face. “Fred,” You whisper, “This isn’t the way to go about it.”

“Then what would you suggest?” He snaps, instantly hating the acid behind his words as he watches the hurt bloom in your eyes.

You throw out your hands in exasperation, “I don’t know! A bank loan or something. We can figure it out but entering into a competition that risks your life is not the way to go about it.”

Fred remains silent; feeling thoroughly put in his place. You cross your arms; trying not to let the hurt you feel so deep inside show across your face as you ask, “Why didn’t you tell me you were doing such a thing?”

He opens his mouth to reply, but quickly shuts it. He doesn’t know what to say; he doesn’t know how to tell you about his plans for the future, about how he sees you by his side through it all. He hasn’t the foggiest on how to explain his deepest desires, so he settles for silence for now.

You hold a hand to your stomach as your other reaches up to only juts contain the sob that bursts free. “I was so worried. If your name was pulled out of that cup, Fred Weasley, I don’t know what I would do.”

Something in Fred softens; his heart yearns to take you into his arms, to kiss you senseless as he reassures you he would never do something so utterly reckless again. But he doesn’t do that. Instead, he reaches out for you, a hand beckoning for you to join him on the hospital bed.

You scramble to him, settling next to him on the bed, automatically resting your head on his shoulder and grabbing his hand. He squeezes your hand; silently comforting you as he dares to press a kiss to the top of your head.

A friendship this old, there were very few boundaries. A friendship this old, he was bound to have feelings for you. The realisation from the past summer becoming all too clear as he takes in the tension coiling your body tightly, as the kiss he presses to the top of your head does very little to relax to the tightly bound muscles.

Truthfully, he adores you. He would never utter the words to anyone else but you for the fear of having the mick taken out of him, but he does. He adores you entirely, and to see you almost broken at the idea of him possibly entering such a competition – it stirred something in him. A desire to never put you through something like this again.

He presses two more kisses to the top of your head, still worried about the tension tightening your body. “Love,” Fred starts; voice low so other students can’t listen in, “I need you to know, I have absolutely no plans on leaving you without telling you.”

You sniffle, nuzzling your face into his shoulder. “Good,” You whisper, “Because you definitely do not have my permission to go anywhere, Weasley.”

Fred chuckles, tugging you closer, ignoring the rapid beating of his heart as you cuddle closer to him. He drops one more kiss to your head before murmuring, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Three:

Eyes wide, you glance around the brightly coloured shop. For anyone else, the orange and purple design would be classed as gaudy, but for the Weasley twins, this was nothing short of an explosion of their personalities.

Fred follows you like a lost puppy; hands fidgeting at his sides as he clenches them into fists and then relaxes them once more. A nervous habit, you realise. He waits patiently for your thoughts as your eyes continue to dance around the shop. Repressing a grin, you turn your attention to Fred. His eyes are bright with questions already waiting, poised on his lips as he tries his best not to bombard you and beg for your opinion.

Spinning in your spot, you release a happy laugh, all the while exclaiming, “Fred, this is wonderful.”

“You think?” He asks, a note on insecurity in his tone.

You grin, nodding your head, “All of this, Fred, is wonderful. It’s going to be a hit, so many are going to love it.”

It almost overwhelms him then. His feelings for you. They rise from his gut; almost cutting off his air as the words he has wanted to say since that fateful summer threaten to choke him. He gathers you in his arms, spinning you in a circle, “Thank you, love.”

For Fred, opening the shop was his dream. However, watching you stand in the middle of the shop, a wide smile on your face as you take everything in, Fred is almost overcome with the intensity of his desire to take your friendship to the next level. Not yet, he tells himself, everything was still so new with the shop and something dark was brewing. Whatever it was, he didn’t want to put you in harm’s way.

Not yet, he tells himself, but soon.

Four:

Endless screaming; endless shouting; endless fighting. That was all it had been. For hours, the castle once thought of as a second home for many students had been the battleground for the opposing sides of war. Those siding with the Dark Lord making it their aim to destroy such a symbol of power and innate goodness; those against him doing their best to keep the castle standing whether it meant laying down their life in the process.

Fred’s mind had been one thing through the whole battle: you.

Even as the wall next to him began to crack; even as it shattered into a million pieces and he was blown out of the way by a spell from Percy, his only thought on his mind had been about you.

Desperately, Fred stalks the lines of injured and dead in the Great Hall. Frantically searching for a glimpse of your hair or a flash of your clothes; anything that would answer the one question circling his mind.

It’s the sound of your cry that has him whirling towards you; relief already being written across his handsome features as he spies you sprinting towards him. He spies blood on your face and on your clothes, but he doesn’t dare ask where it stems from, he doesn’t dare ruin the sweetness of this moment.

You come to a stop in front of him. No words dared uttered as eyes scan the other, worriedly checking for any sign of injury. “I can’t lose you,” You cry, “You have to promise me you won’t leave me.”

Fred hauls you into a hug; crushing your face to his chest as his arms wrap around you so tightly that it almost crushes the breath from your lungs. His hand runs down the length of your body, starting at your hair and ending at the small of your back, “Never. I never plan on leaving you.”

Both of you stand there; clinging onto each other for dear life, inhaling each other’s scent. He smells like brick dust, but underneath all the dirt and blood, you can still smell the citrus and cedarwood that you have come to associate with him.

Gently, Fred rocks you from side to side. To so many, Fred is known to have rough edges. To be loud and spontaneous, and to act before thinking. However, for you, he would be soft. He would be the comforting presence in your life; to be the one to whisper reassuring words and sweet nothings whenever you needed.

He wanted to be the one to love you for however long humanly possible. He just needed to work up the courage to confess.

Five:

The nightmares are the worst part of it all. The constant nightmares that make him question whether he’s awake or asleep.

You’ve taken to sleeping on the couch. It started a month after the end of the war; your flat too small for you to feel comfortable enough on a night. Fred would never tell you this, but he’s glad that the size of your flat drove you to his. Knowing you sleep mere feet away helps him return from the terror inflicted in the night.

He doesn’t like to think of how many times he has woken you in the night. His screams permeating the night air as his fear invades every room of the flat. He doesn’t like to think how often you calmed him down; your fingers carding through his hair until his heart slows to an acceptable pace.

It’s as you crawl into bed with him; a side of his bed already stained with the smell of your perfume, that Fred admits to himself, he is doing better. The healing process has started; the nightmares only being part of it.

Fred believes it’s down to you. You push him to work on himself; to fight through the terror that keeps him in its grip every night. To talk about what happened and his near death experience; you were the first he confessed everything to. He couldn’t face George; he couldn’t face explaining just what went through his head as he readied himself to meet the winged clutches of the reaper.

Fred knows it’s down to you, and he loves you more for it. In the early months after the war, he thought you would leave. He thought that after the first few nightmares, you would call it quits, distancing yourself from him in preservation of your own sanity. He didn’t like to admit to himself how often he kept himself awake with that very thought; how long would it be until you walked away and out of his life?

The time never came, however, and he loves you all the more.

One:

Fred tells you he loves on a sunny day in March. Over a year since the end of the war, and over a decade of friendship, Fred simply cannot remember a time when he didn’t keep you close to his heart.

The day had started off by following its usual routine; breakfast then opening the shop. From there, Fred would manage whatever customers would walk through the door, greeting each and every one with a smile and a pleasantry. He may be a famous prankster, but that didn’t mean his mother had raised him to be impolite.

You join him just before lunch; bell ringing above the joke shop door as you walked in. A smile already on your face at the mere sight of Fred working so devotedly. The smile that breaks across his face when he spies your presence has your heart racing and your palm sweating; you don’t think he even realises the effect he has on you.

“Fancy grabbing lunch with me?” You ask, hoping he says yes.

“When do I ever say no to you?” Fred jokes: mischief bright in his eyes as he grabs his coat, shouting to George that he would gone for a bit.

You never grab lunch. The weather being too nice to spend it inside a café. Outside the shop, you turn to the tall redhead to find him already watching you with a look you cannot decipher. Smiling, you ask, “Shall we just walk instead? The weather is too nice to eat inside.”

Fred chuckles, dramatically bowing at the waist before exclaiming, “After you, my lady.”

You snort, stepping past him to continue up Diagon Alley, heading towards The Leaky Cauldron. Fred asks few questions about the destination you had in mind; just that the hustle and bustle of muggle London becomes apparent as you turn right outside The Leaky Cauldron.

Fred grabs your hand part way through the walk; an almost absent minded action that has your heart fluttering in your chest. Briefly, you wonder if this is it, if Fred is finally going confess that he reciprocates the feelings you’ve long held for the redhead.

As you both continue to walk, each step if more tension-filled than the last. The electricity between you crackling almost audibly.

He pauses suddenly, his feet no longer moving forward as he’s overcome with the depth of his feelings for you. He tugs you to a stop; wanting to smile at the puzzled expression on your face. “Fred? What’s wrong?” You ask; nothing but concern lacing your voice.

“I need to tell you something,” He rushes out, “It can’t wait any longer.”

The crease between your eyebrows deepens; it takes everything within him not to reach out a finger and smooth it down. “You can tell me anything, Fred,” You state firmly; fingers squeezing his tightly before letting them drop.

“I’m in love with you.”

“What?”

“I’m in love with you. I want to love you today, tomorrow, and every day from now on, if you’ll let me,”Fred gasps; the emotions choking off his voice as the sentence ends in a whisper of a plea.

The tears fall down your face freely. “You do?” You sob, voice breaking from the emotions building inside of you.

“I do,” He states. His voice more confident as the feelings he has had for you since he was sixteen years old take root within his heart. The very muscle growing in size to accompany the scale of his feelings for you.

“I love you too,” You confess, your teeth worrying your lower lip as you wring your hands together.

Something within Fred snaps, and before you’re fully aware of it, he has you in his arms. He pulls you tight to him; the length of your body pressed entirely up against his as he buries his face in your neck, practically shuddering with relief.

It takes a moment for Fred to regain composure, to pull his head from the safety of the crook of your neck. He smiles down at you; a wide grin that only heightens your happiness. You reach out tentatively; gently running your thumb across his cheekbone and down the length of his face. He captures your hand in his, pressing a kiss to each fingertip, all the whole his gaze never leaves yours.

He searches your eyes for a silent answer to a silent question. Nodding, you stand on your tiptoes, desperate to reach his height. Timidly, you brush your lips against his. A barely there kiss that has Fred’s veins igniting to flame.

He drops your hand. Instead, he curls his fingers around your waist, tugging you even closer to him as the pressure against your mouth increases. Fred’s mouth insistent on yours as his desperation to memorise every inch of you reaches fever pitch.

You wind your arms around his neck, gasping against his mouth as his hands begin to travel, splaying against your lower back. Fred takes the opportunity to deepen the kiss; he tastes of the tea he drank with his lunch. You cling onto him tighter, wanting nothing more than to take this further until the need for air becomes too much and you reluctantly pull away.

Breaking the kiss, you murmur into the small space between you, “Love me now, Fred. Love me always.”

********

General (HP) taglist: @chaotic-fae-queen @theweasleysredhair @harrypotter289 @kalimagik @heloisedaphnebrightmore @nebulablakemurphy @figlia--della--luna @idont-knowrn @big-galaxy-chaos @black-lake-confessions @annasofiaearlobe @imboredandneedalife @levylovegood @mytreec @haphazardhufflepuff @teheharrypotter @chaoticgirl04 @accio-rogers @starlightweasley @dreaming-about-fanfictions @lestersglitterglue @msmimimerton @obx-beach @izzytheninja @slytherinprincess03 @bbeauttyybbx @breadqueen95​ @acciotwinz​ @slytherinsunrise​ @kylosleftbuttcheek​ @remmyswritings​ @xfirstfemale-marauderx​ @they-write-once-in-a-blue-moon​ @ria-rests-here​ @superbturtlemakerathlete​ @inglourious-imagines​ @ithilwen-lionheart​ @now-its-time-for-a-breakdown​ @ilovejjmaybank​

Fred Weasley taglist: @whiz-bangs78​ @susceptible-but-siriusexual​ @seppys-return-to-madness​ @hexmione​ @ickle-ronniekins​ @oh-for-merlins-sake​

[theasstour]

𝐔𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝𝐥𝐲 𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝.

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 𝟕.𝟕𝐤 𝐍𝐁: 𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐥, 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐟𝐚𝐭𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐚

Tuesday, 13 December 2017

Tooley Street was always busy, whether there were a horde of people walking to and from the riverside and underground, or cars driving by at a ridiculous speed. London Bridge station on the other side of the road to where Y/N and the gang sat at Caffé Nero, looked like a small insect in comparison to The Shard that reached like a pillar above the partly cloudy winter sky. The blue painted brick building beside it, The Shipwright Arms pub, was a lively addition to an otherwise very bleak street.

The winter wind by the riverside was horrendous, but Y/N had offered to come with Annalise on her cigarette break, so she had only herself to blame for exposing herself to more of the biting cold than completely necessary. From where the two were sitting, they could just make out Tower Bridge behind them, bare trees rising up along the streets that indicated summer was long gone and winter had arrived.

Y/N had spent a lot of time just sitting outside the last few days. Whether it was on a bench by Regent’s Canal, in the grass at Shoreditch Park, or at a table outside a café with a coffee in hand. She had just been sitting there, staring out at nothing. Thinking. All she had been doing since finding that watch was think.

She had tried to find some kind of logical explanation as to why that watch had the coordinates for her family’s Newport cabin, but there was none. What kind of connection did George have to Newport? To that cabin? Had he just fucked her and left it there because he knew who Y/N’s sister was? And where was George now? She had not seen him since that night in October, was he still around? Or had Y/N just missed him when he had been, and this had all just been a huge coincidence. But Y/N somehow knew, deep down, that this was far from a coincidence and she should not treat it as one.

“You have to come to Monnickendam,” Annalise said, blowing out a puff of white smoke.

Y/N looked away from a man across the street who was arguing passionately with someone on his phone. Shoving the thoughts of the watch that was laid on her desk in her room, out of her head. She had not told anyone about it, this was not something she wanted everyone to know about because she had no idea what it meant. The only person that knew was Harry, and she would like to keep it that way.

“I’ve never been to the Netherlands,” Y/N said.

“Even more of a reason to come.”

Y/N smiled. “Buzzing. I haven’t travelled much in Europe, mostly been to Brazil with my family.”

“When you come to Monnickendam, we have to take the train to, like, Germany or France. Andorra is also so beautiful, I think you’re gonna love it.”

“Make a roadtrip out of it.”

“Exactly.”

Y/N’s smile grew. “Had you been to London before you came here for school?”

Annalise brought the cigarette up to her mouth. “Loads of times.”

“Really?”

“Yes, we went here around Easter in 2012 the first time, and I fell in love. Went here four more times, then to an Open Day last year.”

Y/N nodded. “Was Helmond your first choice then? Did you like it the best?”

“No, Battersea was, but I’m happy I ended up at Helmond.” Annalise breathed out white vapour. “Helmond’s prettier.”

Y/N laughed. “The aesthetic is more important than the uni itself, innit? If you can’t take decent Instagram pictures there, what’s the point of spending the next three years at that place?”

Annalise laughed along with Y/N, taking a last drag. “I rarely use Instagram.”

“I used to. I loved to like document my life, to let all my friends and family know what I was doing at all times. But then I found Snapchat, and it’s just better.”

“You know that if you, like, save a picture or video in the Snapchat app, Snapchat owns it?”

Y/N blinked.

“At least what someone at home told me once.”

“Doesn’t Instagram do the same?” Y/N asked.

“Think so,” Annalise said, walking over to the litter and stumping her cigarette out in the ash tray on top of it. “Ground rule: don’t save anything onto social media. Anyone can save and see your pictures.”

“Basically,” Y/N mumbled, looking over at the man she had watched earlier. He was still arguing with someone over the phone.

“Ready to head back inside?” Annalise asked.

“Yeah.” Y/N got up and the two strolled back over to the Caffé Nero their three other mates were sat in. Thian, Hayden, and Chloe were all sat with their laptops in front of them and books in the centre of the table behind their screens. Chloe was talking animatedly as Y/N and Annalise approached, Hayden busy with something on the laptop in front of them while Thian sat with a book in his hands, looking at Chloe as she spoke. Y/N took off her puffer jacket, hanging it off the back of her chair as she sat down, adjusting her black V-neck jumper and loose denim jeans.

“…the problem isn’t that. The problem is the fact that they never clean up after themselves. That’s the problem,” Chloe said, groaning loudly. “And when I ask in the flat groupchat if anyone wanna be social, no one answers. I swear, all of them hate me.”

“Maybe they’re just busy,” Thian suggested.

“They always say that, but I know two of the boys are in Dave’s room playing something on that PlayStation.” Chloe crossed her arms over her chest. “Should I learn how to play FIFA?”

“You don’t have to impress them,” Y/N said, turning her laptop back on to finish the essay for Critical Reading that was due that Friday.

“No, I know. But if I want to hang out with anyone in my flat, I gotta do something. What games do you play in the PlayStation, Thian?”

Thian stared at Chloe for a second, mouth working before he mumbled, “I didn’t bring one to uni.”

“Alright, then what did you play at home?”

“Call of Duty.”

Chloe scrunched up her nose. “Isn’t that a war game?”

“Yeah.”

“Nah, I’m not into that.” Chloe grimaced, looking at something further away. “I’ve never really played PlayStation. One of the blokes I dated in college gamed a lot, but I couldn’t be asked to sit around and just watch.”

“The three in my flat play GTA,” Y/N said. “At least that’s what Nathan wants to play, Harry and Mason just go along.”

Chloe’s face instantly lit up. “Oh, my word, Y/N. You have to make Harry teach me how to play something on the PlayStation.”

There was a slight pang in Y/N’s chest at the sound of his name leaving Chloe’s lips in that way. Y/N opened, then closed her mouth, then opened it again. “I don’t really hang out with them when they play it. I’ve had so much to do these past months.”

“That’s fine, Nathan can keep us company,” Chloe said, leaning back in her seat. “Make Mason come, too. God-“ She grinned, letting her head fall between her shoulder blades. “-Your flatmates are fit.”

