#but I tolerate fanon draco

[pandevainilla]

I love Harry-centric fanfics so... Drarry is my only ship with draco. Draco without Harry just doesn't hold my interest 😴

[fanfic-lover-girl]

Harry Potter characters that I like

In response to a Romione fan who thought I hated every HP character and hated everything about the series because I don't stan certain characters and ships, I want to mention here the few characters I like.

For me, I like a character usually if:

they have an interesting personality and background

I feel sorry for how they are generally misunderstood or bashed by fandom (sometimes I take great pleasure in being a contrarian haha) or treated by the author.

their wins feel earned in the narrative and I feel inspired

So here is my list!

Draco Malfoy + Malfoy family

I love Draco so much. I admit that I was drawn in mostly through fanon but as I explored the books more, I really enjoyed his book character a lot. He has a vibrant and entertaining personality and I like how meta he can be sometimes. Every time he proclaims how bad Hagrid is as a teacher or how Hogwarts sucks as a school, I just want to hug him so badly. I also like his parents and their interactions as a family later in the books. Narcissa is my fav mom, no contest. I just think that JKR wasted his potential. Draco is the most developed Slytherin kid and his character should have represented hope for a better future. But of course, JKR only cares about her lions (and Snape who she tried to retcon as a lion too lol) so screw Slytherins. And the NPC houses.

Black family

Gosh, I absolutely ADORE the Black family. The Black family is the most intriguing set of characters JKR ever wrote in HP. The Black family lore, the constellation theme, the dark history, the tragedy. Chef's kiss! Screw making a marauders' prequel!!! Give me a Black Family series! You shouldn't be surprised that Sirius Black is my favourite marauder. Compared to Sirius, James Potter is an utter bore.

Neville Longbottom

I often wish Neville was the chosen one instead of Harry. I think Neville's story is more tragic than Harry's. It must be torture to have your parents alive but practically dead. And Neville just feels more heroic to me. A lot of times, I hate Harry's hero's journey because JKR keeps letting Harry win due to deu ex Machina. It was nice seeing Neville gradually grow into the man he was at the end. And Neville's rage at Bellatrix just felt more visceral compared to Harry's with Moldy Voldy. I just like Neville, he's so sweet and he deserves better friends.

Percy Weasley

On the surface, I don't care much about Percy but I do feel sorry for him. Ron and the twins treated him like trash. His family just had a hate boner for him. Poor Percy. I can vibe with a family black sheep character. I don't like how people paint him as the bad guy for walking out on his family. And I appreciate how distinguished he is as a Weasley. He is the only Weasley member not to bow down and kiss Dumbles' backside like a brainless puppet. It's a shame it backfired on him but I admire his logic.

Luna Lovegood

To be honest, Luna was a nothing character to me until I began reading Druna fanfiction and I realized how adorable her character is in the books. She makes me smile and I like how she used to talk back to the trio in the beginning. So funny when Luna told Harry that people thought Hagrid was a bad teacher lol! I think Luna is the only HP girl I like...also maybe because I really like picturing her with Draco. No shame!

Severus Snape

What a beautiful and tragic character. Like Draco, Snape is such a pleasure to read. The man is pure entertainment in written form. I don't love Snape the way I do Draco, but I like picturing him with a better life. 'Snape drops out of Hogwarts' is one of my favourite AO3 tags. I love how he dedicated his life to good even though life was cruel to him and gave him a bad hand. Everything about Snape is so intriguing and I like learning more about him. Definitely one of JKR's best characters.

Ron Weasley

I hate the golden trio but I find Ron the most tolerable and the most interesting. It's a shame I found myself disliking the guy in the epilogue. People complain about the movies ruining Ron but JKR was ruining Ron in the books too. Ron started out as so intelligent but gradually JKR made him slobbier and dumber. I like how Ron was the common sense guy. Once again, Ron had to be the one to tell Harry what a complete trash disaster Hagrid was. Lord, I hate that man! Shame Hagrid's spiders didn't kill him!!! I wish JKR expanded on Ron's chess ability. Ron showed promise as being a leader of the trio (Lord knows Harry was a disaster) and Ron being strategic would fit with his chess skills...but JKR never followed through. My fellow HP critic, chicory, mentioned this passage:

‘Hmm,’ said a small voice in his ear. ‘Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting … So where shall I put you?’

applies more to Ron than Harry and I have to agree with her.

There are also several instances of Ron just being a sweet friend to Harry and Hermione and I wish he had better friends. I don't care what Romione/Hermione fans say. Hermione does not deserve a guy like Ron. Never did and never will. I don't even think Harry deserves Ron either. Ron does so much more for Harry than Harry ever did for him. I would have preferred if the Luna friendship was developed more for Ron. Ron has his infuriating moments but his great moments offset them. Out of the trio, I think Ron is the best character and sometimes I wish he was the protag instead of Harry.

Well, let me end it at 7, the perfect number! I can't fully word why I like or love some of these characters but this is a gist.

Of course, there may be other characters that I enjoy for what they are in the story (the Death Eaters, Dumbledore etc) but I don't care about them enough to mention them. Blessings!