“Harry’s fitter than Mason,” Hayden chimed in.

“No, definitely Mason,” Annalise said.

“I can’t choose. Depends on my mood,” Chloe mused.

Thian kept quiet, staring pointedly at his laptop.

“Can you do it? Make them teach me?” Chloe begged, sticking her bottom lip out at Y/N.

Y/N took a deep breath. “I’ll try.”

Chloe grinned.

“They might be busy, too. Might not get to it till after Christmas break.”

Chloe waved her hand. “That’s fine. I just want to hang out with someone from my flat eventually.”

Y/N glanced down at her laptop again, trying to forget the conversation she had just had with the other three. Chloe continued chattering on about something of no significance, Y/N did not care to listen as she wanted to finish her essay before she had to leave for home coming Saturday. Though her coffee was cold now as she took a sip of it, Y/N still appreciated the taste of caffeine. It woke her up, made her more alert and focused.

Ever since she was seven years old, her papai had made her coffee to drink. He always said “coffee is as vital to a Brazilian’s existence as tea is to a Brit’s” and she had drunk it ever since. She loved the taste of it much more than tea, but seeing as tea was much easier to make, she had come to resort to it here in London. Home in Nottingham, there was always a brew in the making or one ready for whoever felt like having a cup, made with a proper coffee machine that Davi had invested proper money in. He had bought it back in 2001, and it worked just as well as it did back then. Y/N, like her papai, loved the coffee from that old coffee maker more than anything else. She could not wait until she was home with her parents so she could drink proper coffee all the time without going to the nearest coffee shop to do so. The instant coffee Nathan often made smelled and tasted rank, Y/N would have no other coffee than her papai’s and a cup made at a coffee shop.

“I’m gonna go buy a muff,” Hayden said, getting up from their chair. “This essay is doing my head in, I need something to sooth the pain.”

“Oh, could you buy me a scone?” Thian asked, putting his hands together as if he was begging on his knees. “I’ll pay with five stellar knock knock jokes.”

“Make it six.”

“Deal.”

The two shook hands and Hayden grinned as they looked at the other three. “Anything from the trolley, dears?”

Y/N and Annalise chuckled. “No thanks,” Y/N said, Annalise saying the same thing.

“No, I’ll just add to this,” Chloe said, patting at her stomach.

“Add to what?” Hayden asked.

“A belly.” Chloe gripped the little that was protruding from her tight denim jeans. “I’m trying to start working out for bikini season, to remove that extra uni weight, you know?”

Hayden looked absolutely lost, so did Thian, and Annalise looked to not be paying any attention at all. Y/N, however, felt a familiar pang in her chest. It was a small explosion she had felt before, one that would taint the rest of her day. Instinctively, she put her scarf around her chest, letting it fall over her stomach.

Hayden did not comment, instead they just walked up to the till, ready to tell the lady working there their order. The table fell silent, but not for the reason Y/N wanted it to. No, they were all just busy with their essays. Y/N knew that it would be impossible for her to concentrate on the assignment now that the only thing she would be thinking about for the rest of the day was Chloe’s comment. Chancing a look over at her friend, she saw her flicking through a book in her lap, completely unbothered, Annalise was cocking her head to the side as she wrote something on her Mac, while Thian was watching Hayden pay for their food. None of them had batted an eyelash. Which was nothing new, Y/N was used to no one picking up on covered up fatphobic comments.

She knew that Chloe had not said those things with her in mind, that the statement had been about her own body only. But Y/N could not help but feel the comment in her very soul. She could remember her mates from school in Nottingham making comments similar to that one, so hearing it wasn’t alien, but it stung as much as hearing it that first time.

“Here we go,” Hayden said, putting the scone down on Thian’s keyboard.

“Scones are so bloody good,” Thian moaned, taking a huge bite out of his. “If we had to fuck a food, I’d fuck scones.”

The table went quiet, all looking at Thian. He just continued on eating, humming some Alesso and Conor Maynard song that was always playing on the radio.

“Why did you just say that?” Hayden asked.

“Felt like sharing my thoughts with the class.”

Hayden raised their eyebrows before looking at the laptop in front of them. “The class did not need to know.”

Thian shrugged his shoulders and Annalise laughed, Chloe joining in after a little while. Y/N smiled at them, but her thoughts still drifted back to Chloe’s comments just a minute earlier. She spread her scarf out over her stomach, wishing she had worn something that wasn’t so tight fitted.

Friday, 15 December 2017

“Sorry we’re late,” Mason said as him and the rest of the rugby team streamed into the seminar room. Hayden, Y/N, Thian, Chloe, Annalise, Nathan, and Annalise’s two friends were all sat around one table, already having started a round of Uno.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Hayden smiled. “I’ve put Uno decks on the other tables.”

“Cheers.”

Mason and the rest of the team sat down, all chatting amongst themselves and letting go of heavy sighs as they took their seats. It was clear that the last training session for the team this year had not only been cold, but also immensely tiring. They all looked very ready to travel home for Christmas break, and it looked like a few already had.

Y/N felt their struggle with the cold. She herself was wearing a mini linen skater dress in black. The skirt was loose, making it comfortable to hide her belly in – she had not stopped thinking about Chloe’s comment all week, but it would not stop her from looking really fucking good – and the waist was open, baring some of her skin and rib tattoo to everyone. Her skin protruded around the straps that were wrapped around her waist, connecting her skirt from her top, but there was nothing she could do about it, so she just tried to stay out of Chloe’s vision. The plunge neck revealed a very deep cleavage and skin, making it so Y/N had put on two silver necklaces to top of the outfit. The rest of the top had long sleeves and a nice collar, which was why Y/N had bought the dress. It was slutty, but in a modest way.

The rest of the gang around the table had also dressed up, ready to go out after this. They all had their last lecture of the semester today, meaning that their Christmas break had just started, and they wanted to celebrate before everyone travelled to their separate locations the next day. Chloe to Oxford, Thian to Bristol, Hayden to Sheffield, Annalise to Monnickendam, and Y/N back home to Nottingham. It would be weird not to meet up with them, to not go to lectures and stress about assignments for the next month. Then again, Annalise had made a Snapchat and Messenger group to ensure that the gang would talk every single day. And knowing her mates, Y/N was sure they would.

During a break between rounds, Y/N got up from their table after making sure that her polyamide shorts underneath her dress didn’t roll down her stomach. She wore them to prevent chafing, knowing that if she did not wear them underneath her skirt, it would be hard for her to wear anything the next day. She did the zip of her chunky sock boots before making her way over to Mason’s table.

“Alright, Y/N?” Mason said as she came closer, giving her a small smile.

“How’re you lot finding the society?” she asked, looking around the table, meeting Kai’s eyes.

Kai beamed. “Good, it’s nice to spend some time with the whole team off the rugby pitch.”

“You’re dressed up,” Mason pointed out. “What’s the occasion?”

“Uno Society.”

Mason smiled. “Trying to pull some rugby players, are ya?”

“No. No, rugby players.”

Mason only raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t believe her, smile widening.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re just as unbearable as Harry sometimes.”

“Nah, Harry’s worse than me.”

“Right.” Y/N took a big breath. “Chloe over there, the blonde,” Y/N said, motioning behind her with a nod of her head. Mason’s gaze immediately fell on Chloe. “She’s wondering if you and Harry can teach her how to play the PlayStation.”

Mason blinked, looking over at Kai as the bigger man clapped his hands together before laughing.

“Is that funny?” Y/N asked.

“No, it’s not. I just knew Kai would react like that,” Mason said. “But I’ll do it. After Christmas at some point.”

“Nice, I’ll tell her that, then.”

“Why does she need someone to teach her how to play PlayStation?” Kai asked, and though there was laughter in his voice, Y/N could tell his question was sincere.

“Some blokes in her flat never want to be social, they just stay in this one room playing PlayStation, and she’s kinda left out ‘cause she doesn’t really know how to play.”

“That might not work out,” Kai said, smiling still.

“Worth a shot, either way.”

“Maybe she just wanna spend time with this hunk,” Kai grinned, putting a hand on Mason’s shoulder. “Or the other hunk that’s not here.”

“Speaking of him,” Y/N said, putting a hand on her hip. “Not that I care, but where is he?”

Kai grinned, sitting back in his chair. “You don’t care? Not at all?”

“No, Y/N doesn’t like Harry much,” Mason explained, completely unbothered. “He’s working. The team’s popping by The Stag’s Head later to check on him since it’s his last shift and all that.”

Y/N nodded, suddenly remembering how Harry had told her that a few weeks ago.

“What’s the bellend done to you?” Kai asked.

“Another time, Kai. We’re in the middle of a round,” Mason said. “I’ll find a day that’s good for Chloe to come over.”

“Wicked,” Y/N smiled. “See ya.”

“Later, mate.”

Y/N walked back to her table, sitting down in her seat again. “Sorry,” she said when Hayden gave her a look. “Chloe, Mason said he could teach you how to play PlayStation sometime after Christmas break.”

Chloe squealed. “Really?!”

“Yeah, he’ll text me saying when.”

“Ahh! Buzzing!”

Y/N gave her a smile before the gang went back to playing.

Though she was physically present over the next hour or so, Y/N’s mind travelled back to the flat and the watch on her desk. Besides assignments, Christmas, and what Chloe said on Tuesday, that was all Y/N had spent her time thinking about. She would be in bed, about to go to sleep, then just get out of her bed and look at the watch, study it carefully. Maybe there was another message of sorts on it, maybe she was supposed to do something with it. But other days she did not want to touch that watch. There was something about it, something about how it had just been left in her possession so casually, something about the fact that she had not seen George since that night, that did not sit right with Y/N at all.

Throughout the rest of the night, after the Uno Society, while the gang was sat at a pub, and then dancing at a club later, Y/N could not bring herself to enjoy herself thoroughly. All her energy went back to that watch. She wanted to understand what it meant, why George had it, and what she was supposed to do with the information. Was she even supposed to do anything at all? It only made her want to travel down to Newport even more. She had to now. Her parents might think about getting rid of that cabin, but Y/N had to revisit it one last time before that happened.

Y/N did not drink that night; she was afraid of the conspiracy theories she would form if she did. She had one cocktail at the pub they went to, but could not do more than that, and her mates did not ask questions as to why she was not drinking, something she really appreciated. It was late when she announced she would be going home, and so she called Nathan and made him stay on the line with her as she took the tube back to Haggerston Station. Once she reached Orsman Road, she could hear his snores on the other end, and hung up halfway down the road to the flat. However, in the distance, she saw a stag’s head sign hanging out on a metal pole, protruding from the building opposite her flat building. She suddenly remembered what Mason said, and crossed the road, making her way over to the pub.

A small group of lads made their way out of the pub as Y/N reached it, the last one holding the door for her. She smiled and thanked him before walking inside. Now that she wasn’t affected by alcohol, Y/N was finally able to take in the pub properly without having the slight haze of alcohol taint it. The lights were comfortably dimmed, not too much so you could not read the menu, but just enough so that a person’s facial features would be a tad blurry. The red that ran along the wall behind the dark bar counter was subtle, giving the bar a sense of holding onto the secrets of each person who walked through the front doors, like a Victorian murder mystery. Y/N could see Sweeney Todd’s barber shop trapped in the same colours.

“Excuse me, miss,” a man walking out from behind the counter said, grey hair and broad shoulders. “We’re closed.”

“Oh,” she said, looking around the dark pub. “I… I thought I might find Harry here.”

The man narrowed his eyes a little. “He’s got a new girlfriend? So soon after the other ones?”

Y/N felt herself narrow her eyes back at the man. Girlfriend? Harry’s had girlfriends – plural – since he started working in The Stag’s Head? There was a very strange combination of a lot of different feelings that swarmed around Y/N’s body, suddenly making her feel seasick. She was about to abort her mission, to say she would just catch Harry at home, when there came a voice from the door leading out into the smoking area.

“Y/N,” Harry said, turning the lights off outside and closing the door. It looked as if he could not quite believe his eyes as he saw her standing there, like he had not thought she would ever show up to his work like this. Without seemingly able to help himself, his green eyes fell down to her green dress and her exposed legs. He quickly looked to his other co-worker, clearing his throat as he walked behind the pub counter. Y/N could swear she saw a slight pink hue to his cheekbones.

“I’ll leave if you’re busy.”

“No,” Harry said, the word coming out a little too quickly as if desperation got the better of him. “No. Not busy.”

The grey-haired man raised his eyebrows at Harry. He must have seen something in Harry’s demeanour, because he said, “You’ll be alright to close up on your own?”

Harry smiled. “It’ll be a nice way to end my time at Stag’s Head.”

“Nice,” the man Y/N now suspected was Harry’s boss, said. “Pop by with the keys tomorrow, will ya?”

“Yes, sir.”

The man gave both Harry and Y/N a smile each before he started on his walk up to his office. The pub was suddenly very quiet, not a single sound came from inside, just the distant siren outside and the low buzz of the city. A place that was usually bustling with noise, energy, and anticipation, was now left with the latter. Y/N looked around the place, unsure of what to do with herself now that it was only her and Harry there. Harry watched her, picking up the Cif spray from where it stood under the counter. She felt his gaze on her as she walked along the booths, touching the red velvet cushions, a rush of goosebumps travelling up her spine at the knowledge that she had his full attention.

She turned around, leaning her bum against a table as she took in the liquor behind Harry. He was washing the counter, looking over at Y/N again, eyes falling to her mid-area that was expanded slightly at the pressure the surface behind her was providing. He quickly looked away again, biting his lips together as he focused on the counter in front of him. Y/N could not help a small smile.

“What made you show up to my work, then?” he asked.

“Can’t a friend show up to another friend’s work?”

Harry let out a strangled chuckle. “Alright. That’s very nice of you, but I don’t buy that for a single second.”

Y/N raised her eyebrows. “You don’t?”

“There’s gotta have been another reason as to why.”

“Okay…? What’s that?”

Harry shrugged his shoulder, spraying more Cif onto the counter. “You were bored. You didn’t want to be around your other mates any longer. You wanted to see a delicious man with an irresistible Northern accent clean up a pub since it’s his last shift ever here tonight.”

Y/N let out a laugh, placing her hands on either side of the table beside her. “None of the above.”

“Alright,” Harry said, coming out from behind the pub. “What didn’t I cover?”

“You weren’t at the Uno Society meeting.”

The answer came so effortlessly, as if her subconscious had been holding onto the answer for Y/N until she was strong enough to know the real reason. Her hands instantly gripped the table harder, feeling embarrassed for admitting vulnerability so easily. She blamed how easy it was to talk to him, how he just seemed to throw a lasso around her deepest secrets, her most private desires, and drag them out of her.

Harry looked over at her from where he was cleaning the tables a bit further away in the pub. “Had work. Would’ve been there if I didn’t have to be here.”

She nodded, looking down at her black boots. For some reason, his words warmed something inside her. Hearing someone care about something she cared about made her feel special. Then again, someone she just met on the street could tell her they hated Marmite, something Y/N also did, and she would feel equally as fuzzy inside. Finding small bonds, small preferences, small somethings that connected you to other people, made you feel like you weren’t alone, but it also made you feel special, made you feel seen and understood. It was as if someone opened a door into their soul, and giving you a warm handshake, welcoming you into them and their life.

“The lads had a blast,” Harry said, now closer to Y/N as she had zoned out for a minute and some.

“They did?”

“Yeah, it’s nice to just sit down and relax like that. We don’t really get to do that.”

Y/N watched as Harry hovered by a table, leaning over it to clean it. His black tee shirt stretched over his broad back, his shoulder blades visibly working as he ran the cloth over the table in front of him. The outline of his muscles, the way they were so hard against the soft fabric of the tee shirt, made Y/N’s body feel very hot all of a sudden. He worked so carefully, sliding his hand holding the cloth so slowly over the table, paying it his undivided attention. She adjusted her position against her table, looking away from Harry as he stood back up, his black trousers that had been tight around his buttocks, slacking at the lack of pressure on the material. Get a fucking grip, Y/N screamed at herself in her head, focusing on the wall in front of her. She saw Harry look at her over his shoulder, gaze lingering on her for a few seconds. Y/N suddenly found it very hard to draw a proper breath.

“You’re mad I didn’t show up?” Harry asked.

Y/N was silent, her brain completely blank. “Didn’t show up…?”

She could see his smug smile in her peripheral vision. “Yeah.”

“To what?”

His smile widened and he focused on a table closer to her. “The Uno Society.”

She closed her eyes. Her checking out Harry while he had his back to her had not just made her forget the whole reason why she had showed up to The Stag’s Head in the first place. His body looking the way it did, him caring about the society, him teasing her to get a reaction out of her… Why the fuck did he have that effect on her?

“No,” Y/N said, refusing to look at him still. “I’m not mad.”

“Then why won’t you look at me right now?”

Y/N could feel her hands instinctively grabbing harder onto the table behind her. “No reason.”

“You know,” Harry started, she could hear the smirk in his voice. “You can try all you want, but I still know you.”

She huffed. “You wish.”

“I don’t gotta,” he said, chuckling a little. “Don’t gotta wish when I already do know you. Wish I knew you better, wish you’d just open up to me like you did so easily before, but that’s for a later time.”

That made her look over at Harry, her eyebrows drawn together as she just watched him clean yet another table. He… Did he really think she would one day open up to him again and they would go back to being friends like they used to? Was he really that optimistic? Had he thought about it? About them and their friendship? And what a future with her alongside him at uni would look like? Her eyes landed on his bicep as it flexed, holding his body weight as he leaned against the table again. Her gaze following his arm all the way down to his hand, long slender fingers wrapped around the edge of the table, and the thick veins over the dorsal part of his hand made something in Y/N’s brain short circuit. That along with the casual way he was leaning his hips against the table, staring down at it with his head cocked.

What the fuck, Y/N said to herself again, looking away from him. What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck?! How was she supposed to stay neutral, to not find him attractive, to not want to sink right back into old habits when she allowed herself to study him and look at him like that. She had to stop. This was getting out of hand.