[soup-of-the-daisies]

ya know what Dorcas Meadowes was actually the definition of an “erm actually��👆” kind of person and very annoying and the reason she was powerful enough for Mr. Mort to kill her himself was because she was a booky person with an intensive knowledge on obscure magic but she’s very “i’m not like other women i read book at parties” about it so not cool and she’s misogynistic to Lily

YES. she was two years older than the lot of them and was a prefect, who proceeded to make lily miserable when she got the position by being snooty and constantly criticising anything she did. she wasn’t in the order, didn’t fight, and had decided to research horcruxes—which she was loud and proud about. voldemort got annoyed when he heard about it and offed her quite easily the next day, making him only two minutes late to the next DE meeting.

marlene mckinnon? nearly four decades older than the marauders, and went to school with mr mort. perfect student, just like him, and became an unspeakable after graduating. taught DADA in the marauders’ second year but quit in march bc she hates children not on her own (she ended up adopting three with her wife, and they were the only ones she could tolerate—still pleased when they finally became functional adults). mentored the marauders when they joined the order and found them very annoying. death eaters assassinated her and her entire family during a birthday weekend by making ppl unable to exit and then setting fire to it.

abraxas malfoy was not an original death eater. he despised voldemort because he thought voldemort was ridiculing the pureblood movement (and he was right). was entirely unaware that lucius was pumping his allowance into the war machine, and lost his shit when the kid showed up with a dark mark and an order for arrest. regardless, he was a fun and sweet grandfather to draco and it’s a good thing he passed before voldemort showed up at malfoy manor and gave draco the mark as well.

you can do SO MUCH with these characters and the limited information canon gave us. make them as uninteresting or interesting as you like. they are not set characters. fanon is ideally diverse in ideas, and certainly not a rule. you can play with them SO much.

the only thing i ask is to not make every character “”cool”” and “”edgy”” because humans are just not like that 😭 some people are just boring. you can make your meow meow boring or awful, i promise like regulus as an absolute, despicably racist dickhead who was simultaneously incredibly boring

[helle-bored]

tuesday tlc

i was tagged by @corvuscrowned, whose fearfest fic the raven finds him there has lived so incredibly rent free in my head because i got to the end and wanted to say no, wait!, which is how you know it's good!!!

i wrote my first drarry fic in july. i nearly deleted my first drarry fic in july, too, as it turns out, and thought about leaving the fandom because i felt like i was writing things wrong -- not because of any particular incident, but because the fandom is so big, and i'd gone in without reading the books in years, and it starts to seem like there's nothing worth adding. but people seemed to like my art, and i found the microfic community because of it. and everyone there was so kind and so supportive of me while i wrote at the end of his tether, something i'm very proud of still.

...that's a really long rambling way of coming back around to the first thing i wrote, which i didn't orphan or delete after all (because of some of you!), but it has been anon for about five months now. it was strange to reread it and discover that, even when i wasn't familiar with popular fanon characterizations or certain of who 'my' draco and harry were yet, it's still undeniably mine. here is part of it.

Browsing a recently-opened used bookstore isn’t how Harry had expected to spend one of his rare free afternoons that coincide with Draco’s, but the spark of interest in Draco’s eyes as they meander in its direction, both of them full of curry and drowsy in late autumn sunshine, is more than enough to make Harry tolerant of an hour’s worth of boredom.

“Wordshome,” Draco mutters, his lip curling as he glances at the shop name as if it’s the most pretentious thing he’s ever seen, and Harry laughs and pushes open the door for him.

Draco makes a beeline toward the section marked Magical Theory near the back. Harry tags along, passing aisles filled with dusty book-smell and curled yellow pages; but once Draco has settled into a thick tome on advanced hex antidotes, Harry leaves him to it and wanders toward the section on quidditch. He examines the bestsellers fanned out on display with cheerful disinterest. He would much rather be on a broom than read about it, but the bright covers – emblazoned with fluttering snitches and the smiling faces of players – stir up fond memories.

When he’s done with a cursory exploration of books, Harry amuses himself by people-watching: the door jingles and a pretty blonde witch steps inside with a white cane, clearly visibly impaired but comfortable navigating the narrow space between aisles. A mother with hair that makes Harry’s look tame bustles through with two young girls, the youngest pointing with excitement at a thick picture-book full of exquisitely-drawn moving dinosaurs. An older man waddles by with a stack of green-smelling herbology books to trade, followed by several teenagers in street clothes: one of whom seems interested in the quidditch section, but also visibly reluctant to go down the same aisle as Harry. Whether their reticence stems from who Harry is, or because Harry’s standing right in front of whatever they’re looking for, Harry takes it as a sign to stop loitering.

He should check on Draco anyway; someone should remind him that he can always buy things instead of trying to memorize them in the stacks, but Draco gets tetchy about purchasing books that only have a single useful chapter. Harry rolls his eyes in private amusement as he heads toward the back.

When Harry reaches the aisle where Draco should be, he has to quickly move aside: the woman with the cane steps out of the aisle, her expression radiant as she chats with a young employee about the myriad ways the book they've fetched for her has apparently changed the landscape of sightless magic. Harry slips behind them and starts down the aisle, spotting Draco in the exact spot where he’d left him near the far wall.

“About done?” Harry calls as he saunters over with his hands in his trouser pockets, but Draco doesn’t seem to hear him.

The closer Harry gets, the more a sharp prickle of worry ratchets up his spine. Draco is staring at the floor with a blank expression. His chest moves in short, shallow breaths; the book he’d been skimming is still in his hand, limp at his side.

Harry gently tugs it free from unresisting fingers and sets it on a nearby shelf. “We’re going home. Okay?” he says quietly, and when that gets no response, he takes Draco’s hand and leads him out of the shop and Apparates them both into their bedroom.

how to love you today, 3.7k on ao3

i am woefully behind and have lost track of who's been tagged to talk about something they're proud of (and dear god please forgive me if you've already done one, and send me a link! i just got out of finals hell), but how about @starlitsilvereyes, @slytherco, @ronbinary, @apr1cots, @avenueofesc, @rockingrobin69!

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

A lot of fanon sees Abraxas as Voldemort’s #1 man or close confident. (Probably partially because according to Pottermore he killed Nobby Leach the first Muggleborn Minister of Magic?) Why do you see Abraxas as having nothing to do with Voldemort, unlike the Black family? Why do you see joining Voldemort being Lucius idea, not his dad selling him out?

The post anon is referencing.

Wrong blog, anon. If I paid any attention to fanon or Pottermore I would not be here writing these heretical metas.

That said, it's because the Knights of Walpurgis are utterly ridiculous and make no sense.

Remember that Abraxas and company went to school with Tom Riddle. I don't care how much better in school Tom Riddle before, how smart he was, or intimidating he was.

Tom Riddle enters that school with the last name Riddle, an impoverished, muggle, accent, and not a galleon to his name. He is marked, immediately, as muggleborn.

Tom might insist he's a halfblood, his middle name sounds very wizard like in origin, but this is dismissed. Sure, Marvolo is a very wizard name, but muggles could name their children this. It's "Riddle" that's very damning, as well as the fact that Tom Riddle shares looks with no one (taking mostly after his muggle father).

Tom probably spends the first year of Hogwarts beating the shit out of his dormmates so as to be left alone but I imagine at the best, they tolerate him.

We see that when it comes to leaving Hogwarts, they drop it like it's hot, Tom becomes a store clerk in the world's sketchiest pawn antique shop. And no, I don't think this was Tom's goal in life.

These guys, Abraxas included, are not going to swear their life, loyalty, and money to uppity muggleborn trash Tom Riddle who thought he was so very important in school because Slughorn liked him.

If he goes up to them and says, "Actually, guys, I've made this cool alter ego persona, Voldemort, and I'm him now" they'd laugh in his face and try to throw him in a dumpster (he'd probably then light them on fire but that's beside the point).

As for Tom leveraging his parseltongue to get them, I don't think that happened. Tom Riddle's origins are too much of a mystery to his Death Eaters, they seem to have no idea he isn't a pureblood. More, he would have been caught with the Chamber of Secrets. You tell that many people a secret, in that situation, and one of them would have narked.

And if Tom tried to tell them under unbreakable vow, they'd never do it, because why should they risk their lives just to learn muggleborn Tom Riddle's dirty secret that he's probably making up anyway.

And there's that Tom Riddle would want "Tom Riddle" to completely disappear so Voldemort can become real. If his peers know who Voldemort really is, well, that's just not good is it?

So, that means Voldemort is introduced to Abraxas when he is with everyone else. Now, the Blacks are a very trashy and unhinged family, so this all sounds great to them.

But the Blacks have also presumably lost all their money (they only have a single townhouse left), they disown family members at the drop of a hat, and they seem to gleefully throw all children available into domestic terrorism. They're not rational decision makers.

Given that Lucius is loaded, Abraxas did not do that. We also don't see much of him in canon despite his being alive up until Harry's sixth year. He's very hands off.

To me, that screams of him washing his hands of his idiot son who decided it'd be a great idea to go play domestic terrorist for some asshole who calls himself "Voldemort". As if that's even a name.

Not to mention that, when Lucius joins Voldemort, he hasn't done anything. He's just making these big, grandiose, speeches about how they should violently overthrow the muggle plague in their society. It sounds great, sure, but he hasn't done anything. Unlike Lucius (who in part sells Draco out because he actually has no choice), there's nothing for him to sell Lucius out too. There's just this man who makes speeches and, later, blows up buildings.

Why would Abraxas ever commit the Malfoy line to that? Voldemort can get results first and then Abraxas would shove Lucius at him. Until then, it's Lucius getting whipped up with all the rest of them and Abraxas just dying inside.

Basically, JKR likes to insist that evil gravitates to evil, that of course all the bad pureblood families always supported Tom Riddle from the beginning. I argue that some evil is intelligent and realizes that making yourself a slave for a man with no origins is the height of stupidity.

[weasleytwinwheezes]

I am deeply in love with fanon Draco but I simply tolerate canon Draco

[thecrystalquill]

Love/Hate

Pairing: Draco Malfoy x Slytherin!Reader

Warnings: none?

Summary: Draco and (Y/N) hate each other; it’s easier for Draco to hate than to love. But when push comes to shove, a little love might be just what they need.

A/N: It’s Chapter 6!!!! Thanks everyone for waiting, I was stuck with some major writers’ block but I’ve finally figured out what happens next. Also, excuse how long it’s taken to update but I’ve been insanely busy these last few months - like, you would not believe. So thank you all for your patience and I hope you like it. Also, I have no idea if Snape is canonically Draco’s Godfather or not, but apparently its fanon so I’m going with it! 