“You’re uncharacteristically quiet tonight,” Harry said, working slowly as he cleaned up the table in the booth beside the one she was stood leaning against.

“No, I’ve just got things on my mind.”

“What things?”

Your broad shoulders. Your hands. The way you stick your tongue out of your mouth when you are concentrating. But Y/N said none of those things, as doing so would sentence her to a lifetime of humiliation.

“Insignificant things.”

“When they’re taking up a lot of space in your head and preventing you from being present, they’re not insignificant,” Harry said, sounding a little serious all of a sudden. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing inherently bad on my mind, just… I’ve got a lot of… thoughts,” Y/N said, not knowing how else to explain it without giving something away.

“What thoughts?”

Y/N narrowed her eyes at him. “Thought you did Architectural Studies, didn’t know you also had a degree in being Nosy.”

Harry let out a laugh, coming to stand in front of her with the spray and the cloth in his hands. “I’m very nosy.”

“Glad to hear you’re self-aware.”

“But right now I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Bloody hell, Y/N thought, could he just fucking stop being so nice? So fucking adorable? And fit? It made hating him so much harder than it already was.

“I’m okay.”

He took a step closer. “What’s been on your mind then?”

“Just… life.”

“Has uni exhausted you?”

“Yeah, but it’s not what I’m thinking about.”

Harry took another step closer. Y/N’s palms were suddenly very clammy.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked again, a small smile on his lips as if he was challenging her.

“Maybe you just have to face the fact that I won’t tell you and you can’t figure it out on your own.”

“Nah,” Harry said. “I’ll figure you out.”

Y/N watched as Harry took another step closer, her heart suddenly beating very fast inside her chest.

“I just gotta…” He trailed off, now standing directly in front of her. Tip of his shoes against the tip of hers. Without a warning of sorts, he leaned closer, bending over her until his head hovered beside her own. Chest wavering above hers, touching as she drew in a precipitous breath and he did the same. Their bodies did not brush against one another again, an invisible, burning shield was built to keep them apart the second their upper bodies made contact. As if the universe was telling them that by touching like that, the world would go up in total flames around them.

Harry’s sudden closeness made her breathe in a little too harshly, she was sure he must have heard it but she simply did not care. The reaction her body was having to him being so close was electric, it made all the hairs on her body stand on end. She didn’t know what he was doing that close to her, thinking at first that he must have wanted to whisper something in her ear, to say something to her that would undoubtedly make her glad she was leaning against something solid for support.

But she heard the familiar sound of the Cif spray, and a second later, Harry reached his cloth behind Y/N’s back, cleaning the table. She felt his breath against her neck, triggering something radioactive inside her. The oud aroma of his cologne, with notes of cedar, patchouli, and spicy saffron filled Y/N’s nostrils. In those seconds when Harry hovered above her like that, his warm body inches from hers, breath fanning against her skin, his aroma, and aura mere inches from hers, Y/N was conflicted as to if she wanted time to speed up or slow down some more. She knew that if she stayed like that, with Harry so close to her, for much longer she would go absolutely mad and have an impossible time resisting him if he were to try something like he had done in the living room the week before.

No sooner had she thought that, he pushed off, face lingering just centimetres from hers. “I just need to take a look,” he said, speaking as if he did not mind if the whole world was watching them. He raised his hand, about to touch her chin. For what reason, Y/N did not know, but she didn’t ask any questions. However, he stopped, as if touching her was something he could not do. Y/N was glad he hadn’t, because God knows how her body would have reacted had he tenderly touched her jawline like it looked like he wanted to.

“Take a look?” Y/N mumbled.

“At you.”

A small breath left her lips.

“Maybe the answer to what’s been on your mind is somewhere in your eyes,” he said, eyes suddenly falling to her lips. “Or your lips.” He glanced at her forehead. “Or in the slight lines that appear between your eyebrows when you’re deep in thought.” He looked down at her hands on the table edge. “Or the way you’re gripping the table so tight right now.”

Jesus Christ, she was about to explode. Y/N let go of it immediately, standing up and forcing Harry to take two steps back. His intense glance lingered on her, falling to her lips as she opened her mouth to take a breath.

“It’s getting late,” she said, fingering the hem of her leather jacket as her heart continued to hammer away inside her chest.

“Wait for me, yeah?” Harry walked over to the next table to clean it, doing it way faster than all the other ones. Biting his lip and moving his hand with the cloth over the table as if to make up for time spent on something else, cleaning very slowly and standing too close to her.

“No, I can walk home by myself.”

“I know you’re capable of walking, but I don’t like you being out in the streets all alone late at night.”

Y/N looked over at Harry as he cleaned the last booth, seeing the determination to finish as quickly as possible.

“It’s just across the road,” she said.

“Please just let me walk you across the road, then.” Harry walked behind the bar counter, putting the cleaning supplies away.

“You make me sound like an old lady.”

“Just-“ He appeared from behind the counter. “-Wait.” He then disappeared into the backroom where he only stayed for a few seconds. Y/N would have thought that since he enjoyed working at The Stag’s Head, he would have at least lingered for a few moments to take in the last time he would ever be back there. But instead, he emerged wearing his coat, locking the door behind him, mere seconds later. He turned the lights off, and, walking over to where Y/N was standing, placed a gentle hand to her lower back, guiding her in the direction of the door that she could only barely make out in the dark. Goosebumps instantly ran up Y/N’s back and she inhaled at the pressure of Harry’s hand on her body. He held the door open for her and Y/N stepped outside, watching as Harry locked the front doors to The Stag’s Head for the very last time.

He looked around them after locking the door, checking up and down the three streets that came to a crossroad just outside the pub. Once his eyes finally met Y/N’s again he gave her the smallest smile, then motioned for her to lead the way back to their flat. She wanted to roll her eyes, but she could not find it in herself to do just that in that moment. Though it was just across the road, she very much appreciated Harry’s company back to their flat. Distance was nothing when the roads were dark and the faces of the figures walking past were left blurred by the dim streetlamps.

Harry held the door for Y/N once again, letting her be the first to enter the building. She strolled upstairs, unlocking their front door and watching as Harry gestured for her to walk on inside. The flat was dark, except for the warm yellow lights Nathan had twined around the railing of their terrace and the changing colours of the luminous Christmas tree in the living room. The kitchen was usually left in darkness, as was the rest of the flat, but since their eyes were used to night outside, it wasn’t hard to navigate their way to the stairs. They took their jackets off, and without her leather jacket on, Y/N was very aware of how much of her skin was exposed to Harry. Her dress showed off her legs, arms, and parts of her back to him, and she knew that, if he walked behind her up the stairs, he would get a good look at her bum.

She took her boots off and started up the stairs with her purse in her hand, hearing Harry make his way up them as well. If any man were to walk behind her up the stairs, Harry was one she trusted not to take the mick, to not look up her skirt and make her feel uncomfortable. But… after everything… she still didn’t want him to see her knickers. However, facing her door, she heard Harry walking up the stairs. Taking a deep breath, she turned around to face him once he reached the first floor. What happened next happened so suddenly that Y/N barely managed to wrap her head around it before the moment was gone.

She had just turned around to face Harry when he walked up over to her. Taking a step back at the sudden closeness, she felt herself breathe in sharply as Harry’s face lingered only centimetres from her own again. Though the person standing in front of her was a man, a completely different person, something inside her brain took her back to that night when they were 16. He hadn’t been this close to her since then, had not touched her or looked at her like this since then. His eyes flicked down to her lips, and then to meet hers, wet lips parting as if the anticipation was killing him.

And Y/N had to painfully admit, it was killing her, too. As much as she had tried to fight it, it was impossible to now. She wanted Harry to kiss her. Not tenderly kiss her like you would peck a person you were in love with, or to gently rub his thumb over her cheek as a show of affection, or to hug her tight when they met up for lunch. No, she wanted him to fucking kiss her. She wanted him to grab her face and kiss her hard; desperately, needily. She wanted them to fumble to take each other’s clothes off, and for him to make up for how bad that first time together was. There was absolutely no denying it, Y/N wanted Harry. She really wanted him. All these months, all those moments spent trying to push the thought away, she simply could not anymore. There was a hunger inside her for him, but only in the sexual sense. She could never fall in love with this man, she just wanted to fuck him. And she wanted to fuck him bad.

Her own lips parted, and she looked into his eyes with an expression she hoped he could read, because she needed him to understand. Once again, Harry raised his hand, hovering between them as if he were unsure what to do with it. Fingers twitching, she could see he was conflicted, whether he should touch her cheek as it looked like he wanted to, or if he should stop himself. Y/N let her eyes fall to his hand, to tell him she wanted him to touch her. She wanted to feel him somewhere, anywhere on her. Just looking at him, she could see he wanted the same as her. He wanted to feel her body, to explore it in a completely different way to last time.

Harry’s hand fell out of view, and just as Y/N thought he was going to let it hang limply, uselessly, at his side, she felt something on her waist. A warm pressure, snaking around the black linen of her dress. She waited for him to pull her closer to him, for their torsos to connect, but it never happened.

“Y/N,” Harry whispered, eyes falling to her lips again.

She did not answer, instead just tilted her head so it would be easier for him to kiss her. With her eyelids hanging low over her eyes, her body language not showing any sign of protesting, and with her lips parted, Y/N hoped the message was coming across clearly. Harry leaned in closer, his nose almost touching hers. Her heart was beating so fast and hard it hurt. Her hands were clammy. All her attention focused on Harry and the electricity they created on that spot where his hand rested. He leaned down, lips hovering just over the crook of her neck, making her close her eyes. Breath against the hair of her shoulder, lightning shooting up Y/N’s back. He slowly leaned back out again, nose hovering beside hers. The anticipation was absolutely killing her.

“I…” But he drifted off, eyes falling to her lips again. She could feel his breath on her mouth, could smell his cologne. The tension was making her dizzy, she just wanted him to bloody kiss her already.

She was just about to do it herself when she felt his warm hand drop off her waist. She blinked, and the next second, Harry took a step back. He only looked at her, mouth working as if he was trying to find the right words to say, but there were none. So, as if blinking himself awake from a sort of dream, he took another step back. Suddenly, he opened the door into his room. He stopped in the doorway, looking back at Y/N. Again, he tried to say something that must have died on the tip of his tongue, because again, he did not utter a word. It looked like he physically could not say them out loud. Instead, he closed the door, leaving Y/N standing alone out in the dark hallway.

Y/N’s eyes rested on the door to the bathroom, trying to go over in her head where it had just happened. Had… Had Harry just walked away just now? Had he teased her in the pub, then done almost the same just now, only to walk away? What had gone wrong? Why had he not kissed her? What had made him step away? What had made him stop? Y/N could not answer a single one of the questions, and she doubted Harry would give her any. She closed her eyes, resting her head against her door behind her. This was exactly why she had not wanted to live with Harry, this was why she had not given in to his charms and flirts before. Now, because of what had just happened, because of how awkward that had just been, they were back to square one. Just living under the same roof as him infuriated her. She could not fucking stand Harry Styles.

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[fallin-4-ya]

stronger than you think

Stronger Than You Think

george weasley x reader

requested? yes/no

summary: after george was tackled to the ground by the most beautiful girl in the world, the quidditch prodigy and the legendary sister of victor krum was the last person he’s thought he’d be falling for. 

warnings: poor georgie gets beat up a lil accidentally, slight mention of food, & downplaying of one’s self. i think that's it! (gif is not mine, credit to owner!)

words: 2.2K

The Weasley family arrived to the Quidditch World Cup early that morning. The whole lot of the walking feverishly to find their tent, the excitement and anticipation was building quickly. Once they had arrived to their home for the night, Fred and George were sent out to get firewood. They exited the tent in a hurry, wanting to head back in time to join all of the fun.

The crowds at the event were huge. George had never seen that many witched and wizards in one place ever before. Voices echoes from all around, passersby sneaking their way through the groups of people. George went to go turn to tell his brother something when bang.

George was seeing stars. He had been knocked over aggressively by someone rushing through. His shoulder ached, and he turned to see the person who knocked him over, laid right there next to him, clearly unaffected by the blow. The person next to him jolted up, showing no signs of injury.

It felt like his arm had been ripped out of his socket. He looked up to see a girl his age grabbing his arm and pulling him back up. Her build was strong and looked as if she could take George out with a single blow if she wanted to. Her log hair was pulled into a plait at the back of her head and she was wearing Quidditch robes; though George was so near concussed he could hardly tell what colors they were. But, one thing he knew for sure is that he was the prettiest girl he had ever laid eyes on.

‘Sorry, lad!’ her thick accent laid out, ‘Late onto the pitch, hope your arms alright!’

She yelled as she ran in the opposite direction towards the stadium. George shook his head in disbelief, because what had just happened. He simply turned to Fred, who apparently was just as flabbergasted as him, and shrugged his shoulders. It wasn’t like he would ever see her again, so he just let the moment go.

After a few hours of pre-match activities; the Weasley family, with the addition of Harry and Hermione, all walked in unison to the Minister’s Box to watch the game. Minister Fudge’s voice rang out across the stadium, announcing the teams that would be competing for the cup: Ireland and Bulgaria.

Players took their start onto the pitch, Ireland was first. Then, Bulgaria. Screams echoed from the crowd, all eager to see the game that was about to take place. As the team wearing read swung out on their brooms George’s hart stopped.

There she was. The beautiful girl who nearly ripped his arm out of his socket on accident. Well, at least it made sense now, George said to himself. Her strong arms and stocky shoulders said it all. She took her place as keeper, the youngest to ever play on a team next to-

‘Viktor Krum!’ Bellowed Fudge. The crowd went crazy, cheers echoing ‘Krum, Krum, Krum’ throughout the arena. ‘And joining him this year for her first Quidditch World Cup, his sister, y/n Krum.’

George’s breathing had stopped completely. Not only was he bulldozed by the youngest keeper in all of Quidditch history, but he was bulldozed by Viktor Krum’s little sister. He watched her with stars in his eyes. The only word that came to his mind for describing her was wow. His eyes only searched for her throughout the entire match, even missing Viktor catching the golden snitch.

The game was over far too soon in George’s opinion, he could watch y/n play for hours. Her skill, her fearlessness, her ability; he wanted to keep watching it all. However, much like all good things, they must end; and that night they headed back to the Burrow.

George spent the rest of the summer thinking about y/n, she couldn’t escape his thoughts. He knew how stupid he sounded. As if a world renowned Quidditch player would pay attention to the boy she bumped into on accident, or let alone remember him. He let out a sigh of frustration, if he could just have one more chance. The chanced of him seeing her again were so slim, he lost all hope.

The rest of the summer flew by and soon everyone was back at Hogwarts. George and Fred were reunited with their best friend Lee, as they all gathered at the Great Hall for the start of term feast. It was obvious to Lee that something was up with George, as the twin had never been this quiet, always having some story to tell about his summer back home.

‘What’s up with you, George?’ Lee questioned.

Fred let out a chuckle, ‘Georgie’s in love, that’s what’s up.’ He grinned.

George scoffed at his brother, ‘I’m not in love.’ Fred rolled his eyes at him, and George sighed. ‘Well, maybe. But it’s never going to happen. So, lets drop it.’

Lee gave him and understanding nod and a sympathetic smile. They all turned to face Dumbledore, who was giving his usual start of term speech, when he said something that perked every students’ interest. He announced that the Triwizard tournament would be taking place at Hogwarts that year, a way to unify the wizarding schools in Europe.

Just then the doors of the Great Hall opened to reveal a group of students in large coats entering the room. Dumbledore announced them as Durmstrang. Their robes were a mixture of brown and maroon, and they had a confidence about them as they walked. Suddenly, something caught George’s eye, or rather someone. Y/n. Walking into the Great Hall with her brother Viktor Krum.

George’s jaw nearly hit the floor. If he was expecting anything interesting to happen this year, it most definitely wasn’t this. She kept a straight face as she walked past the tables, her long braid flowed behind her as they approached where Dumbledore stood.  He faced Fred slowly, who wore the same expression on his face. ‘Is that-?’ Fred started.

‘Yeah, Fred.’ George finished in his mesmerized state, practically drooling over his own words.

George stayed up the entire night thinking about her. Was she really at Hogwarts? Or was he just dreaming? Now was his chance, he had to make a move. However, it seemed as if someone else was going to make the move for him.

Fred and George walked down the, now much more crowded, corridors to charms. Three schools in one castle, no matter how big the castle was, caused for much traffic on the way to classes. Suddenly, a voice yelled out to George in the hallway.

‘Oh, Mr. Weasley!’ Called out Professor McGonagall. ‘Perfect timing. You are to show Miss Krum to her classes for the week; and considering how well you and your brother know the castle, it should be an easy task for you.’ She side eyed him.

‘Me? Professor are you sure?’ George stuttered out. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He was supposed to show the girl he had been crushing over all summer around the castle?

‘Yes, Mr. Weasley. I am quite sure, or did I not make myself clear enough.’ Professor McGonagall said sternly, her lips tugged into the faintest glimpse of a smile.

‘No, Professor. I mean, yes, Professor.’ George felt his face heat up. ‘You can count on me.’

‘Very well. Off you two! Classes will start shortly.’ The older woman said before she left a mess that was George Weasley with the girl in front of him. He had never been so grateful, yet mad at his head of house. Y/n  smiled sweetly at George, ‘Hi, Mr. Weasley, I’m y/n!’

George swallowed, ‘Hi, um, you can call me George. So, what class do you have first.’

Y/n took the time-table out from her bound leather bag, handing it to the boy. But, in actuality she was staring at his face with a most quizzical expression. ‘I know you from somewhere, Mr. George.’ She hummed, staring into her eyes.

George felt his palms get sweaty, and his throat close. ‘Just George is fine,’ his voice cracked. Her expression changed as soon as the words left his mouth.

‘Oh, Merlin! You’re that boy I nearly took out at the Quidditch World Cup!’ She gasped covering her mouth, ‘I am so sorry about that!  You ought to believe me when I say that I wasn’t looking where I was going!’

George’s nervousness turned to amusement; because not only had she remembered him, but she was a blabbering mess in front of him as well. He smiled and put her hand on her shoulder, silencing her rambling. ‘Not to worry, y/n. But I must admit, you did some pretty heavy-duty damage to my arm.’ He laughed. She relaxed, grinning.

‘Well, you know, you did put up a good fight, thought for sure I was knocking over another Quidditch player.’ Y/n slapped his arm, playfully. George winced at the touch of her strong, but innocent blow. ‘Merin! Sorry, I really don’t know my own strength sometimes.’ She smiled weakly at him.

George shook off the blow, ‘I live in a house with four older brothers, is that the best you got?’ he teased her.

‘Oh, you are so on, Weasley.’ She giggled at him.

George arrived back to the common room after classes with a wide, goofy smile plastered onto his face. He sat down next to his brothers and sister who sat near the fireplace in the center of the room.

‘Someone looks happy,’ Ginny teased.

‘Yeah, I’d be happy too if I got to show Viktor Krum’s sister around the castle.’ Ron said half seriously and half mockingly.

‘His sister or Viktor himself,’ Ginny stuck her tongue out.

Ron rolled his eyes, ‘Shut it, Ginny.’ He mumbled under his breath. The crowd of them sat laughing, when George pipped up.

‘She’s so wonderful. Her hair, her smile, her humor.’

‘Her super human strength.’ Fred nodded in agreement.

George playfully shoved his brother, ‘Now, now don’t be jealous. I got to ask her out, except I have no idea how. I can’t mess this up.’

‘Well, you can ask her to the Yule Ball,’ Ginny stated.

‘The Yule Ball, the bloody hell is that,’ Ron asked.

‘Honestly, Ron. Do you ever  listen when Dumbledore speaks?’ she huffed, then turned her attention back to George. ‘It’s a sort of dance, a tradition for the Triwizard tournament. You can ask her to be your date, then just hope it goes well enough for you to snag a day at Hogsmeade with her.’

George shook his head, a smug smile on his face. ‘Great thinking, Gin. Thanks!’ He ruffled her hair, then headed back up to the dorms.

The next few weeks, went by fast. Too fast. It wasn’t long before snow began falling, coating the grounds of Hogwarts in a beautiful white. George and y/n began talking more and more every day. Their friendship extended beyond George only showing her around the castle to them playing Quidditch together, watching the events of the Triwizard tournament in each other’s company and on occasion studying together.

With every passing day, they grew fonder of each other. One day after picking y/n up from potions, her and George headed to the courtyard to enjoy the snow. George brought some of his favorite treats from Hogwarts for her to try along with them.

‘Wait what is this one?’ she questioned holding a pastry in her.

‘It’s called a treacle tart.’ George answered laughing. She raised her brow, a suspicious look on her face. ‘Just try it! Trust me, I think you’ll like this one.’ George convinced her.

She took a small bite, face turning upside down, ‘No way, George. Way too sweet!’ George chuckled at her, ‘I do think my brother will like it though, he has quite the sweet tooth.’

Y/n returned his sentiments and laughed. They sighed together, taking in the fun they were having. George smiled shyly, ‘So about your brother, must be pretty cool having him be the greatest seeker and all that. Definitely never a dull moment for you lot.’

The girl nodded her head, ‘Never a dull moment is right,’ she scoffed. ‘I love my brother, but you know it can be hard sometimes. He is so accomplished, everyone’s favorite. First Quidditch, now this tournament. I’m constantly in his shadows. Not that I mind, I just wish someone would see me for me, not just his little sister.’

George sent her a knowing look, y/n exhaled. ‘Sorry, you probably didn’t need to know all of that. I-‘

‘No,’ George interjected, ‘I know how you feel. Fred, my brother, he’s everyone’s favorite. Not to mention Bill, Charlie and Percy, all prefects and head boys. But, you just try to find what makes you different. Do things nobody thinks you can do. And you’re a talented witch, you can do anything you set your mind to. Not to mention I had no idea who your brother was when I first met you.’

Y/n blushed at his words, ‘Thanks, George. That’s really kind of you.’

‘Not to worry,’ George said. ‘And while I have this new-found confidence, how would you like to be my date to the Yule Ball, if you don’t already have one.’

Her face lit up, eyes twinkling like Christmas lights. ‘Of course, George! Of course, I’ll go with you.’ She pulled him into a tight hug, knocking the breath out of him. George had never felt happier then he did in this moment. 

‘Bulgaria may have not won the world cup, but you for sure won my heart.’

‘Are you always this much of a jokester, Mr. George?’

(a/n: thank you so much for reading! i hope you all enjoyed it, it was such a cute request! sending love and positive vibes! -xo mari)

[creativeashproductions]

In the Beginning // Alive!Luke Patterson

Summary: Reggie (Rhodes)’s older sister is the epitome of cool in his, and his friends, eyes with her in a band. Pushed by a hazel eyed brunette with a huge crush on the eldest Rhodes teen the boys decide to start a band. While at first the band is for Luke’s dream of landing you he finds his passion with music.

Warning: Swearing, angst, fluff, dad!Luke

Words: 4.1k

A/N: I couldn’t resist writing another alive!Luke fic with Luke crushing on his band mate’s sister. Ugh, just imagine Luke suggesting a band to impress his crush only to fall in love with music instead.  For my fics it will be Alex Mitchell and Reggie Rhodes until JATP reveals their canon names. 

Masterlist

Los Angeles, 1992

The guitar case was a familiar heaviness as you walked into the home for the first time in months after a practice. You ached from the long travel, and all you wanted was your bed. The yawn came first, then the startled yell at the living room.

Four pairs of eyes met the girl standing in the entryway, surprised at a sleepover with her brother and his full friends. Eyebrows coming together you shook your head wondering why they had come here instead of the typical Patterson home.

“Hey!” Fourteen-year-old Reggie beamed towards his older sister excited she was back from her weekend band practice. Your eyes blinked at his usual upbeat personality before switching to the brown eyes from Bobby, too shy to full meet yours.

Spread around the living room watching a movie was Reggie’s best friends; the socially awkward Alex, the shy Bobby, and the Patterson boy Luke. The young typically spent their time at Luke’s place, so seeing them in your home was strange.

“Reg, what’s up?” You asked crouching to untie your shoes confused at the sharp audible gasp coming from Luke. Standing straight up, you saw Luke awkwardly looking away with bright red cheeks.

“How was practice?” Reggie inquired with the smile he got from your mom and his dark hair from your dad.

Reggie usually wasn’t interested in your band leading you to wonder what the hell was going on with them. Being sixteen you didn’t socialize with Reggie’s friends, thanks to the two year age gap, but you were happy he had good friends. Well, less than two years between you and Luke.

“It was good. Since when are you interested in Crimson Queen?” You questioned moving more into the room with the four young teens, “You haven’t even touched your bass in years.”

One eyebrow raised you individually looked at the boys in the room all with sheets of paper around them. From a distance, you couldn’t tell what was on them, but it couldn’t be homework. They all attended the same high school while you had done correspondence with the band and a tutor.

“Luke’s parents got him a guitar,” Reggie spoke gesturing to the decent brand new acoustic guitar on the floor beside the Patterson. Luke’s hazel eyes widening as you came closer to the group.

Your hand picking up the guitar to look it over finding it was decent for a beginner, but it was definitely not tuned. The sheer sound made you wince.

“So, you guys want to be a band?” You questioned sitting on the floor beside Luke. The boy shifting nervously, you weren’t blind that he got shy around girls, “Do you guys even play instruments?”

“I got the bass, Bobby can play rhythm guitar, Alex plays dru-“

“I wouldn’t call it proper drumming. It’s just something my therapist suggested with my anxiety and frustrations.” Alex raised his hand leading to everyone in the room looking at the tall male, recently had a growth spurt, with the backward black hat.

“And Luke will learn guitar as well.” You added, looking at the quiet, “How well can you play?”

“I don’t even know how to properly tune it,” Luke admitted playing with his fingers adorned with a ring.

Luke had chosen a cutoff shirt in an attempt to gain your attention to his arms he hoped had gotten more muscled. He had a massive crush on you but with the guys your own age he had step up; he started working out. He actually enjoyed it, but he’d enjoy it more if you were checking him out.

“You’ll need a place to practice.” You mumbled glancing out the window at the ocean waves thinking. The house was on the prime real estate edge of the beach all thanks to your well off parents; Dad, a doctor and Mom, an interior designer.

Your fingers tapped on the ripped blue jeans you had chosen that day with the flannel shirt opened over the black AC/DC t-shirt. You started standing up, grabbing Luke’s hand to pull him up as well; the boy’s cheeks grew pinker, and his heart fluttered.

“What?” Luke spluttered, staring at his hand, caught in yours in sheer awe.

“You’ll need a place to practice.” You answered, dropping is head to reach in your pocket for your key chain.

The key chain had a few keys on it: one for home, one for your car, one for the band van for gigs, one for the garage, and lastly one for the house the garage belonged to. The boys piled into the car, apprehensive for where you were taking them. The only sound was the radio playing local greatest hits, your foot slammed on the brake at the house of your bassist.

“Well Marty, this song has blown up on the charts. New band Crimson-“

“Holy shit.” You breathed staring at the radio. Your door opened as you sprinted down to the steps that led to the garage. The footsteps of the boys following.

The garage was open already with your band members lounging around the space filled with instruments and amps. Their heads swivelling as you frantic turned the radio on.

“Come on.” You mumbled, turning the radio station to the right one, “Guys listen!”

“-Crimson Queen is an LA-based band making waves in the LA Nightlife and hit the top ten with their newest song Sorry Now.” The radio host spoke, “If you haven’t heard the song before, this is the band’s new single.”

The song was blasted from the radio leading to the four girls screaming the song out dancing around the room. Euphoria was the only way you could call the feeling rising in the bodies of the girls in the place. The room burst into more screams as your drummer. Faith switched the radio station.

“Today history was made, Crimson Queen is an all-female rock band fronted by Y/N Rhodes. They started as a hobby at fifteen, but a year later at sixteen they’ve made waves.” A hit radio station, the second one so far, was talking about your band. Holy shit.

“Lucy, this band is going places. My daughter is seven years old, and she’s telling me this band is the talk of her school. I can’t tell how much Lucy listens to their demo.”

Your eyes saw Reggie having a meltdown of excitement for older sister and her band, and you were so unbelievably happy you should care the moment. You rushed over to Reggie to pull him into a hug.

“Girls…and boys.” Mrs Taylor spoke furrowing her brows at the young boys in the garage her daughter had begged to use for the band. Shaking her head, the middle-aged woman turned her attention to her daughter.

“Hey, Ma.” Dawn, your bassist, spoke spreading her pink painted lips to her perfectly straight teeth too hyped up on energy, “What’s up?”

“First congratulations on the single. Secondly, we’re gonna need to get a personal line for the band because our phone is blowing up.”

A sharp gasp from Dawn before the three of the four girls rushed to the house of the Taylor’s. You hung back to look at your brother and his band.

“So? What do you think?” You inquired with the group, “This idea of yours has to be one hundred percent what you want. It won’t be easy in LA, it will come with hardships, and Reggie Mom and Dad won’t let you drop out.”

The four boys nodded their heads because the excitement they saw in your big break was something they wanted. To be able to connect with people cemented their decision.

“Feel free to hang around.” You suggested glancing around the garage that started it all, “I’ll be back in a bit.”

The Orpheum, Los Angeles, 1995

The crowd screamed as Crimson Queen, the song that started this road played with the girl crouching to grasp the hand of fans. At the beat of the chorus, you stood up eating up the energy of the last show of the tour. You went jumped on the drum riser rocking on the guitar as Faith did her magic.

Dawn on her bass made her way to rock with your rhythm guitarist Sara sharing grins with you still feeling the euphoria of this success. As the song came to an end, your entire band went to the front of the stage.

“We’d like to thank our fans for the last nine months of our world tour. We started this band in LA in 1991, so we thought it fit to end our tour at The Orpheum.” You spoke to the crowd, feeding off the energy as the concert came to an end.

The road crew would load your instruments up in the van to take home after months of travelling. You were so excited to see Reggie, who would be seventeen now, having celebrated his birthday while you had been in Europe. Too excited were shocked as Reggie backstage.

“Reggie!” You exclaimed tugging the teen into your arms, leaning back to take him in, “Damn you grew!”

Reggie grinned not giving a shit you were coated in sweat from performing your setlist, but your eyes went over his shoulder. Standing close and just as excited was Reggie’s friends. Alex was taller, Bobby looked more confident, and Luke could meet your eyes. Luke also had changed, no longer baby faced.

“Sunset Curve.” You spoke, stepping back to look them over, “I haven’t seen you guys in months, how did you change so much!”

“That’s what happens when you go on tour for almost a year.” Luke teased tugging you into his arms for a tight hug.

It was odd seeing Luke taller and more muscled than when you left for tour, and the confidence was honestly hot. You had seen Luke as anything other than your brother’s friend, who tended to stare a little too long.

“You played the fucking Orpheum!” Alex screamed, holding your shoulders with a wrinkled nose at the damp red thin flannel shirt. The girls wandered up behind you each with a grin at the guys.

“Well if it isn’t Sunset Swerve,” Sara spoke swinging her arm over your shoulder with a teasing smirk plastered on her face. Her blonde hair swept up in a bun high on her head from a recent shower.

“Sunset Curve!” The male quartet snapped at the name before they fell back into a happy demeanour. Luke and you both staring at each other with a pink-hued face.

Faith was quieter in the group leaning closer to your band to whisper in your ear, “Jay scored us some drinks. But MJ got us into a party.” Faith’s textured hair tickling your neck.

Grins split the three girls at the suggestion each excited for the party with fellow musicians and plus ones. Sure, the parties had drugs and alcohol, but they were fun and part of the scene. Half of you wanted to go, but the other wanted to spend time with your brother.

“I’ll think I’ll pass.” You spoke up to the girls motioning to the guys, “I’ll head back with them. Meet you at the house later?”

Your black vans moving backwards as you moved to be closer to be flush against Reggie’s side grinning as he bumped his hip against you. Sara, Faith and Dawn each raising an eyebrow at your response since you often dragged them to parties.

“Orrr…we could each take one of them.” Faith cajoled mocha skin gleaming in the light with her hands, tugging her hair into a thick braid.

“You want me to take my seventeen-year-old brother and his friends-“

“-I’m like two weeks from being eighteen-” Luke cut into the conversation buzzing at the possible date, but not date, with the girl he had been crushing on for years. He was pretty sure he was in love with you at this point; he did date a little, but nothing stuck.

“-To a party in Hollywood.” You finished pinning your gaze on the three girls ahead each with mischievous grins. Your cheeks puffed as you breathed out, thinking of the positives and negatives.

Bobby was bouncing on his heels with Reggie leaving Alex shifting uncomfortably in his place. His partially relaxed when Luke squeezed his forearm through the distressed black jean jacket that bought his outfit together. Luke himself was apprehensive on your decision because either way, he got to spend time with you.

“Come on.” Dawn implored, pulling out the big guns with her ocean blue eyes widening into the puppy gaze that did you in each time. Her curtain of short dyed pink hair framing her heart-shaped face.

“I’m going to pass this time. Do some shots for me! Not tequila though, that was a huge mistake.” Faith’s grin widened at having you carry you out of the house in the early morning after a wicked party.

“Did you ever find your tho-“

“Faith!” You hissed turning a bright red at her revelation that you definitely didn’t want Reggie to know. The atmosphere turned awkward as everyone realized what the sentence would end with.

Okay so maybe you had hooked up with a few people over the last three years but nothing permanent. It was fun, drunk fun, but still fun and nothing had gone wrong. Your eyes avoided looking at Luke for a reason you couldn’t decipher.

“I’ll see you later.” You spoke motioning for the guys to follow you to the dressing room you had settled in early in the day. The corner of your lips quirked at the awe on each of the boys’ faces.

“I’m in the dressing where bands become legends.” Reggie gasped circling the room with wide-eyed interest. Alex was interested in the band posters on the walls from previous performers.

Luke, however, was more interested in your curves covered by your sweaty stage clothing that stuck to your form. His Adam’s apple gulped as you grabbed your shower bag moving towards the connected bathroom.

“I’ll grab a shower, and we can head out.” You supplied, “I’ll just need to stop at Rudy’s office for our portion of the concert.”

The guys mumbled a response finding a place to wait without hushed conversations of when they would get to play. Luke’s eyes found yours at the low call of his name from the bathroom; a crack opened he walked over.

“Do you have a sweater?” You mumbled at the taller teen with widening eyes as he realized that you were naked behind the door.

Luke stumbled over his feet, retrieving the black pullover Crimson Queen merch he had had for months now. He had saved up money to buy the merch to support the band. The door closed as you tugged the sweater in the bathroom momentarily before walking out.

“Thanks Lu. I forget to pack a shirt.” Luke awed as your nose scrunched up adorably to the amusement of his friends, “So, do you wanna hit the beach? Or maybe give me a concert in the garage?”

Luke intertwined his fingers in yours as he tugged you out of the room with your bag in hand. His heart fluttered as you held on to his hand even in the little office of the Orpheum’s management for the thick envelope of money.

“Thanks, Rudy!” You called over your shoulder at the short, stout man going over the financials and upcoming performances.

The smell of Sunset Boulevard brought a smile remembering the first time you performed and the small group that had waited outside. The first night of autographs and recognition.

“So, Reg how’s my car?” You questioned the teen who impishly grinned tugging the key chain from his black jeans. You had given him the keys when you revealed Crimson Queen had a world tour.

“Right there.” Reggie pointed leading the group of five to the car that would take them to the garage. Reggie drove with Alex in the passenger while you were crammed between Bobby and Luke; Luke was delighted in your warmth against his side.

While your band members partied, you got a first-row seating to Sunset Curve’s talent in the garage where you had started out. It was amazing to see how much they had accomplished in the three years since they started.

The sudden knock on the door had you flailing off the couch onto the floor with a sheet of paper stuck to your cheek. Your spine cracked as you sat up glancing at your watch, finding it was after midnight, only an hour of sleep after inspiration for a new song.