Masterlist          Series Masterlist

Chapter 6

•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*•*

January had come and gone, and turned to February, and life had continued as it always does. Except this time something was different. There was still homework and classes and Quidditch, as every other year, except this year it was Draco that was different. He couldn't quite place it, but something was definitely wrong with him. For a start, he was getting a little bored of his friends and their bullying, he inwardly cringed whenever he heard a muggleborn being insulted, not to mention how he'd become more irritable than usual; and that wasn't even the worst of it.          Currently, Draco was sat in Transfiguration as he did every Wednesday afternoon, taking notes as Professor McGonagall lectured the class on the theory behind transfiguring a goldfinch to a golden snitch. Only he was finding it difficult to concentrate as much as he usually did. Lately, Draco found that his mind had been wandering off much more often; and what was more disturbing, is that when it did so, it seemed to slip into thoughts of her. Whenever he was bored, or trying to concentrate, or supposed to be getting some sleep, she always seemed to meander her way back into his head. It was frustrating, really. The amount of times she invaded his thoughts in a day was simply appalling; her sharp wit, the cute frown she wore when frustrated, the lingering scent of her perfume...          It was disturbing. 

          It was worse, he found, when she was near. Like now, for example, in the Transfiguration class which they shared - in the Transfiguration class in which she was sitting three rows diagonal to him - the class which he was supposed to be focussing on, revising for their next test - even with her being in the same room, he still couldn't get her out of his head. And what was stranger: he didn't mind. He didn't mind so much that she consumed his thoughts, he didn't mind that he noticed when she was around - in fact, he practically saw her everywhere! He didn't mind that she was constantly in the back of his mind; what he did mind, however, was that that was the only place she really seemed to be. Not that he was looking for her, of course, but he hardly ever saw her anywhere else. He might get a glance at her in the Great Hall (though most day she seemed to blend in with the Hufflepuffs), or catch a glimpse of her in a hallway, but other than that, he only saw her at the other side of their shared classes. It was as if she was a mere figment of his imagination; as if he'd seen a girl sitting at the Hufflepuff table one day and made up an entire rivalry between them; the only confirmation that this wasn't true was when a comment about her was thrown into conversation, only on occasion. He didn't like it, and he didn't know why. He wasn't exactly sure when, but Draco came to realise in her absence just how big a part of his day that she occupied, and now that she wasn't there his days were plain - when did he come to rely on her?          None of his usual victims were half as challenging is (Y/N), most either cowered and ran or put up a dim-witted argument. Where was the fun in that? He wanted to see her, which was odd to say the least, but he did. But why? It was as if she had been avoiding him, and he didn't like it. For some reason, he wanted to speak to her, but at this rate he'd need a miracle to make that happen.

          It was exhausting; all of this running about trying to evade people - people were everywhere. Thank Godric everyone seemed to be busy with start-of-term tests and homework. And thank Merlin no one seemed to notice. Occasionally she'd have a run-in with someone, a friend or peer, but excuses were easy to make during hectic school days.          She wasn't entirely sure when it happened, but somewhere along the line, (Y/N) started to lose it; it became harder and harder to keep it together, as if little pieces of herself were crumbling away - like a rope carrying too much weight - and eventually she snapped. She no longer had the tolerance she used to have, no longer cool and calm like the façade she put up. And she didn't want anyone to notice. She'd done a fair job of staying out of peoples' way so far, and no one thought anything of it, but the one person she couldn't seem to completely shake was none other than her rival. Why, of all people, would Draco Malfoy make any effort to get in her way? He'd done his part, he'd got what he wanted, now she was out of his way - only now he was in hers. He was a nightmare to avoid, wherever she went he never seemed to be far; in the common room, in the Great Hall, in the hallways, the courtyard, the lake, the library! It was impossible. Was he doing it on purpose? Trying to catch her out while she was alone? Did he notice? Did he know something? Or was she just being paranoid? It was driving her insane. She wasn't sure how long she could keep this up. They were bound to run into each other at some point - they were in the same house for Merlin's sake! What did she expect to do, avoid him right up to graduation? Ridiculous. Absurd!          ...Right?          Right. Of course. That would be silly. Absolutely, downright silly.

          A miracle - that's exactly it. And who better to perform a miracle for him?           Making his way over to the dungeons, Draco kept an eye out for the Potions Master; if anyone would help him with few questions asked it was his Head of House, his Godfather. Knocking on the door to the potions classroom, Draco waited to be invited in, one second, two seconds, three seconds, four sec--           "Enter." Droned a low, bored voice from behind the door. It creaked on its hinges as it opened, creating a gloomy tension in the dull room, quite fitting for the eerie atmosphere (and quite melodramatic). Draco stepped inside, shutting the door behind him before he walked to stand in front of the professor's desk. "Draco," Snape acknowledged as he dipped the tip of his quill in an ink well, "what is it?"           'Why would he assume I want something?' Was Draco's immediate thought, but he quickly dismissed it; he was right - as usual - he did come for something. "I need a favour." He answered, gripping the leather strap of his satchel.           "A favour." Snape repeated. It wasn't a question - the man was rarely surprised - he just spoke in his usual intimidating tone and continued with his business.           Though he supposed he should be relieved, Draco found himself a little insulted by Snape's lack of interest in the matter; after all, it wasn't like all of his complaints were petty or childish or... Well, nevermind about that. "I need you to pair me with (Y/L/N) for our next partnered lesson." He flatly stated, trying to stay stoic, not give himself away. "No questions asked." He added, almost as an afterthought.           The only reaction he received was a questionable look and a suspicious raised brow. The Potions Master raised his head and looked Draco right in the eye. "I trust this isn't an excuse for you to pick another fight, Draco." He replied with warning.           Draco shook his head. “No sir.”           “I won’t have any nonsense.”           “Of course not.”           The man considered it for a moment, keeping his stare on the boy in front of him, then gave a small half-nod. “Alright, I’ll assign your partners for the next class. But don’t let me regret this.” He said sternly, pointing a pale finger before dismissing the Malfoy.           Nodding a thanks, Draco left the classroom, ignoring the flutter in his stomach.