The door was knocked on once more and coming close the sound of crying could be heard, and you wondered if it was Luke. He had been over a few days in the night following a fight with his parents and needed to crash; helped you were giving dating a chance after his well-rehearsed speech.

Imagine your shock when it was Reggie sobbing, “Reggie.”

“C-can I stay here?” Reggie whimpered cuddling himself into the leather jacket he received at Christmas from you. You had inside in your arms in moments, “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Are they fighting again?” You murmured to your younger brother content to hold him as he cried. Bringing him to the living room, you held him as he cried humming under your breath the first song you ever let him see.

“Yeah. The music doesn’t work anymore.” Reggie murmured leaning back to wipe his tears off, “Sorry for crashing. I can go stay with-“

“Here. Reginald, you can always stay here.” You soothed the seventeen-year-old boy with sad eyes and a sombre look. His sad eyes shattered your heart, knowing he had suffered the fighting for months alone, “This house is empty Reg. You can move in here.”

His lip quirked up, “Can we play country music?”

“And eat breakfast at night.” You teased him grinning as his lips pulled up into his trademark grin, “The guys can come over whenever they want. I’d actually prefer they know they can stay here, they deserve a safe place to stay.”

You knew that Alex endured living with his parents, who had gone out of their way to avoid him after he came out. Luke couch surfed at your old house, never at Alex’s home; after coming out, Alex didn’t feel comfortable bringing anyone over.

“Good, because they’re outside.” Reggie sheepishly admitted raising his thumbs-up, “Go thinking ahead!”

Snorting the human version of a golden retriever you opened the front door to the house finding two guys in strange positions. Alex was inspecting the light fixture, and Luke was leaning against the wall with his elbow, foot across the other.

“You guys need lessons in the art of pretending you weren’t eavesdropping.” The sigh fell stepping aside for the two to enter the home—each carrying a backpack and small duffle bag for wherever they would have crashed.

The male trio got comfortable in the living room curiously glancing at the mess of papers, sticky notes and pencils. While with good intentions, they didn’t follow boundaries well, even for Alex.

“Whatcha working on?” Luke inquired, leaning closer to a sheet of paper. His pout coming over his face when you quickly tidied up the papers.

“Nothing. I fell asleep on the couch. The label wants new songs.” You groaned rubbing your eyes, “I got inspired last night. Oh! Hey, I took a message for you guys.”

Jogging to your office studio for the band you quickly grabbed the envelope along with the note that you had been given.

“So, Rudy called me, and I had a meeting with him.” You started sitting on the coffee table in front of the trio. The trio leaned forward.

“Rudy?” Luke questioned, pursing his lips together at the male name. While you and Luke were dating it wasn’t official, he was just really nervous with his dream girl liking him back.

“He’s the management for a venue. He asked if our band was available for a concert, but we collectively decided to focus on songs and recording, which you can’t tell anyone about, but he’s in dire need. So, I might have given him something. Specifically a demo of yours and knowing your home situations I gave my information.”

“Okay…so?” Alex questioned, leaning forward. His eyes growing wide as you pushed the envelope in his hand.

Alex quickly opened the cream envelope finding inside a paper along with a mock-up promo poster with Sunset Curve. The squeal was shocking from the teenager as he read the letter and note out loud.

Y/N,

I gave the demo a listen, and we usually wouldn’t do this, but Crimson Queen has been gracious with us. Always mentioning where the band got its start and closing the tour here. To repay the favour, we would formally like to invite Sunset Curve to perform. In the envelope is a mock-up poster as an option for the promo. Get the Sunset Curve’s people to get in touch. I can get the word out to some friends from some labels to come for a listen. Get in touch as soon as possible.

Manager of The Orpheum in Los Angeles,

Rudy West.

 “The Orpheum?” Luke screamed, yanking the paper from Alex to re-read it in complete shock, “We don’t have people!”

“But Crimson does.” You smirked, “On a temporary basis Crimson Queen formally offer our manager’s help.”

In his excitement, Luke lunged to pull you into a kiss freezing the room in shock.

“He got the girl.” Alex breathed elbowing Reggie in the side who’s mouth was open at his best friend kissing Reggie’s older sister. The older sister who was the driving force behind Luke wanting to form a band to impress her, “We need to tell Bobby!”

1995 was the best year for Luke Patterson. He got the girl, his band made it, his parents finally saw his dream was worth it.

The sound of music hypnotized the woman as she wandered down the hall to the open door of the large home. Nothing too over the top like Bobby’s mansion, but it was a nice size in a gated area. Your neighbours being Reggie on one side and Alex on the other side with his partner Willie; Willie had skated into Alex and into a love story pretty much.

Resting against the door edge of the designated home studio you saw Luke had moved a rocking recliner in. Softly playing in the room was a soft acoustic song recorded months previous as a surprise for you.

“When are the lessons starting?” You questioned bringing Luke’s attention to your soft smile and the love in your eyes. Luke’s grin widened glancing down at the miniature version of his love-filled eyes.

“Given her legendary parents, I think at two.” Luke chuckled shuffling the baby to the crook of his arm shifting, so you could curl into his side as well. Both eyes gazing at the little baby you had welcomed what felt like yesterday.

Stevie could fall asleep only to the lullaby her father had created during the pregnancy, and he had written. Stevie had Luke’s eyes, and so far her blonde hair had yet to darken so the question of if she’d take after your hair or his hair was unanswered.

“Hey sweetheart.” You whispered to your daughter falling asleep to the sound of her father’s voice in the room. An adorable yawn pulled from her little body as she nestled into Luke’s arms.

“She’s so gorgeous.” Luke breathed tears welling up as he could understand the reasoning behind his parents’ opinions in his teens. He truly felt terrible at hurting his mom now that he felt the love for his child.

“We did good Patterson.” You murmured back to the man who had held your heart since you were nineteen and back from tour. Your finger tracing Steve’s soft cheek, “I think she has your mom’s mouth.”

Luke’s lips lingered on your cheek heart full of love for his family with you and his little girl. He had known since his eleventh birthday he would marry you even if you were a year older. A year that made the difference when he was months older than his friends, so the year felt like two for you. At eighteen when was tentatively dating you, he knew he would marry you. He never anticipated the sheer amount of adoration for the little girl he would have at twenty-one.

God, he loved his life. He made up with his parents, his best friends, had the girl of his dreams, the most beautiful daughter and it all thanks to music. Can you see why he lives and breathes music?

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[prxttypxrker]

secrets: rewritten [peter parker]

fandom: marvel/spider-man

pairing: peter parker x female!reader, dad!tony stark x reader

word count: 3.4k

part: one two three four

summary: y/n transferred to midtown for her junior year. after becoming fast friends with the trio, a rift forms when peter starts his stark internship for a second year. distance makes two hearts grow fonder, and with them come secrets. will anyone come clean when the class takes a trip across the ocean?

warning(s): panic attack at beginning, anxiety attack mentioned and included during school scene + after effects

disclaimer: takes place during the events of far from home but in a world where tony barely survived and deals with the after effects; dialogue that follows the movie will be word for word excluding (of course) the reader’s lines, and all action scenes for peter (and others) will be written to the best of my ability. events in europe will all be adjusted to fit the change in storyline

taglist: @hollymac79 @lost-in-translating @avengerstanforlife @ex0 @uwu-sebastianstan

FOUR

Your room was still spinning, seemingly more than it was before. No amount of the deep breaths AVA had you doing for the past hour seven minutes were helping to any extent; each time you felt like you were calming down it would hit you all over again.

Peter Parker, your crush and more importantly one of your closest friends, was the blue and red hero you would see swinging around buildings and stopping criminals on the news. The one who was known to be affiliated with Iron Man, kept a crazy guy who called himself Falcon from stealing shipments being moved from Stark Tower, and saved a group of students from falling to their deaths in Washington DC. How could someone who was the most awkward and nerdiest kid you’d ever met also be the only teenage hero you knew of that went out and risked their lives, all the while keeping their neighborhood safe. Was that why he never had time for you guys anymore? He was out stopping crimes and probably planning things with your dad? You really had to wonder if the others already knew what was going on and were just going along with the act. At the very least, Ned definitely had to. You knew enough to figure out very quickly how close he was with the light skinned brunette.

Everything was processing at a pace that was no help in digesting the information properly. Each moment the boy was late or didn’t show up to a hangout. All the times you’d stick it out longer than the other two because you figured since you didn’t know him as long you should give the benefit of the doubt. Every time it seemed like your dad had more interest in your friendship with Peter than anyone else. You’d always thought it was because he took him under his wing as an intern; just a simple work program where he showed off and had him run errands or something.

And what in the actual hell was this thing that decided to crawl all over your body the same way a snake shed its skin? It looked just like your dad’s except it was black and silver, and the cold metal did nothing but freak you out even more. Not even AVA speaking from inside of the helmet was able to deter from that fact that so much was coming down on you at once. You could hardly make out the sound of an accent fading into your room, the click of the doorknob being turned, and the sinking of the bed on the other end.

Tony couldn’t help but lock his gaze with the iron suit that was now encasing your body, shielding your face from the world. He certainly remembered making it before handing you the necklace all those months ago, but he never gave it the activation it needed to appear the way his did. That was supposed to be for when you were ready or truly needed it. Regardless of the armor, there was no doubt that you were trembling like there was no tomorrow. He wondered what brought it on, of course, but that would need to be settled afterwards.

“What’s your favorite thing about the city?”

There was new input—muddled but familiar. The heavy set breaths didn’t stop, however, and that was when he really got worried. The man had no idea how to help you if his voice wasn’t getting through to you the way it did with the less severe anxiety attacks. Both A.Is that were programmed into the house and your bedroom could sense the distress coming off of both figures, causing your own to step in and make a suggestion. The conclusion was that AVA would ask you everything instead of him, a settlement that didn’t sit well. They were simple—the type of music you listened to, the top three places you wanted to travel to, who your best friend was—things that you would always talk about on a normal day. It appeared to be working. You breathing slowed and became quieter, the shaking stopped, and your heart rate was nearly at its normal pace. As smart as machinery created by a genius tended to be, the bodiless voice asked a final question that could help both people in the room.

“May I ask what triggered the panic you were feeling, Miss?”

“Th-they, um..” You shook your head a bit, previously frantic eyes now locked on the mattress that was sunken. Who was sitting at the foot of your bed again? “They didn’t tell me. He didn’t... Why didn’t you tell me?” You asked him directly, finally able to focus on the other human in the room without even glancing upwards.

There was nothing he felt he could do but contemplate as he watched you refuse to look at him. Very few times had you experienced anything like this since moving into the household, and each was less severe than this. When taking into consideration that those other moments were socially induced, he realized the only person you could have interacted with on a Saturday was himself. But what exactly did he say to you? Everything was perfectly fine out on the terrace, then once Pepper set you free you had to rush to the room after hearing the kid’s- “Okay, I got it.” Tony sighed, leaning forward in a similar fashion to your friend when they were in the office. “You more than anybody should know that people keep secrets for a reason. You didn’t know who he was outside of your classmate, and he still doesn’t know who you really are. It’s a two way street. You can’t get mad at everyone else when you’re keeping things quiet yourself.”

“Maybe not.” You shrugged lamely, finally looking up at your father. “But not inviting someone to your dad’s house and not telling your friend you’re a damn superhero are two different things.”

-

You wanted so badly to fill in the one person who knew everything about you: Michelle Jones.

She didn’t normally show if anything ever made her nervous or freak out—except maybe before a couple of Decathlon competitions out of the city. Her casual demeanor and lack of caring what others thought of her and her actions did not fail in drawing you in. Coming from a place within yourself where all you ever did was worry and hesitate to do certain things, having someone like her was such a blessing. You both clicked your first day at Midtown High, and even though it took a while for her to actually open up, neither of you regretted choosing one another as the best friend. That’s why when she picked up on the weird energy you had around Peter when you all met up that morning, she immediately had to know why.

You made the strongest effort possible to avoid talking about it because (1) you had no idea if she held any knowledge on what was bothering you, and (2) there was no way that you’d risk that coming out to more people if she didn’t. You’d lived with a hero and known about these kinds of situations long enough to know that the larger the group of keepers got, the larger the amount of those who would be put in danger. Never in your life since meeting this girl would you take that chance. In which case, any time she started tossing around the fact that you were acting a bit distant when the others weren’t around, you’d dismiss it without issue. Classes became a drag seeing as you either shared one with Peter and had to attempt at maintaining a normal conversation, or you shared a long desk with MJ and the different type of tension felt like an elephant trying to balance on a tightrope.

The biology lab came to be the only place of sanctuary; the teacher was allowed to bring in a class pet or two so long as they were small. It all sounded more elementary and junior high but you couldn’t complain when you first walked into the room and saw a turtle tank by the window. You purposely chose a seat beside the farther side of the counter because their relaxed nature just soothed you, and the internal mess of today called for it.

“Hey.”

Your head turned once the door shut again, seeing the brown skinned girl swing her desk onto the lab table beside you and take a seat. “How’d you know I was here?”

She raised an eyebrow at you, leaning back against the chair. “I don’t consider myself your best friend for nothing. You always come here when something at school is stressing you out, and I know that today, it has to do with Peter.”

“No, it doesn’t.” You denied it almost instantly, regretting the quick response when you noticed the change in her expression. Being so close to such an observant person really screwed you over sometimes. That feeling only deepened when she leaned on the desk in her folded arms and narrowed her eyes, definitely scanning your face for any instability in the neutral look. You did the same, using the wall behind you as support. The unwavering stare did nothing but fail in keeping your thoughts at bay. Keeping things from MJ never sat well with you in the past, and so this whole ordeal was just driving you closer and closer to spilling everything. You could practically hear your head pounding in your ears at the simple thought of lying to her about something like this.

Were you overthinking it? Telling her didn’t mean you had to mention everything. Maybe you could just say it had to do with something that happened at home; which wasn’t a complete lie. As lacking in caring about others she made herself out to be, you knew that even if it was a small problem in her own eyes, she’d be there for you. Which in turn made you feel even worse. What if your friendship started going downhill because you chose not to share such a huge life update with her? You didn’t think you’d be able to handle that at all.

“Y/N? Hey, it’s okay.” Her voice traveled through one ear and out the other, muffled and distant despite her being right beside you; just as your father’s was just one week before. God, why was it happening again? On no account did your panic or anxiety scares have such small gaps of time in between them. The mere idea that finding out about Peter became akin to a triggering event for you was ridiculous. It was exactly like realizing your other parent was Iron Man except this one was unrelated, the same age as you doing this for who knew exactly how long, and you also happened to find him pretty damn attractive. Although little things like that shouldn’t even play a factor.

The pounding hardly quieted down as wide eyes met the concerned leer of a girl now standing directly in front of you. Your gaze flitted to the backpack set atop the bench, reminding you that it was still the middle of the day. This was just study hall—the dread of having to go on with the rest of the day weighed heavily on your chest.

A well known humming sound came from the small item hanging off your neck, followed by thin alloy spreading until it was covering your torso. Nothing could really be said in that moment as you watched Michelle take a step back in surprise, staring at what extended down to your wrists. There wasn’t too much being jumbled around your head when it came to the suit this time, and that was because you were persistent as hell until your dad agreed to tell you.

“This is bullshit and you know it.”

“Hey—I don’t care how upset you are, that language is unacceptable.”

“You say it all the time.” You grumbled at him, a defiant gaze to challenge his stern one. He wouldn’t dare repeat himself when it came to your mumbling. Though the arguments between you two were few and very far in between, that was the one thing you’d stick to doing just to get under his parental skin.

Keeping your friend’s second identity from you was already causing you to become more anxious than usual but when he didn’t seem shocked at what was covering your skin? That hit you to such a different degree. Here was a man known for his inventions and the iron technology that was used to help save the city, the country and the universe. A man who not only built dozens of models and kept them on standby, but destroyed everything except the first finalization years ago because they attracted too much danger. As far as you knew, nothing very threatening or out of the ordinary happened in his life aside from your addition to it, and it proved to be a little hectic. Things like being given a necklace that hid a whole outfit of nanotech weren’t supposed to happen. Couldn’t someone who suffered threats with levels way higher than what you dealt with understand your frustration?

“No. There will be no mumbling. The adult is talking now.” He snapped out, refusing to raise his voice but using a tone that he hardly ever needed. “I know what you deal with every day more than anybody, and being mad is fine. Let off a little steam, let yourself cool down and breathe. But don’t for a second think that gives you liberty to act out once you’re okay. I hate being the mean parent; I thrive on my kids liking me more than their mo- Pepper.”

You tried so hard to avoid his stare, and as soon as he corrected himself when it came to the joke about being more liked you maintained that eye contact. It wasn’t like nobody else in the world went through the mental struggles you had. It was pretty much common sense that the rest of the general population did. Though this wasn’t just anybody. It was someone you always wanted to meet. The one you found after already losing your mom and almost losing him before you’d even decided to fly to New York. And the one who’s dealt with more than anyone you ever knew, and still was. He could barely sit or stand up by himself sometimes, for god's sake. So you were annoyed, and felt completely lied to, and wanted to shut him out as dramatic flair for a couple of days or until your grounding was over. But thinking back to all the stories you were told throughout this punishment–not to mention what you’d witnessed all the times he thought he was alone in a room and broke down–it made sense.

“When did you make it?”

Tony stopped mid-sentence of his speech, taken aback at you wanting to have an actual talk instead of talking back. “After the first time you called me Dad. Kind of had an epiphany, of sorts—realized everyone I cared about was at risk of something. You kind of threw yourself into the mix here, so I had to keep you safe.”

You shifted so your back was against the headboard of your bed, tilting your head in question. “Don’t you think telling me would’ve made it safer?”

“Not with how much you were sniffing around my things. I did, however, place an emergency protocol. It would only appear when your life was in immediate danger but since you extended AVA into the charm, her data merged with the programming.”

“So she self activated when I had... that?”

“She self activated because you knew these things would happen and input it into her system. You’re a smart kid. Just stop doing shit you aren’t supposed to do.”

“Language, Mr. Stark.” You retaliated, smiling at the short laugh he tried to hide two seconds later.

A loud ring broke out through the enclosed space, making you jump back into reality. The seven minute warning bell for anyone who had classes on opposite ends—which you did.

Without uttering or exchanging another word towards each other, you hopped off of the counter. Michelle noticed when you lay a hand on the surface to keep your balance after what happened, and after slinging the body bag over her shoulders she took yours so you’d have no physical weight on you. All she could do was watch you thank her and start heading towards the door. She’d been present during several moments of panic or being highly anxious over one thing or another but never at school. At first she assumed the weird behavior was solely because of Peter but seeing what happened after what would barely be considered a conversation with her.. She couldn’t exactly ignore the curiosity that grew within her. It was obvious that whatever was going on, trying to figure it out on school grounds was deemed to not be the best idea. Maybe if she went to your house after.

The pair of you walked out, one arm around the waist of your companion while she had one around your shoulders. The halls were emptying by the second but those who got a kick out of waiting until literally the last minute were still lingering by the doors of their next class. There were a few stares as you made way to the other side of the building; you didn’t think anyone in your grade would ever understand how you and the wallflower of judgement came to be so close. Still, you both always carried on, especially when you became friends with the boys. Ned and Peter were a couple of nerds who drew you in immediately just because they were awkward but not afraid to be themselves. None of them were. That’s why you couldn’t really keep something like Tony Stark being your dad from them. Peter was the exception, and you felt you had good reason not to enclose that with him.

It didn’t take as long as you thought to reach English, so a good chunk of seats were still left unattended. You were still out of it just enough for the teacher to notice, however, and question the fatigued appearance. “She just has a really big headache.” MJ excused as you went to sit in the back where you usually did.

“Then she needs to see the nurse, don’t you think?”

“Sure.” If you didn’t already get in trouble for attitude and over expressing emotion you would’ve taken that opportunity to stare at the woman boredly. But you knew she was right. The nurse had experience with your—for lack of a better term—episodes in the past, and had the prescriptions that helped with the after effects. “Can MJ come with me?”

“I’m afraid not. I have something to discuss with her.”

“I was not aware of that little fact, but alright.” The girl beside you raised her eyebrows, sharing a confused look with you. “Sorry. But I am going to come over later.”

You nodded, quickly glancing around the room before sighing. Gratefully, you took your backpack from MJ and slung one side over your shoulder. You were only able to take one step back out towards the corridors before someone you quite literally couldn’t speak to or you’d combust spoke up. Your head turned as Peter stood up from his desk, making his way to the front without being told to and standing next to his friends. “I-I can take her.”

The head of the class was definitely over the whole situation, just wanting to get on with the lesson and not delay any more of the forty minutes she has planned. Without hesitation or thought to the suggestion, she waved her hand and turned back to the whiteboard behind her. After silently cursing her, and waving at the one who sat back in her seat with an expression of interest on her face, you followed the intern, dreading the thought of what the hell you might end up saying during the visit to the school nurse.

[robinsdearest]

Ketchup Packets

Tim Drake x Reader

Peanut Butter and Oreos (Part 1) They’ll be okay (Part 2) Bobby pin (Part 3) Ketchup Packets (Part 4)

Tim threw another piece of notebook paper into the trash. It hit the other balls of wadded up notes and bounced away. How long has he been hunched over his desk? Tim glanced up to look at the clock. A couple days, maybe. A couple hours since the last cup of coffee, definitely. He groaned and slid a hand across his face. Stubble scratched his fingertips.

Jason’s voice almost scared him. Almost. “Timmy, my dude, you have to stop working.” He kept scribbling as Jason walked over to lean against the wall adjacent to the crumbling despair that was Tim. Jason poked his face. “I didn’t even know you could grow facial hair.” Tim slapped his brother’s hand away and continued to write his notes down. 

It had been three months since your plane went down. Three months since your parents had died. Three months since you slipped through Tim’s fingers. He dove into work to try and figure out what happened the morning of your plane crash. He hasn’t stopped working to find you in three whole months.

Parts of your plane sat scattered around the BatCave. Background checks for everyone at the airport that day, the days before and after laid loosely on the ground by Jason’s feet. Everything and everyone was clean. The owner of the plane your group borrowed publicly stated there was a fuse shortage in the engine causing it to explode, and subsequently, sent your plane barreling down into the ocean. News reporters claimed everyone from that flight deceased- the five supposed survivors not even missing anymore, all reported to be lost at sea. But Tim knew better- he knew you were alive. He knew it, had this gut feeling. Bruce always told him to trust his gut. Or did Superman say that? No, it was definitely the main bat. Or was it Diana…

Jason whacked the back of Tim’s head. Tim finally looked up at the Red Hood, scowling. Jason had to bite back a laugh: he knew how much pain Tim was still experiencing. Hell, he was dead for a while and no one bothered to search for him like Tim was doing for Y/N. “Come on man, let’s go get some grub. You look like you haven’t eaten in weeks.”

“Only a day.” Tim corrected. Another whack to the back of the head.

With the drive from the mansion into Gotham City and eventually to some burger joint, Tim couldn’t believe he was wasting time when he should be out searching for you. Even after three whole months of investigating, Tim was still coming up short. Every lead finished with a dead end. Every tangent lead to a backwash story that was publicized to explain the crash. Tim stared down at his tray of fries as Jason flirted with the cashier. Tim sorted through the files of his brain as he continued to work each angle of the investigation. Everything fit together but nothing made sense. Jason flung packets onto the table stirring Tim out of his trance. Jason was flaunting how he got a phone number from the cashier and waved around the receipt where it was written. Tim stared down at the packets on the table. Ten- what an odd number to grab. Tim counted five mustard packets and five ketchup packets. Tim reached for a ketchup packet, grimacing when he picked up the one that was busted open leaking on to the table. Of course he would grab the one that…

Tim immediately shot up and grabbed Jason by the collar. Jason choked on his bite of food as he dropped the rest of his burger. “Oi, dunce face, what in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jason fumbled into the passenger seat of the car as Tim shoved him forward, sprinted around to the driver side, and then started the car. Tim started rambling. Jason had a hard time keeping up.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” “Think of what? How you ruined my burger?” “Of course I wouldn’t have looked into the victims.” “Me. I’m a victim, you burger murderer.” “All of those doctors, all seemingly connected in one way or another.” “Doctors?” “Doctors, Jason! God, I’m an idiot. The one that wasn’t connect has got to be the leak. The leak that doesn’t fit but allows everything to make sense.” “Alright, I’m calling Alfred. Timmy, we need to get you checked out.”

Tim slammed on the breaks at the red light. The two brothers stared at each other, neither one moving. The light turned green, but Tim didn’t accelerate.

“Jason I’m talking about Y/N.” Jason’s face turned into a serious frown, and Tim continued. “I never looked into the doctors that were supposed to go on the mission trip. How could they be considered suspects when we see them as victims?” Tim held up the leaking ketchup packet. “One of them is the leak, the cause of the problem.”  Jason’s lips turned into a snarky grin. He nodded his head towards the direction of the mansion, and Tim turned his eyes back to the road.

He finally figured it out. He was going to find you. His brain went into overdrive back at the cave. Jason called Damien and Dick down to help sort things out as Tim furiously worked into the rest of the night. The other boys made calls and printed papers as Tim searched through all ten people on your flight. 

Tim had to narrow down who he couldn’t verify. Nine doctors and one medical school student. Seven doctors, excluding both your parents. Five, excluding the other doctors he knew personally. Four, excluding the doctor Bruce dated a while back- the Russian one, he thinks as he scans over her name. Three left. Damien drops a stack of files next to Tim. The youngest brother briefly puts a hand on Tim’s shoulder before quickly withdrawing and returning to Dick’s side. A quick scan of the discarded stack reveals two of the last three doctors had confirmed deaths, dental records verifying their respective bodies at the site of the plane crash. One left.

Tim stopped typing. Bruce walked down the stairs and stood next to the oversized computer; the main bat was dressed in the suit, cowl pulled off, ready to go on patrol. He glanced around the room to his birdies, and lastly his eyes fell on Tim. Red Robin stared at the screen as the last doctor stared back at him. Tim found his ketchup packet.

Shawn Ramirez. A plastic surgeon from Metropolis- invited to the mission by Mr. Y/L/N. Ramirez was born in Washington and had only lived in the big city for four years: most recent addresses put him in Texas, and before that California. Before California, he moved internationally to practice medicine in Africa. More specifically, Ethiopia. Where the mission was planned to go. Where Y/N was supposed to be. 

Ramirez had worked for the Ethiopian military; a surgeon who traveled the continent looking to heal. At some point in time, Ramirez had visited Europe with the military. No less than a week later, Ramirez was back in the states working as a plastic surgeon. What happened in Europe?

Dick handed Bruce a stack of files. Looking through them, Bruce’s frown turned ever so slightly down. Bruce then handed the files to Tim, who spared a quick glance at Batman before turning his attention down to the file. Flipping through the papers, Tim froze at the known associate. Part of the League of Assassins known to the world only as Abadi- an elitist who weaseled through militaries and governments for fame and fortune in the name of Ra’s al Ghul. Abadi was a known villain amongst the bat and birds as Bruce is the one that nearly took the man’s eye out, leaving a gashing scar from eyebrow to chin, forcing the villain to wear an eye-patch. Abadi’s last known location was a small island off of Cape Verde, just a couple hundred miles from the plane’s crash landing.

Tim turned the chair around to see the rest of the family dressed in their suits: Bruce, Dick, Jason, Cass, Damien, and even Alfred. Alfred held out Tim’s Red Robin costume. “Master Tim.” Alfred was the first one to speak in hours since Tim and Jason returned home from the burger shop. “Please bring them home.” Tim reached for the suit, but was met by Alfred’s hand. The butler squeezed his fingers, and Tim simply nodded in understanding. The group hustled to the Bat Plane; inside, Batman ordered the birds for flight paths, site takeover analysis, and rescue plan. Tim sat at the back of the plane while the others worked. Tim was going to go save you, he was finally going to be able to tell you. And then, like a light switch, everything turned bright.

[beforedawnworld]

durmstrang institute (written in cyrillic as дурмстранг) is one of the three great wizarding schools of europe, and it is the one most shrouded in secrecy. the requirements of students and staff in attendance placed on them by the school are known only to other durmstrang staff and student, both current and former. they do not share their experiences with other wixen from other magical schools, as there is a superstition among alumni that to do so would only damage the skills they learned there. tucked in the ural mountains of russia, pushed up against the arctic circle, the four-story tall castle is unplottable and cannot be found on any maps. it is known for its emphasis on the dark arts in its curriculum and in recent times has developed a reputation for producing dark wixen, most famously the dark wizard gellert grindelwald.

acceptance

durmstrang accepts students from around europe aged eleven up, including those as far west as iceland and as far south as bulgaria. as long as a student seeking acceptance to the school does not live in an area covered by the other two wizarding schools of europe, hogwarts and beauxbatons, there is a possibility durmstrang would offer them acceptance. it is never a certainty, however, as despite this wide geographic region, the school is rather selective in who is allowed to attend. first and perhaps most infamously, the student must not be a muggleborn. they must come from a family that has not spoken against the dark arts nor acted to limit education on the dark arts. the path to admittance can and has been smoothed by generous donations from the family members of those seeking acceptance, though such students have been known to get teased relentlessly at school upon arrival.

education

unlike many other magical schools, including hogwarts and ilvermorny, it is not the lighter magics such as charms and transfiguration at the core of the curriculum of durmstrang. while such subjects are indeed taught, their importance and standing in lessons is strongly undercut by the pervasive flow of the dark arts through the various programs offered. a student of durmstrang is far more likely to know how to transfigure another wixen than an object and can likely think of several… unconventional applications for a well-cast aguamenti.

as a nod to their founder, all durmstrang classes are offered in bulgarian, however the true lingua franca of this school is russian. for those unfamiliar with these languages upon their arrival at durmstrang, an eight-week intensive course in the cyrillic alphabet, as well as the russian and bulgarian languages is required for any first-year or transfer not demonstrating adequate levels of language proficiency. however, because durmstrang accepts students from an incredibly broad geographic area, professors also offer classes in their home languages, resulting in lessons being conducted in polish, romanian, and other languages. this has resulted in nearly every durmstrang student speaking a minimum of four languages, depending on their professors, their courses, as well as the origins of their fellow pupils. translation spells do not work on campus and no class is taught in english.

core classes

core subjects are mandatory up until fourth year with the exception of dark arts, which is mandatory through the student's entire time at durmstrang.

the dark arts

the core that runs through durmstrang. to any durmstrang professor or alumni worth their magic, there is no “dark” and “light” magic, it is all simply magic and like a tool, it matters only in how it is used. durmstrang has chosen to focus on what other schools would refer to as the dark arts, which is defined by the administration as: “the interaction and manipulation of organic matter through magical means via internal manipulation of magical pathways”. this seven-year course grounds students in the basics of such an approach, moving into simple spells and manipulation, both with and without a conduit such as a wand or a staff. unusual applications of more conventional “light” magic is discussed, as well as dark spell development, the definition of a curse and how to create a cursed object, and applications of jinxes, hexes and curses in practical, applicable settings.

zagovory

the study of verbal enchantments. students learn the precise pronunciations and necessary circumstances this method of magic requires and begin practice with a set of knives. as they advance through their lessons, they will eventually be required to gather a full set of teeth through their own, non-magical means in order to fuel the enchantments. the strength of the enchantment, as well as how long it lasts, depends on how much power the caster can produce, which is why a full set of teeth is crucial to actually advance in this style of magic, making the collection of those teeth what distinguishes advanced students from beginners.

magic of the body

“it is from the body that your spell must originate. the wand, if you choose to use it, is nothing more than the way it escapes. it all comes from within you.” - durmstrang headmaster katayeva leonidovna. this seven-year course examines how energy moves through the body, how circumstances can hinder that flow, and where magical energy and various kinds of magic originate within the wixen’s body. one of the slower courses offered at durmstrang, it is a basic building block in how durmstrang students and teachers understand magic. as the course continues, it builds on itself until nonverbal, wandless magic can be produced by any graduating student purely by the manipulation of the magical energies inside of them.

potioneering

students examine what a potion is, how one is made, brewing a potion with proper safety precautions, as well as the development of a potion recipe and the history of potioneering. a strong believer in the hands-on approach, durmstrang students are given access to a cauldron almost immediately and are allowed to access it whenever they wish, as long as they prove they can be responsible and follow all guidelines. as a student advances, potions will become more complex with more and more complicated effects on the body. the class is divided in half, with the first half being a lesson and the latter half being an opportunity to discuss what was applied in class. exams are given at the end of each week.

organic transfiguration

a study on the history of transfiguration, the dangers and benefits of organic transfiguration, as well as in-depth practical study of the subject. students may use plants, non-sentient magical beings, or themselves as subjects for practice. the idea behind organic transfiguration, as they teach it at durmstrang, is a simple one: you must reshape the internal magical paths of a living being to resemble something else. this results in students needing a good basic knowledge of anatomy, both human, plant, and animal, which is also offered in this course.

greenskeeping

the durmstrang version of herbology. this is the study of keeping plants alive and healthy in order to be able to harvest needed materials from them. students will interact with both magical and mundane plants, both poisonous and safe and learn how to best look after them all, as well as how to monitor their health and how to produce the best yield when needed. repotting strategies, health issues, and applications of all plants for a variety of measures and situations will be discussed. students are strongly advised to have thick gloves and warm clothing for this course.

ancient and modern runes

a study of runic meanings and their history, alongside potential divination techniques and uses for runes in academic, professional, and personal settings. runic linkings and charging will also be discussed at higher levels of the course. translation of runic texts and artifacts will also make up a portion of this course in order to gain a greater appreciation for the history of runic magic. fluency in runes, both in divination and as a form of writing, is a must in order to succeed in this course and will be taught but not elaborated on. students are strongly encouraged to seek out additional help if they are having problems reaching consistent divination successes or having problems reading the runes.

lower division electives

magical law

a study of magical law across many wizarding countries in europe and asia. laws involving regulation and condemnation of the dark arts will be examined closely and broken down to further facilitate student understanding. other laws, including travel laws, artifact laws, and laws regulating interactions with non-magical populations will also be covered in this class. students will be expected to familiarize themself with one law covering dark magic regulation from their home country and present it, arguing either for or against it.

use of magical creatures

the examination of magical creatures, including their diets, mating habits, and life stages as well as how these creatures can be used by wixen kind. proper care for these creatures will be emphasized, as well as examining unconventional uses that may not have been obvious upon first examination. students will be trained to find these atypical uses and capitalize on them as well. laws around magical creature care, movement, and reproduction will also be examined.

non-magical studies

the study of the non-magical world, including what the americans would refer to as “no-majs” and their societies, cultures, and laws. also present will be lessons on the development of the nature world, the existence and categorization of non-magical creatures, and non-magical ways of understanding internal processes and systems.. this class is only available upon request of ten or more students. to make this request, please contact the auxiliary headmaster.

homeopathy

the study of medicinal plants and animals, the development of modern medical practice, and introductions to modern healthcare with the opportunity for limited practical applications. medical spells and plants will be at the center of this course with lecture material supplemented by field excursions and guest speakers. for a student gleaned to have a great aptitude for this field, medical texts as well as great opportunities for practical applications may be available. not recommended for those below third year.

whisperings

similar to the hogwarts study of charms, whisperings is the opportunity for students to expand into a field similar to zagovory with a return to spoken magic designed to produce an effect. unlike zagovory, whisperings are used to accomplish a task, whether that be extinguishing a fire, moving an object, or polishing a shoe. students will learn both the traditional method of whisperings, which does not use a wand, staff, or other conduit, as well as the more modern method, which combines limited conduit movements with shortened words to produce a similar effect to the traditional method.