Tag List:

@kaibie

@salmonoctopus

@thefandomzoneisdangerous

@combative5sos

@puppetofyourdreams

@accio-perseus

@perrythefrickinplatypus

@missmulti

@lupinssweetheart

@la3divine

Let me know if I missed you out or you want to be added :)

[phoenixstartedthefire]

Draco Malfoy

Draco Malfoy is a very controversial character in the Harry Potter fandom. Some people love him, some people hate him. But I feel like most people in the fandom have an opinion about him. As do I. So this post is just gonna be me talking about how I feel about Draco as a character. I am only going to use his character from the books as reference here and not take into account his looks. I would be happy to have a discussion with someone about his character but I will not tolerate negativity for the sake of it or any mean comments.

I actually think Draco is kind of funny. A lot of Draco stans in the fandom see him as this ‘bad boy with a heart of gold’ or ‘misunderstood’. But really he’s just a big baby. He literally wore a cast for months in poa after just a tiny scratch from Buckbeak to prove a point. He probably spent hours making those Potter stinks badges just to stick it to Harry. He wrote an entire song and taught it to all of the Slytherins just to make fun of Ron. There’s that and countless more. That boy is just so unnecessary. He goes running to his father at every single inconvenience and needs Crabbe and Goyle constantly by his side because he can’t hold his own in a fight. He’s not a bad boy.

That being said, I also think he’s just a bad person. He’s been dubbed by Draco stans as ‘the boy who had no choice’ which is wrong. Draco did have a choice. He chose to be a racist asshole. He chose to go above and beyond just to make himself feel better. Everything he did before hbp was by choice. I understand that he maybe wasn’t as brave as Sirius, Regulus, or Andromeda but if he disagreed with his family’s beliefs the whole time, he wouldn’t have gone out of his way to be a terrible person like that. The only time he really questioned his/his family’s side in the war was when it was inconvenient for him to be on that side. If his father never messed up at the battle at the ministry and he wasn’t tasked with killing dumbledore, he probably would’ve signed up to be a death eater at 17 without hesitation. He never would have switched sides. And you even see that in the beginning of hbp he’s excited about his mission. But he gets cold feet as soon as things get remotely difficult for him.

And you can make the argument that he only bullied the trio because they bullied him back but please remember that Draco has the upper hand. He’s punching down. Draco has money, influence, a powerful family, and blood status on his side. Him making fun of an orphan, a poor kid, and a muggleborn is punching down. It’s not at all the same as when Harry and Ron start stuff with him. Malfoy uses his upper hand in the situation to his advantage. And he goes way further than Harry or Ron had(excluding the sectumsempra). He openly called Hermione slurs, wished death on her, took joy in the idea of a student getting attacked, made fun of Ron’s financial situation(which he couldn’t control), made fun of Harry for his parents being dead, and made fun of Hermione’s physical appearance(and more). Harry and Ron have been pretty shitty back but never to the level that Draco took it.

That being said, I understand that he was raised on those ideals and he maybe didn’t know any better at first. But I feel like if he was a decent person, he would’ve realized once he got away from his parents that the way muggleborns were being treated was wrong and that they aren’t any different than purebloods. He couldn’t control his family’s ignorance but he chose to continue his own.

I don’t have a problem with you if you like Draco as long as you recognize his behavior in the books was bad. I don’t mind fanon Draco as long as you know that version of him is different than his character is in the books.

[eightpilot]

you know, I am usually a very pro-fanon person. characters throughout most of literary history haven’t had extremely fixed characteristics (look at the different depictions of many characters in Greek mythology, for example, or the Arthurian legends). but there is absolutely one fanon depiction that comes up a lot in HP fanfiction that I really can’t abide, and that’s the headcanon that Ron is at least somewhat homophobic. 

first of all, the reason I hate this is because it turns up a lot in fics where being gay is implied if not outright stated to be more accepted in the wizarding world circa 1990 than it is in the Muggle one. if that’s the case, and this is often used as a characteristic that makes Draco/Pansy/Blaise/Theo more tolerant of Harry’s sexuality, why on earth would Ron – a man raised his whole life in the wizarding world with almost zero knowledge of Muggle culture or technology – be homophobic? 

secondly, even if that weren’t the case: Ron is a very tolerant, progressive individual in the wizarding world. he can sometimes be insensitive, but he’s fundamentally anti-discrimination and has experienced a large amount of class-related prejudice himself. he stood up to Malfoy when he called Hermione a mudblood at twelve years old. at thirteen, he spent a huge amount of time researching ways to acquit Buckbeak (noting that the Ministry was proceeding in a way that “isn’t justice”) and stood up to Sirius Black when he was believed to be a Death Eater, aka magic Nazi. Ron refused to allow Percy’s literal government propaganda and Dolores Umbridge’s mutilation of children to stand in the way of his friendship with Harry. but apparently, according to a lot of fic writers, he’s totally fine being homophobically bigoted. 

Hermione cares about socially progressive causes like SPEW, and that’s a good thing! and she understands prejudice herself, and it’s totally fair to portray her as being very progressive for that decade – that’s completely in line with her character. however, that doesn’t mean Ron somehow must be portrayed as a homophobe, especially in a 1990s world where wizards have never had a cultural taboo against people being LGBT and Hermione being Muggleborn, the idea that she would automatically be more tolerant of non-cishet people really grates on me. 

[thevikingwoman]

Sleepover weekend: what are your top 5 dragon age (or just in general, either works!) fics that you would recommend?

First of all, there are so many great fics, and I’m sure I will forget something brilliant. Even with that it was hard getting a short list, but here goes. It is not 5, sorry. 

Because you need your Solavellan heart put together again, in the most beautiful way

I Come To You With Nothing, by @commonevilmastermind

Because you’re not in Solavellan Hell if you don’t want beautiful understated angst that makes it hard to breathe

Aravel, by @playwithdinos

Because you want a Solavellan fix it longfic, that veers off canon and off fanon in the the most amazing, magical way

The Dead Season, by @galadrieljones

Because you want a Solavellan post-Trespasser longfic series with fantastic writing, plot, characters, relationships and OCs

Body of Knowledge, Awakened, Reckoning by @buttsonthebeach

Because you want your heart ripped out of your chest

we are infinite by @ellstersmash

Because you are horny and want really good smut

Overexposed (WIP) by @littleblue-eyedbird The Switch by @playwithdinos

Because you want am extremely well written short story focused from the POV of an interesting, unique OC, who is outside the Inquisition

The Portrait by @idrelle-miocovani

Because sometimes, happily ever after takes some work

Vhenan’ara (WIP) by @bearly-tolerable

And sometimes, you want some non DA fics - 

maybe you want a smutty and sweet coda to Naomi Novik’s Uprooted: The Sweet River Water by @bomberqueen17maybe you want to read a hilarious and semi-angsty and hot Harry Potter/Draco fic: Order of Merlin by dysonrulesmaybe you want to read a angsty, but happy ending Shepard/McKay SG:A fic: 264 Hours by Lenora

[quidfree]

do u think that if walburga & orion had been loving to sirius thru his childhood he wouldnt of been so distasteful to their opinions & thus wouldnt of seeked out affection from else where like james? sirius strikes me as a person who would do anything for someone he loved, if his parents had loved him from the start do u think he wouldve followed them into the deep end of things? Also as i know you're a sirius fan what's your opinion on j. k. rowling's comment on - 1 of 2

this is a very good question thank you!! i love character analysis lol.

i would say no, actually? like, not at all? for a number of reasons.

firstly, i don’t think there’s any particular sign walburga and orion weren’t loving parents to sirius when he was young? of course they would have displayed all the negative quirks of the aristocrat parents, and walburga presumably had a temper, etc, but sirius never makes them out to have been markedly abusive from jump, just that they’d treated e/o horribly once theirs views starting clashing (which ofc reflects far worse on his adult parents than on him, but my point is that it seems to have originated with their objecting to his politics, not being something innate to their parenting). i don’t think there’s much canon evidence that any of the black clan treated their children badly- and looking at people like lucius and narcissa, who clearly embody that old school pureblood way, in the books they dote on/spoil draco as a kid, and are willing to drop everything to save him later in life. sirius as an adult obviously hates his parents, but i think that stems more from his disgust with their ideology and their refusal to accept any different than anything else, considering he hates his entire family. fanon tends to go overboard portraying them all as evil abusive parents to milk sympathy for the children, which i think is reductive and erases what makes hate groups so insidious- many of them can be perfectly civil and lovely to their own despite the violence of their views.

there is a lot of interesting discussion to be had concerning whether violent bigotry innately will translate to poor parenting, i think- in the sense that if your worldview contains it, there will inevitably be moments where you harshly berate your child for asking innocent questions, or unconsciously acting in a way that goes against your narrow worldview, and also that you’re raising your child on a toxic mindset. but there are countless violent racists who dote on their children, and so i don’t think in the case of orion and walburga this sort of thing would have been the cause of rupture with sirius. i do think, however, that it ties into the reasons why he latched on to james so quickly, in that their intransigence and (i imagine) lack of tolerance for his natural curiosity and questioning personality would have left him frustrated and increasingly doubtful. you know how there’s a natural moment in life where as you grow up you come to understand that adults, and especially your parents, are people just like you are, and thus prone to similar weakness? i think for sirius that realization started dawning early. i always find the train scene remarkable in that sirius, aged ten or eleven, and having spent his entire life in an echo-box of wizard supremacist indoctrination, has clearly already come to question their views to the extent that he’s unenthused at the prospect of going to slytherin than the rest of them. i’m fascinated by what prompted it- it’d obviously been progressing rapidly, because the moment james offers him an alternative he jumps on it.