inorganic transfiguration

a study of the more popular part of transfiguration in schools such as ilvermorny and hogwarts, this class examines how to turn inorganic objects into other inorganic objects, as well as how to turn inorganic things into organic ones. durmstrang considers this a more difficult form of transfiguration as there is no flow of magic in the starting object and, in some cases, a student must imbue it with magic in order to bring about the change into an organic object. as such, this course can only be attended by those recommended for it via a letter of recommendation.

conjuration

one accio can bring an object flying across the room. conjuration teaches that but at a far greater level. as this course serves as the foundation for future studies in conjuration, it is primarily theoretical, with examination of several texts written about the subject, including an introduction to the subject, an examination of how conjuration works, traditional methods of conjuring, before moving into more modern ways of taking a great many things from there and moving them to here. towards the end of the course, students will have the ability to put their learning into practice with limited conjurations from around the castle.

sailing

a traditional and dearly beloved pastime of durmstrang students, this course teaches students how to sail without the use of magic. one of only two recreational classes offered at durmstrang, this course will discuss how to plot a course, navigate using the stars, operate rigging, steer a ship, and cast an anchor. hopefully, students will become proficient before the annual great sailing competition, a time when mastery of the water and of offensive magicks come together to prove just who is the best student at durmstrang.

flight

a popular mode of transportation among the greater european magical community, this course teaches students how to fly, including how to summon and maintain a broom, get off the ground, hover, move up and down, and how to land. after several accidents in the past, students are expressly forbidden from using magic on brooms until they have demonstrated sufficient mastery of how to control one via completion of a mastery course.

upper division electives

advanced whisperings

students interested in furthering their studies into whisperings at last have an opportunity with the addition of the advanced whisperings class, added less than a decade ago. there is a greater focus on non-traditional methods of whispering and students are encouraged to examine and explore how different conduits impact their success in whispering. traditional whispering methods will be further expanded upon by examining how many words and sounds are needed to properly whisper without it failing entirely. lessons will be supplemented with historical sources and lectures from experts in the field.

advanced conjuration

letter of recommendation required for entry into this course. after a firm grasp of the history and methods have been proven, alongside an ability to successfully conjure objects from around the castle, students now have the ability to experiment further with practical, hands-on work in conjuring. students are expected to demonstrate mastery of both traditional conjuring methods via a summoning circle as well as more modern means that do away with the ritual. the final portion of this course will involve the conjuring of organic material with a human subject capping off the class.

resurrection studies

a class focused on the history, legends, and practical potentials of the resurrection of the dead. students will begin by examining popular stories and traditional tales of wixen returning from the dead, analyzing similarities between these stories to see what, if anything, is the truth. from these individual observations, students will then present them to the class and as a group, the class will pick a few options and attempt to succeed in this most elusive of goals via experiments conducted on plant life and deceased magical creatures. durmstrang would like to remind its student body there has not been a success in this course yet and there is no reward for succeeding.

alchemical studies

a magical field as old as magic itself, students will be instructed and taught in this ancient form of transfiguration and the traditional study of the elements of nature (earth, fire, water, and air). students will learn the history of this subject, the successes and the many, many failures that have plagued this study, before trying their own hand at it, turning ore into a refined metal, conducting the elements to obey one’s whim, as well as attempting the impossible: turning lead into gold.

advanced flight

once one has mastered the basics of broom flight, that is when the fun can truly begin. this course teaches advanced techniques on a broom, including offensive and defensive moves for airborne combat. popular trick moves, including those most commonly found in quidditch matches are also taught in this course. at the end, there will be a demonstration of learning presented to student peers and faculty of durmstrang.

experimental potions

letter of recommendation required for entry into this course. for those interested in going beyond what the books teach about potions, this is the perfect course. students will learn how individual ingredients affect the outcome of a potion, how to make a potion reliably explode, and what boundaries are currently being pushed in the field of potioneering today. students will be required to attempt to create their own potions and their own recipes, as well as modify existing potion recipes to produce an entirely different effect. several course will take place with the students blindfolded, in order to teach them how to brew a potion from touch, smell, and sound alone.

advanced homeopathy

letter of recommendation required for entry into this course. for those students that demonstrated exception skill and talent in the field of homeopathy, this course is the next logical step for them and serves much more as an apprenticeship to a working mediwix than an actual class. students gain extensive hands-on experience in this subject, as well as an above average knowledge of the theoreticals behind it. students are almost guaranteed a place alongside the healthcare workers they have worked under upon successful completion of this course and upon graduation from durmstrang.

examinations

at the end of each year exams are sat in every subject with the exams that that determine placement and job opportunities coming fourth and seventh year. fourth rank oral guidance exams, or f.r.o.g's, are sat in forth year with the seventh year exams known simply as crowns, as they crown off the student's time and determine what jobs they can perform. certifications and final exams all in one.

grading

much like the non-magical russian academic grading system, grades for durmstrang are on a scale from one to five, with five being the highest and one being the lowest. 

5 (“excellent”) - shows highest distinction and excellent knowledge of the subject. equivalent to an outstanding and is a passing grade.

4 (“good”) - shows good knowledge of a subject. equivalent to an exceeds expectations and is a passing grade.

3 (“satisfactory”) - shows a credible or passing grade. equivalent to an acceptable and is a passing grade.

2 (“unsatisfactory”) - shows a limited knowledge of a subject and is below average. equivalent to a poor or dreadful and is a failing grade.

1 (“very poor”) - shows a complete failure. equivalent to a troll and is a failing grade.

extracurricular activities

while all students at durmstrang are strongly encouraged to participate and interact with their fellow students as much as possible, student involvement in extracurricular clubs is intended to advance their academics and complement their learning. therefore, most of the clubs found at durmstrang tend to be more academic in nature, or at least tangentially related. however, as is the case with many rules, there are exceptions to this.

choir

for a school with such a focus on spoken magics, is it any surprise that durmstrang is particularly proud of their choir? any student can join and will sing both modern wixen hits from around the world as well as traditional songs from russia, bulgaria, and other countries prominently represented in the student population of durmstrang. perhaps most exciting is the opportunity to learn traditional magical songs that the wixen of the past used in casting their spells. a true hit among the students, especially with the incredible contrast between their sopranos and the baritones and basses, who are the three most common vocal types in the durmstrang choir and are trained to provide a maximum amount of contrast between their voices.

conduit performance

a form of performance unique to durmstrang, conduit performance allows students the ability to become more comfortable with magical conduits outside of an academic setting. a student will choose a wand or a staff and will work with others in their performance group to learn how to use that conduit in art as an extension of their body. there are semesterly performances by this club to demonstrate what they can do, and the most popular are always routines that combine partial movement with particularly powerful use of a staff.

dark arts club

one of two school-required clubs, every student is a member of the dark arts club and as such, receives more exposure and experience with this style of magic in an informal, out-of-classroom setting among their peers. this is where students will discuss lessons, work on homework, and experiment with material learned in their lessons. however, as this is a school-required club, it meets daily for only forty-five minutes.

debate club

it is an odd idea for a school such as durmstrang, but the administration understands that there is only so far magic can take an individual and that sometimes battles must be fought in courtrooms, offices, and private buildings. this is why they offer the ability for students to practice arguing each other into submission. the topics are all chosen by the students and each debate is judged by the students as well. depending on their successes, they might advance to the next level of the club or stay to learn more about communication techniques they had not previously been aware of. there’s often a fair amount of yelling in the halls of durmstrang, but few rooms are louder than the one where the debate club meets.

duelling club

the world has entered uncertain times, but durmstrang has been expecting such an event for centuries and would even claim that this all is nothing new. any student of durmstrang is expected to hold their own in magical combat and duelling club is how this expectation is met. one of two clubs required by the school, every student in durmstrang is a member of the duelling club and as such, receives consistent, focused training in offensive and defensive dark magicks. this has led to a healthy environment of competition among students and it is believed that this school-sponsored fight club is the reason there are fewer fights between students outside of the duelling ring.

homeopathy club

a place for the truly gifted in the art of homeopathy, as well as those interested in learning more about the subject to meet, practice, and discuss their lessons in this truly crucial practice. there is almost always a steady stream of students seeking medical attention that don’t want to risk the wrath of the staff at a school like durmstrang, and this club is a place for the next generation of healers and mediwix of durmstrang to become even more familiar with healing and its many challenges. there is a joke among students of durmstrang that every friend group should have someone in homeopathy club in it as it is a near-certainty that their skills will be needed.

quidditch

a durmstrang student intends to win, in all aspects of their life, and nowhere is this more clear than among the quidditch players of their school. durmstrang has six quidditch teams, all selected from the greater student body, with the captain of each team being voted on by the team members. students are expected to have a natural aptitude towards flying, a remarkable level of fearlessness, and the willingness to win a game at all costs, which makes a durmstrang quidditch match a bloody affair, often resulting in many injuries. it is, of course, a favorite of the students and most dream of joining one of the teams.

rune reading club

one doesn’t learn an entirely new alphabet, each symbol with its own greater meaning, only to use it just in class. this is the thinking of the students in rune-reading club. these students often have a proficiency with languages or a particularly mischievous streak. students in this club are infamous for swapping their classmates’ notes for ones written solely in runes, if they don’t simply hex a student, resulting in that student seeing nothing but runes no matter what language they are attempting to read.

sailing

a classic pastime for the students of durmstrang. sailing has a long history in the school and much of this club’s time is spent preparing to win the great sailing competition, which occurs each year in the sub-arctic sea near durmstrang. students will customize their boats, practice racing, and engage in mock naval battles in preparation for the big day.

[gameofdrarry]

Wizards Hearts Recs: Alpha/Beta/Omega

Wizards Hearts was a four-month-long Drarry reading fest. Players were given a playing deck of 52 tropes, and were asked to find 52 different fics to read and comment on to fill their decks. To prevent the same few fics from being read, fics were restricted to only being used for the game three times before being considered ineligible for further points. The tropes and submissions list can be found here.

Check out the masterlist of fics for this trope below the cut!

📜 The Songbirds of Avebury Manor by Tessa Crowley (tessacrowley) Rated:  Explicit Words:  18237 Tags: Omega Verse, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Omega Draco Malfoy, Alpha Harry Potter, Class Differences, Soulmates, Sexual Tension, Mating Cycles/In Heat, First Time, Knotting, Implied Mpreg, Victorian Attitudes, Well sort of Victorian attitudes, Like Victorian attitudes except A/B/O, It makes sense in context I swear Summary:  Harry Potter presents as alpha at fifteen, and it is supposed to change his life for the better. Instead, it leads him to a beautiful noble omega he cannot have, a political plot he cannot escape, and a threat on his life. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Dissident by Constance1 Rated:  Explicit Words:  182162 Tags: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Creature Fic, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, nundu, Angst, Romance, Dubious Consent, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Violence, Knotting, dark at times, but not really, Some fluffy moments too, Mpreg, Falling In Love, Omega Harry, Alpha Draco Malfoy, Drama, Claustrophobia, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Protective Draco Malfoy, Animagus, Christmas Summary:  In a world of Alphas and Omegas, Harry is surprised to discover that he is a rare male Omega. He assumes his pull towards Draco Malfoy is because the Slytherin is an Alpha, but there is more at play here than even Harry knows. My own twist on the Alpha/Omega-verse. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Work to be done by PollyWeasley Rated:  General Words:  1145 Tags: 2 years later, Slice of Life, alpha council Summary:  Harry has to be away from his family to help other family, but his heart is still with his loved ones. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Embers by shiftylinguini Rated:  Explicit Words:  41216 Tags: Post-Hogwarts, First Time, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Draco Malfoy, Omega Harry Potter, Werewolves, Heat Companion Harry Potter, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Masturbation, Knotting, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Scent Marking, Scent Kink, Come Marking, Dirty Talk, sexual negotiation, H/D Career Fair 2017 Summary:  Werewolf Alphas aren't meant to be alone, or to suppress their ruts indefinitely like Draco has been since he was bitten eight years ago. He needs company, companionship, to knot ― he needs an Omega Heat Companion. At least, that’s what the Healers say, and even Draco can admit contacting the person they’ve referred him to might be nice. Of course it turns out to be bloody Potter. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 The Broken Heart (It Kens Nae Second Spring) by grahamhannah53 Rated:  Explicit Words:  18220 Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, omega!Draco, alpha!Harry, Auror Harry Potter, Undercover Missions, Smut, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Anal Sex, Rimming, Knotting, abnormal rut behavior, we hate the dursleys, Angst with a Happy Ending, except the happy ending is in the next part of the series Summary:  Harry Potter is an Auror, just like he'd always wanted to be... except no one will give him a mission. When he finally gets one (with Draco Malfoy's name on it), he almost wishes he hadn't. Malfoy is everything Harry hadn't expected him to be, and out of the shambles of Harry's common sense arises a friendship that threatens to be more. Can Harry keep his mission secret from Malfoy? And even if he can do that, is it even possible for him to keep his hands off of Malfoy when he offers to help Harry through a rut after learning that Harry is exceptionally aggressive and violent during them? +++++ I have already completed this fic, I will be posting once, maybe twice weekly, depending on how well-received it is! I am also working on the second part, and have it half-way written. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Second Spring by grahamhannah53 Rated:  Explicit Words:  19629 Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, alpha!Harry, omega!Draco, Mates, Getting Back Together, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anal Sex, Rimming, Light Bondage, BAMF Draco Malfoy, BAMF Harry Potter, Implied Mpreg, Making Up, Unspeakable Draco Malfoy, Head Auror Harry Potter Summary:  Years after their disastrous breakup, Draco Malfoy comes back from France with a much sought-after skill set and a brilliant resume-- one that even Harry Potter could envy. Harry resolutely decides that staying away from Draco is the best option, forcing himself to resist the almost magnetic pull to his mate in favor of carrying on with life as normal... but when Draco ends up in his interrigation room in the middle of his heat, things get... dicey. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Puppy Breath and Money by GeorgeOaks Rated:  Explicit Words:  18802 Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Harry Potter, Omega Draco Malfoy, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Please Don't Hate Me, Abused Draco Malfoy, nothing graphic happens, Healing, A healing fic, Angst with a Happy Ending, Comfort, Omega Hurt, Tags May Change, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Draco Maloy is conditioned, Allusions to rape and being controlled, Protective Harry Potter, Respectful Harry Potter, going into heat, It's not as dark as it sounds?, he gets better and starts calling people names again, Dobby (Harry Potter) Lives, Fred Weasley Lives Summary:  Harry Potter had spent the last three years terrified for Draco Malfoy. Everyone knew what it meant when Malfoy didn't return to Hogwarts for his fifth year. Harry had done a spectacular job at denying it at first, of course. Tried convincing himself that it was just because Voldemort was back. That the Malfoys probably just ran off with their Dark Lord, or, what he had hoped most, had run away from him. It wasn't until Hermione gave him that look that said that if he didn't pull his head out of his arse soon, he was going to be absolutely hit upside the head, that he had to accept it. Malfoy hadn't returned to school because Draco Malfoy had presented Omega. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 A Late Presentation by SouthronWildling Rated:  Explicit Words:  10661 Tags: AU Canon Divergence, Hogwarts Eighth Year, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Severus Snape Lives, PWP, First Times, light dub-con due to a/b/o dynamics Summary:  Draco Malfoy presents as an omega during his Hogwarts Eighth Year. Shameless PWP, with a little humor, a little fluff, and a little of Draco being bitchy. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Malfoy's Bitch by dragontara Rated:  Explicit Words:  6668 Tags: Creature Fic, dub-con, Graphic Sex, Knotting, Alpha/Omega, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Top Draco, translation in Chinese available Summary:  Bitten by a werewolf doesn't always mean that you'll transform into a werewolf but it definitely increases your animalistic instincts and behaviour. Harry will learn that at first hand. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Heat of the Heart by carpemermaid Rated:  Explicit Words:  6433 Tags: Mildly Dubious Consent, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Draco Malfoy, Alpha Harry Potter, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Auror Partners, Auror Harry Potter, Auror Draco Malfoy, Werewolf Draco Malfoy, Light Dom/sub, Bottom Draco, Top Harry Potter, Seduction, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Masturbation, Fingerfucking, Blow Jobs, Rough Sex, Marathon Sex, Stubble Burn, Accidental Marriage, Accidental Bonding, Love Bites, Cuddling & Snuggling, Romance, Dirty Talk, Scenting, hung harry Summary:  Draco was recently bitten by a werewolf in the line of duty as an Auror. He'd been dealing with it as best he could, but then his first heat came on hot and fast in the middle of filling out reports with his Auror partner, Harry Potter. Luckily for him, Potter has a knack for saving his arse. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Tuxedo Angel by ryslora Rated:  Explicit Words:  25497 Tags: Mildly Dubious Consent, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Dark Magic, Mpreg, Crossdressing, Genderbending, HP: EWE, Case Fic, Community: hd_holidays, Torch Singer, Singing, Harry Thinks Malfoy Is Up To Something, Bonding, Cursed Bond, Old Magic, Living Together Summary:  Harry and Neville are looking for the infamous Dragon Lily, a Dark witch active throughout Europe and Asia. Instead, they find the Tuxedo Angel, a beautiful witch performing in Rome. Harry quickly discovers that the Angel is not what she seems, and fights his attraction to her, while both he and the Angel are drawn into a web created by ancient magic that pulls them together, whether they are ready for it or not. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Rise Above the Moon by Queenie_Mab Rated:  Explicit Words:  15930 Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Verse, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Pack Feels, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Knotting, Explicit Sexual Content, Illustrated, Bottom Draco, Bottom Harry, Topping from the Bottom, Switching Summary:  It's not easy to make a living when your past misdeeds colour your life, but when the saviour of the wizarding world offers a possible way out, Draco Malfoy isn't stupid enough to let the opportunity pass. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Turn, Drop, Fall by Tessa Crowley (tessacrowley) Rated:  Explicit Words:  29056 Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Omega Draco Malfoy, Alpha Harry Potter, Mildly Dubious Consent, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Arranged Marriage, Infidelity?, Brief scenes of heterosexuality, (sorry) Summary:  In his father's world of staunch traditions and strict gender dynamics, presenting as an omega is the worst thing that could happen to Draco, although accidentally bonding to Harry Potter and being forced into a marriage with Antonin Dolohov both come in close second. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Mine To Own, Ours To Keep by bumble_Bree Rated:  Explicit Words:  69033 Tags: Alternate Universe, Alpha Harry, Omega Draco, Bottom Draco, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Rimming, Licking, beastiality, Wolves, alpha/beta/omega, Smut, Porn, Rough Sex, Mpreg, Knotting, Fluff, Romance, Heat Cycles, Miscarriage, Younger Draco, Delicate Draco, Powerful Harry, Self-Lubrication, facesitting, Love, Felching, Child Birth (non-graphic), Lactation, Male Lactation, Dry Orgasming, Oral Sex, Lactation Kink, Fisting, Size Difference, Smaller Draco, Larger Harry Summary:  When Draco is bought at a slave market, he fully expects a difficult road ahead of him. What he does NOT expect is to find himself in a world unlike any he could have expected - a world where the feared and respected Harry Potter is his Alpha, his one true soulmate. Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K.Rowling and Bloomsbury and I seek no profit from this work. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 What Happened to Draco Malfoy by ghostlynimbus Rated:  Explicit Words:  43053 Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha/Omega, Alpha Harry, Omega Draco Malfoy, Past Abuse, Past Rape/Non-con, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Suicidal Thoughts, Healing, Auror Ron Weasley, Sex Trafficked Draco Malfoy, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Unreliable Narrator, POV Alternating, Mpreg, Pregnancy, Pregnant Draco Malfoy, gratuitous use of wandless magic, medical/hospital scenes, Knotting, Overstimulation, Hung Harry Potter, Praise Kink, maybe? a little, Dubious Consent, kind of, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Hurt/Comfort, Happy Ending, Angst, Rimming Summary:  Draco Malfoy has been missing since the end of the war. Harry has moved on, mostly. But when, years later, Draco is found in an auror raid of an illegal omega trafficking ring both their lives are changed. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 in heat by M0stlyVoid Rated:  Explicit Words:  4196 Tags: Past Rape/Non-con, Minor Character Death, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Draco Malfoy, Alpha Harry Potter, Masturbation, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Hung Harry Potter, Knotting Summary:  Draco’s been getting by just fine despite his unfortunate little genetic gift. Until Potter decides to barge in and muck everything up, that is. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Let Out the Beast by acupforslytherin Rated:  Explicit Words:  9649 Tags: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Anal Sex, Knotting, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Scent Kink, Explicit Consent, Self-Lubrication, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Professor Harry Potter, Professor Draco Malfoy, Alpha Draco Malfoy, Omega Harry Potter, Top Draco Malfoy, Bottom Harry Potter, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, H/D Sex Fair 2020 Summary:  In the wizarding world where alphas are looked down upon for their lack of control and unseemly aggression, it is generally accepted that they are not allowed to work in places like schools and hospitals where their nature could risk the people there. When Draco Malfoy suddenly shows up at Hogwarts smelling strongly like an alpha, Harry is beyond baffled. The fact that no one else seems to catch his scent only adds to his confusion. But, of course, the most puzzling part is how Harry’s body reacts to that scent. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 This Is How by bixgirl1 Rated:  Explicit Words:  6508 Tags: Friends to Lovers, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Harry Potter, Omega Draco Malfoy, Scenting, Claim Biting, switch POV, Partial Second Person POV, Falling In Love, Anal Sex, Anal Fingering, Rimming, Oral Sex, Knotting Summary:  Omegas are long gone, or so everyone thinks. This is not how things were supposed to go. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 Silver Moon by JBankai89 Rated:  Explicit Words:  58199 Tags: Werewolves, Werewolf Harry, Alpha Harry, Top Harry, Bottom Draco, Slightly Dark Harry, questionable morals, Slow Burn, Enemies to Lovers, dubcon, Fluffy Ending, Violence, Mild Blood and Gore, Drama, Soulmate elements, Harry raises Teddy Summary:  Five years after the war, peace has fallen upon the wizarding world. Draco Malfoy has begun to find peace in the strangest of places, and now as a junior Potions Master after a mere four years, he finds his mind quieted from the horrors that scar his world in the deep and dark of the forests, where he goes to collect ingredients his master requires. Unfortunately, one trek into the woods brings him close to werewolf territory, too close, in fact, and he finds himself captured. He expected to be devoured by these brigands, but the truth of his fate turns out to be far more confusing and terrifying than he ever imagined. ❤️ Read on AO3