this has been a long aside to your question, sorry. what i would say is that to me, the reason sirius jumped shark so quickly when he met james doesn’t seem to have been love- we can tell from their conversation that he’s already open to the idea of change, and though he absolutely craves attention from james later in life i don’t think that’s what he’s seeking out in their first meeting, seeing as they barely know one another. to me that scene reads more like sirius’ first actual encounter with someone who doesn’t believe what his parents believe- and he’s cautiously thrilled by the experience, disbelievingly excited when james continues to show that not only are people other than his family capable of being entirely reasonable and pleasant, but sirius isn’t alone anymore. james is someone who seems like you can trust him, and james is someone who loves gryffindor and all it stands for, therefore james is exactly what sirius has been secretly longing to find for let’s say the past year of his life. and then of course he and james click so easily regardless of it all- both of them are smart, and witty, and full of mischief, only james has always been indulged in where those things are concerned and sirius has not, so he follows his lead on what is acceptable and what isn’t. come to think of it this probably explains a lot of their dynamic- sirius looks to james to gauge what the rest of the wizarding population (the good ones, the ones he cares about fitting in with now) finds acceptable, especially in terms of social opinion and morality, and to a degree that never changes- even once he’s crystallized his own convictions, james remains a moral compass of sorts (see: whomping willow incident).

to conclude, i’d like to say that i don’t think there’s any universe in which sirius would ultimately have followed his parents. even in a scenario where they had, to follow your suggestion, treated him better or been more reasonable or anything of that sort, sirius’ core personality traits include rebellion and a black/white morality, so i can’t see any prospect of his staying on the dark side of things, so to speak. a genuine rebel is one who questions the things they are taught, and bigotry never holds up well to questioning- sooner or later he would have grown disillusioned. and once sirius doesn’t believe in something, he inevitably stands against it. so james or no james he would have turned coat- he might just have been more miserable doing so.

(also this makes me think- if james hadn’t coincidentally been sat in the same train car as him that day sirius might have lacked the encouragement to stick it to his parents so immediately and thus gone to slytherin anyways- so his rebellion would play out very differently. he’d still progressively tear himself further away from his parents’ views across the year- ironically maybe snape would have played a part in it, actually; not bc they’d be friends (their personalities clash too much) but bc snape is friends with lily, who is a muggleborn, and who sirius would be intrigued by and then seek to befriend. he’d start his hogwarts years differently though- i think meaner/harsher, probably, because he’d have to show a tough skin to withstand the abuse he’d receive from his peers and relatives once he started proclaiming his hatred of everything slytherin claims it stands for. ofc eventually (probably at least like third year, considering how segregated slytherin and gryffindor are in canon) he and james would start seeing a lot of each other- probably james would take the first step, having curiously observed him stand out from his house for years and likely spoken to lily about him, and they would have started off more rocky because sirius would be slightly wary of james’ reasons for broaching the divide. no doubt they’d also have been accidental academic rivals for a while. but no matter the differences in either of them (sirius having grown into a more slytherin self through exposure, isolation & out of a spiteful desire to use his house’s own weapons against the people giving him shit, and james more frustrated/bored and more intransigent in his worldview) once you put the two of them together you inevitably get JamesAndSirius out of it, so a few detentions together would have them sorted, i reckon. sounds like a fun fic to write.)

[exmachina2014]

i’ll reply to your ask when i’m not on mobile but for you: 2, 3, 9, 13 (any character of your choice), 16 and 25

Alright! :)

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

Harry/Hermione, these two always saw each other as siblings and a woman and a man who are friends/don’t hate each other’s guts doesn’t mean they’re into each other. Like get outttttt with that heterosexual bullshit! 

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

Not in Harry Potter fandom (surprisingly) but Oh Boy, back in Ye Olde Marvel Cinematic Universe Fandome and later on Star Wars, I unfollowed the majority of people who wouldn’t stop posting (wrong and/or plain and simply annoying) discourse

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

Umbridge, Pettigrew and Leta’s father. One’s an opportunist bigoted collaborateur politician, the other a spineless power-hungry traitor and the latter a racist misogynist, so pretty obvious reasons. Significantly less “awful” and more “plain and simply annoying” Rita Skeeter and Lockhart for being a lying sensationalist spy and a scamming fraud. 

Also Fanon!Draco because I’m tired of that hoe, lmao.

13. Unpopular opinion about (whichever) character?

Is me liking Snape while being extremely tired of his apologists excusing his less-than-admirable fuckshit considered an unpopular opinion? Because as far as I see, fandom’s opinion of him is either he’s an absolute angel who never did something wrong, or worse than Satan and every resident of hell combined.

16. If you could change anything in the movies/book, what would you change?

Get rid of that stupid epilogue and everything that happened afterwards or changing it, have Leta not sacrifice herself, have someone else play Grindelwald (my preferred choice wouldve been August Diehl, followed up by Christoph Waltz), there are more “official” Wizarding Schools around the world and not just one for a single continent, we actually see some of the consequences (presumably muggle-led) colonialism and imperialism had in the Wizarding community instead of glossing over it, instead of just saying that wizards are more tolerant towards same-gender attraction than muggles, showing that being the case.

25. How would you end XXX/Would you change the ending of XXX?

Not everyone gets married to their childhood sweetheart, Harry doesn’t become a fuckin’ cop, idk i can’t think of more rn but another opinion is simply just not including the epilogue and leave it at Harry, Hermione and Ron going to the Great Hall after the battle.

[princepestilence]

Something that’s fascinated me for a long time is the whole “nice” Draco Malfoy phenomenon as it appears in fandom, especially in fanfiction. 

It’s so renowned there’s a trope named for it and, as of right now, the Harry/Draco tag is the most popular relationship on Archive of Our Own by 10,000 hits. I don’t think any of us are really surprised by this point--either by exactly how much special attention slash fiction gets, or how far certain shippers will go to forgive white boy villains--but, for me, I guess it’s a sort of personal interest in this striking duality between fanon-Malfoy and canon-Malfoy specifically, because it’s the only time (that I can think of, anyway?) where I’ve been both a long-time fan of the source material and, to a certain degree, tolerant of major personality surgery in fandom at the same time. 

Like, usually the “he’s misunderstood/not bad/can be fixed” wibbling over solidly awful men and such is a zero-tolerance policy with me: most recent example, that prick from Star Wars. (Which one? Take your pick). But Malfoy falls into what I can only think of as a ‘conditional exception zone,’ partly because there’s just enough qualities scattered in the texts to muddy the water. I think the fact there’s three texts at work--the books, the films, and the preexisting fanon conventions (a kind of amorphous apocryphal collection of literary habits and tastes and cliches and whatnot)--is a big reason why Malfoy in particular is a (perhaps uniquely tempting?) “salvageable” white boy villain: he’s not a single unified character. The ubiquity of Harry Potter texts assumes a basic understanding that book and film are equally canon, for lack of a better phrase, so that while the books are “more canon,” technically, the films have just as much weight in conceptualising the world and characters of Harry Potter for fans. (By comparison, I would say that Pottermore doesn’t have that same weight, because it isn’t popular enough. Who even uses Pottermore? Many of us are actually tired with the continual updating of the world, and probably don’t care about or even actively ignore what’s written there. The culture of shared knowledge--and communally agreed upon Facts of Potter--hasn’t stretched that far).

Anyway, what I’m saying is Draco Malfoy is kind of like a metaphoric cat figure: he has multiple lives from which fans can draw their favourite aspects from and then blur together into someone resembling Draco Malfoy, superficially, and even in some ways, accurately, according to a version of canon, without being an unattractive irredeemable weasel of a boy.

In the books, he’s absolutely a little snot. I’ve been reading the third book at the moment and he’s a brat with no real redeeming features, and certainly nothing to justify all the attention (and affection) he gets in fandom. In canon, he’s a deeply unpleasant, bigoted kid and a bully. Rowling did not write him as a viable love interest for anyone, and it makes sense that she’s baffled and annoyed by how many girls have been smitten with him over the years. 

In the films, he’s elevated from that level and a little more stylish, largely because of costuming and the fact Tom Felton does a good job of making a fairly two-dimensional character a little less so, especially in the later films. Also, it helps that he’s a handsome lad, that Malfoy is often comedic relief (both on purpose with his snappy remarks, and unintentionally as the butt of bad luck or Gryffindor pranks), that many of the nastier lines are cut from his dialogue and general annoyingness from his behaviour, and he’s overall given a much softer, sympathy-seeking image than the books: his father, although financially doting, has a somewhat cold, tyrannical air in their interactions; he’s spoiled (much like Dudley), which comes across in a rather Roald Dahl-esque fashion of bad parent-shaming, I feel; he’s the poster-child for Slytherin house, which positions him in a way as a victim of narrative prejudice (in that Slytherin students are given very rough treatment by Rowling, considering they’re children); and he cries in a bathroom one time. 

In fanon, he has traces of the fanon ghost. He also happens to hit what I guess could be called a fandom sweet spot: namely, obsessive rivalry between boys, especially those who are “opposites" at least in some ways. Harry actually has a good deal in common with Draco, but on the surface, there seems to be enough noticeable (if minor) “blue oni, red oni” stuff going on to overlook that. I’m not sure if anyone’s developed a law for it yet, but there’s patterns in fandom and one you can rely on is that certain archetypes attract certain types of attention, and that attention manifests into (often repetitive, almost ritualistic?) behaviours re: shipping and fanfiction in general. Failure to provide an equally or more attractive alternative candidate will result in the nearest available close-enough boy getting shipped with the protagonist lad, and Harry Potter doesn’t provide an alternate rival boy, I don’t think. Hence, Malfoy gets it. Ron’s friendship with Harry, although not always blissful or anything, doesn’t have the components fandom (speaking of the slash fan majority, obviously) craves, I suspect, and Hermione won’t do on account of not being a boy. Therefore, Harry/Malfoy fanfiction get churned out en masse. 

I was going to be like, “It’s interesting that the second most popular ship is Sirius/Remus, because it’s vastly different in dynamics to Harry/Draco,” and maybe continue on that thought for a bit, but then I saw that the third most popular, close behind, is Harry/Snape, and I quit. Not today.

I can’t remember what I was actually banging on about when I started or what I meant to say with this. I think I had a goal but I lost it on the journey somewhere. Among those thickets. I think I originally meant to say something about how startling the difference between book-Malfoy and fanon-Malfoy is, and how I think film-Malfoy is a big part of bridging that gap, plus the typical fandom habits, and I mostly did that? I feel like I could do a much better, more coherent, overall more polished version of this, maybe throw in some neat quotes, if it wasn’t post-midnight, but essentially: Malfoy’s multiple canon forms creates an uncertainty surrounding exactly who he is and what he could be that, in conjunction with Fandom Needs--i.e., the whirlpools that characters who get too close are pulled into by the sheer force of convention, makes him a particularly appealing target for a slash-intended personality-lift. Deep breath.