📜 you killed me on the moon by epsilonargus Rated:  Explicit Words:  4906 Tags: Alpha Draco Malfoy, Omega Harry Potter, King Harry Potter, Top Draco Malfoy, Identity Reveal, True Mates, Attraction, Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - Captive Prince Fusion, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, H/D Sex Fair 2020 Summary:  ‘You barely know me. We do not know each other.’ ‘Beyond this overwhelming need to submit to you, completely and utterly?’ Potter raises his eyebrows, stretching his scar. ‘Beyond this bone-deep awareness that you are made for me, and I for you? That our destiny was written in the stars, in the very foundation of our known world?’ An A/B/O Royalty!AU wherein a desperate Slytherin prince faces a proposal from the conquering Gryffindor king. ❤️ Read on AO3

[vajranam]

No Buddhist

Kalu Rinpoche

"My advice,

don't be a Buddhist.

In the end it's all about personal gain,

fame and business.

Just be a person with a good heart,

that's the meaning

of a truthful Dharma practitioner.

We live in illusion

and the appearance of things.

There is a reality. We are that reality.

When you understand this,

you see that you are nothing,

and being nothing, you are everything.

That is all."

"His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche was one of the great wisdom masters of our age. He was born in 1905 in the district of Tresho Gangchi Rawa in the Hor region of far eastern Tibet. His father was Legshey Drayang, the thirteenth tulku of Ratak Palzang. His mother, Drolkar, was a disciple of Jamgon Khyentse Wangpo, Jamgon Kontrul Lodro Thaye, and the renowned Lama Mipham Namgyal. Both his father and mother were devoted to religion, and shortly after their marriage they spent time in retreat together. It was during that retreat that Drolkar became pregnant. Kalu Rinpoche's father, not yet knowing that his wife was pregnant, had a startling vivid dream of his teacher Kontrul Rinpoche. In this dream or vision, Kontrul announced that he was coming to stay with them and that they should prepare a place for him. The meaning of this dream appeared to make itself clear some time later, when His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa recognized the child as the activity incarnation of the great Kontrul Rinpoche.

The young child showed remarkable compassion to all beings and his intellect proved to be exceptional. He began his monastic career by his own wish at the age of thirteen, entering the glorious Palpung Monastery of His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche. At that time Tai Situ Pema Wangcho Gyalpo gave him his getsul ordination, naming him Karma Rangjung Kunchyap. The prefix "Karma" identified him as a practitioner of the Karma Ka'gyu tradition.

At Palpung and elsewhere in eastern Tibet, Kalu Rinpoche studied the teachings of the sutras and tantras, receiving instruction from many different wise Lamas.

At sixteen, Kalu Rinpoche entered Kunzang Dechen Osal Ling, the retreat center originally founded by Jamgon Kontrul Lodro Thaye. It was at Kunzang Dechen that he completed the traditional three year retreat under the direction of venerable Lama Norbu Thondup. During that retreat Kalu Rinpoche received the complete transmission of the Karma Ka'gyu and Shangpa Ka'gyu lineages, in particular the transmission of the Five Golden Dharmas of the great Siddha Khungpo Naljor.

At the age of twenty-five his heartfelt desire was to practice meditation in a wilderness retreat in the mountains. Leaving everything behind, Rinpoche departed to do an extended solitary retreat in the desolate wilderness, forests and mountains of eastern Tibet, living the ascetic life of a wandering yogin. For twelve years he lived in that manner, imitating the eremetical life of Milarepa, Tibet's great yogi. Occupying lonely caves, he spent his time in spiritual practice and meditation.

In the 1940s Kalu Rinpoche began visiting monasteries, traditional centers of learning and practice, all over Tibet. He was now a recognized wisdom master, called from his retreat by Tai Situ Rinpoche and blessed by the supreme custodian of the Ka'gyu lineage, His Holiness the Karmapa. An accomplished master of the Five Golden Dharmas of the Shangpa school, he bestowed ripening empowerments and instruction on a vast number of yogis and yoginis. On a visit to Lhasa, around 1948, he was asked to grant teachings on the Regent of the young Dalai Lama.

In 1955, a few years prior to the Chinese Communist conquest of Tibet was about to take place, Rinpoche visited His Holiness the Karmapa at Tsurphu. The Karmapa asked Kalu Rinpoche to deliberately leave Tibet in order to prepare the ground in India and Bhutan for the inevitable exile of His Holiness. Thus in 1957, Kalu Rinpoche was appointed the abbot of Jangchub Choling Monastery in Bhutan. He became the personal chaplain of the royal family.

In 1965 Rinpoche established his own lineage monastery of Samdrup Targye Ling at Sonada, not far from Darjeeling, in India. A few years after that foundation he was able to establish a three year retreat complex there. In this manner he was able to preserve the Shangpa and Kamtsang lineage teachings through definite practice of meditation.

Kalu Rinpoche and Namgyal RinpocheIn 1973, at the request of His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, Kalu Rinpoche bestowed the full Ka'gyu transmission on the four regents Shamar Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kontrul Rinpoche, Gyaltsap Rinpoche, and also, at the same time, on the exceptional Canadian Lama Namgyal Rinpoche. These teachings included all the Ka'gyu major empowerments, instruction in Mahamudra and the six doctrines of Naropa, along with full inner explanation.

From 1971 onwards Kalu Rinpoche traveled extensively at the request of His Holiness the Karmapa, establishing Dharma Centers and three-year retreat facilities in Europe, the USA, Canada and Southwest Asia. Kalu Rinpoche founded more than 20 retreat centers worldwide and an innumerable number of Dharma centers.

In 1988 Rinpoche began the construction of a great stupa in Salugara, near Siliguri, in the eastern part of India.

In 10th May 1989 Kalu Rinpoche, loved by a vast flock of disciples, passed away. He was reborn on 17th September 1990, the offspring of Lama Gyaltsen and Kalzang Drolkar, to continue his undying work in the world."

[dwellordream]

“England, an island kingdom with a majority population of Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, or Danish origin and a ruling minority of Norman French descent, must have seemed in many ways a strange land to Eleanor. Happily for the queen, England since the 1066 Norman Conquest had had close links with the French and Latin culture prevailing on the European mainland. While the majority of the native population spoke English, the language spoken among the aristocracy at the royal court and by London’s commercial classes was Anglo-Norman French. The clergy and many royal officials knew Latin as well and easily moved from one language to the other. 

A number of Anglo-Norman speakers were trilingual, since they found some knowledge of English, the language spoken by the mass of the population, a practical necessity, but French would remain the language of the royal court long after Eleanor’s time. One of Henry II’s courtiers wrote glowingly of the king’s linguistic skill, noting that he “had some knowledge of every language from the Channel to the river Jordan, but himself employed only Latin and French.” Probably Henry could grasp the gist of what was said to him in English, but was far from fluent and unable to make himself understood by English speakers.

Such linguistic plurality was familiar to Eleanor, who had moved back and forth in her childhood between the two French tongues, langue d’oïl and langue d’oc. Yet she never learned English, although she must have had many English-speaking servants. Surviving accounts from Henry II’s early years as king mention his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine and little more, but there can be no doubt that shocking rumors about her conduct on the Second Crusade followed her to her new kingdom. 

Large numbers of ambitious English youths who sought out the learning of the schools of Paris doubtless laughed over drinks in their taverns at exaggerated stories told of their new queen’s scandalous conduct as Louis VII’s consort. On their return to England in search of employment, many gathered at the royal court, a place filled with clever courtiers, ambitious and greedy men of low birth, who traded on amusing stories to stand out from their fellows in the rivalry for patronage. They readily turned their skill with words toward gossip, flattery, lies, and hypocrisy in order to prevail over competitors. 

Doubtless, one means of impressing potential patrons with their access to power was to retell tales of the queen’s immorality that they had heard while in France. Nothing could be kept secret at court, for the royal family lived their lives in public with courtiers and lesser servants constantly present, and they could not avoid being the subjects of much gossip. It is impossible to gauge how far down among the common people gossip about the new queen penetrated. The majority of Eleanor’s new subjects probably knew little more than that she came from a place far away in the south of France and that she had left her first husband, the French king, to marry Henry Plantagenet. 

Yet court gossip circulated among Londoners and no doubt spread to their acquaintances in the countryside. Eleanor’s largely unflattering portrait painted by English chroniclers writing toward the end of the twelfth century probably reflects popular opinion. It shows that she did not meet a standard for queenship being defined in the course of the century, part of a reformulation of gender roles that would impose harsher judgments of her than those passed on earlier English queens. Despite a growing animus against powerful women, Eleanor’s four Anglo Norman predecessors as English queen-consorts had enjoyed the approval of contemporary writers. 

The chronicler Orderic Vitalis, an English-born monk writing in Normandy, supplies few signs of women’s worsening conditions early in the twelfth century. His stereotypical references to feminine weaknesses are no more than superficial comments made in passing. He portrays queens as companions and helpmates to their husbands, “helping in government in any time of crisis, ruling during minorities, or helping the foundation of churches.” 

Other chroniclers similarly described Anglo-Norman queens in conventional terms as models of piety and purity, making benefactions to religious institutions and supporting literary and artistic patronage at the royal court. These ladies attracted no scandalous gossip, were conscientious mothers and worthy companions of their royal consorts, even if occasionally involved in politics, serving as regents during their husbands’ absences from the kingdom. 

William I’s wife Matilda of Flanders escaped Orderic’s condemnation for mixing in worldly matters, since circumstances required her to act as governor of Normandy for long periods while her husband was busy consolidating his rule over his new kingdom of England. Orderic recorded without disapproval “the hard facts of her participation in the work of government” later in England, where she acted as regent and even as royal judge. Henry I’s consort Edith-Matilda had exerted similar influence in the political sphere, acting as regent during her husband’s absences from the realm. When exercising power on Henry I’s behalf, she applied her own seal to royal documents, and she expected royal officials to obey her as they would the king.

Yet her activity as her husband’s helpmate did not sully her reputation, for her piety staved off writers’ objections. Indeed, Edith-Matilda spoke openly of her influence over her husband; in a letter to Anselm of Canterbury, who had incurred royal wrath, she told him, “With God’s help and my suggestions, as far as I am able, [Henry] may become more welcoming and compromising towards you.” Eleanor’s efforts as Henry II’s regent during the first decade of their marriage did not win her similar praise, however. 

Unlike Henry’s grandmother, whose intercession with her husband on behalf of worthy petitioners had led churchmen to compare her to the biblical Queen Esther, Eleanor did not earn contemporaries’ gratitude for taking advantage of her intimate access to Henry to intervene for the sake of others. Edith-Matilda with her saintliness represented a model of what was expected and esteemed in an English royal consort. Yet her death in 1118 marked a change for English queenship, for by then the eleventh-century reform movement’s fight for clerical celibacy was bringing about a sharpening of gender definitions to deny women any public role.

While Eleanor was queen, English churchmen were condemning great women for assuming such “manly” roles as the exercise of power, and they decried husbands who allowed their wives a role in public life as guilty of “unmanly” behavior. Henry II’s own mother, Empress Matilda, had suffered from accusations of an “unwomanly” desire for power. Eleanor sought a place for herself in politics that went beyond what northern Europeans considered suitable for a queen. Even as a young wife and a stranger at the court of Louis VII, she had demonstrated a desire to share power with her royal husband; and she had resented both her mother-in-law’s influence over her young husband and Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis’s role as his senior counselor. 

As a French biographer writes, “It is that constant political activity and her role at court . . . that makes Eleanor an exceptional woman to the point of astonishing the historians of our time and of shocking the misogynistic chroniclers of her own.” Religious devotion was an important quality for queens, who were expected to be models of piety, using their prominence to promote religion in the kingdom. While Eleanor’s predecessors were known to have given pious gifts to monastic institutions, including new foundations, she is not noted for having founded new religious houses in England. 

… monasteries or convents favored by her ancestors seem never to have benefitted from gifts of English lands from her as additions to their endowments. Unlike Henry II, who provided Fontevraud with revenues from English properties and encouraged the foundation of Fontevraudist priories in England, no evidence survives of Eleanor’s gifts to that house from her English revenues. Eleanor formed a special relationship with Reading Abbey where her first son, William, dead at the age of three, was entombed in 1156, apparently while Henry II was abroad. 

No doubt her husband sent instructions concerning their son’s burial; and his body was placed at the feet of his great-grandfather, to King Henry I of England, Henry’s model for ruling England. The choice of Reading as the child’s resting place was a means of linking the Angevin king and his family to Henry I, founder of the abbey, who had intended it to be a royal mausoleum. Like parents in any age, Eleanor and Henry mourned the loss of their first child. In making a grant for the little boy’s soul to Hurley Priory, a dependent house of Westminster Abbey, the king declared that the gift was made at the queen’s request and with her assent.

…Another rare letter to Eleanor as queen of England survives to cast light on her spiritual life. It was written to her by the prophet and mystic, Hildegard of Bingen (d.1179), another remarkable twelfth-century woman, and a letter addressed by her to Henry II also survives. As Hildegard’s fame spread, she conducted a wide correspondence replying to requests for her advice from powerful persons throughout Europe, including England.

Since the letter cannot be dated more precisely than sometime before 1170, the event that impelled Hildegard to write to the English queen remains a mystery. She addresses Eleanor not so much as a sovereign as a woman who is prey to troubles; and she offers counsel to calm her, advising her to search for stability. She wrote “Your mind is similar to a wall plunged into a whirlwind of clouds. You look all around, but find no rest. Flee that and remain firm and stable, with God as with men, and God will then help you in all your tribulations. May he give you his blessing and his aid in all your undertakings.”

- Ralph V. Turner, “Once More a Queen and Mother: England, 1154–1168.” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England