#for me this is a theme in poa

[beevean]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Diagon Playful Loop

[kinaesthetiqueer]

fascinating! nora and jaune both have six chapters, ren has seven. however, i know there's at least a couple of his that are pretty short. the real test would be to check the word counts which, unless i can do word count by heading, i am not doing.

[padfootastic]

“the way they acted around him in third year is the biggest eg of this for me. so yeah, i think that plays in here a bit too” <- do you have any meta regarding this? like, im curious about what specific examples stood out to you the most, but i also just really like reading your meta lol

ooh hello anon!! (also,,,this is the literal first time anyone has called my ramblings a meta i am squealing rn)

but okay, bear with me, because i’ve not….really thought this through haha (+ it’s been an Age since i’ve read the books so source material knowledge is spotty)

it’s just, the entire PoA arc made me so uncomfortable on behalf of harry because no one ever told him anything? like, yes, that is the theme of his life and ootp is another example of how shitty it was for him and how devastating the consequences were but on like. a personal level. picture this, right?

you’re trying to escape ur abusive hellhole by going to the only escape available to u (which is, not so coincidentally, also a murderous cesspit but alas) but surprise! there is a magical mass murderer on the loose. cool, okay, that’s everyone else’s problem, ur literally just trying to have a normal year, maybe learn some magic, fly some brooms, play quidditch, and try to make it to hogsmeade (another big fail bc boo orphans amirite?). but nope, everyone and their grandma keeps trying to lock you up and warning u to stay away from this serial killer because….? clearly the reasons aren’t important but harry has to stay inside, shit his gob, and not do anything. the definition of ‘shut up, sit there, and look pretty’

literally the only person to make an effort is mr weasley and even he has to do it in secret lest he get reprimanded for…telling a kid to take care of themselves? i don’t think i’ll ever understand why so many adults in the WW think basic info is so dangerous but ok. right, so, on top of all this not telling harry, he’s also being treated like some reckless, adrenaline junkie ass fool?? like people are out here ominously going ‘promise you won’t go after sirius black’ while our boy is just confused like?? WHY??? he literally does not know anything and honestly, if everyone hadn’t stoked the fans so much, he probably wouldn’t have either.

this is partly why i think they just looked at him like a symbol or something, not an actual person, because if they genuinely cared about his safety, they would try harder right? but it seems to me like they just didn’t want the boy who lived to be hurt, or for voldy’s right hand man to come back and finish the job. terrible for public safety & spirit, that.

and then, the cherry on top of this shitcake is just. remus mf lupin. that man in poa was in fine form (beat only by his incredible cameo in dh during the trio’s hunt). with audacity lining his entire form, he not only manages to keep everything a secret from harry (including his parents, sirius’ animagus form, and their relationship), he also somehow scrounges up the gall to shame harry?? and for what, trying to do something everyone else is, that he’s been denied for no discernible reason (he doesn’t know why sirius is a threat, all he would see at that point was his head of house reinforcing the dursleys)? and not only does he do this in an extremely personal way (and not as a professor calling him to task for breaking rules) but he also tells him he’s disgracing his parents SACRIFICE???? the first time he brings up harry’s parents with him and it’s to tell him, famously an orphan, that they’d be ASHAMED OF HIM??? lord on earth. i would throw hands.

so *clears throat* ignoring how i went off the rails for a second there, that’s largely it. all the professors acting like he should take informed decisions with the maturity of an adult when they haven’t told him anything, while at the same time treating him with this weird dichotomy of too familiar and like a stranger? which i think harry gets a lot from everyone around him. they act like they’re close to him but they don’t actually treat him like that. it’s extremely on the surface. i feel like this also reinforces snape’s idea that harry gets special treatment, is seen as a celebrity etc etc. because on the face of it, yeah, they’re all centering him, but they’re not doing it in any meaningful capacity ykno?

sure, harry should be safe but why? what makes him any different from the others? and really, if they actually cared about his safety, why is he in danger every couple minutes? where are the adults then? i don’t think harry is ever seen in the entire series, not by anyone but sirius, which really just makes him that much more important in the grand scheme of things (and harry’s life)

[thegirlwhowrites642]

I just reread cos i sort of felt annoyed at weasley brothers esp. Twins ( I know they are very beloved in fandom but I found their lack of common sense annoying sometimes) Do you think in cos weasley brothers were sort of neglectful? I can understand ron he is only one year older & has his own insecurities but fred and George were 14 & percy was 16. I am not saying its their fault but still. I am older sis myself I just can't imagine not noticing ( god forbid) my younger sibling going something like this. Maybe it's a brother thing to be like this. Anyways sorry for long rant,please share your thoughts.

I totally understand your point of view because I'm an older sister too, and there would have been no way in hell I would have missed something like this about my younger sibling. Though I have to say, Percy at least understands there's something wrong and we also know Ginny at eleven is a very practised liar that doesn't like to ask for help and doesn't have much faith in her family being in her corner (the Quidditch training in secret is such a perfect back story for the diary).

I think when the Weasley brothers really fail is after Ginny's first year.

A lot of people seem to believe that the worst things Ron did were not believing Harry in GoF or the Horcrux thing but I completely disagree. Those things are frankly very minor all considered and influenced by a lot of circumstantial reasons. The one thing that really always kind of stuck with me that was really shitty of Ron was when he shoves away Ginny at the start of PoA. Your sister has been possessed for a whole year by a dark lord fundamentally because she grew up very sheltered and all her brothers decided to ignore her while an evil dark object amplified all her insecurities and the year after you decide to behave with her in the same exact way?

And I get that Ron is jealous of his friendships due to his insecurities but there's a limit to what is justifiable (he grows out of it at least so kudos for that).

And then after the dementor's attack, it's not even Ron who takes care of her while she trembles.

And of course, the fact that Ginny searches for Ron even after he sent her away tells you something about the other brothers (maybe Percy had prefect things to do so he might be excused, but why wasn't she with the twins?).

But after all, it's one of the big themes of Ginny's story: she doesn't have anyone in her corner but herself.

Ginny starts the story victim of unimaginable horrors because of her loneliness but she becomes someone whose greatest strength is her ability to stand on her own (the girl is a rock) and who takes care of the people forgotten by everybody else. She once was the injured girl on the floor of the Chamber and she becomes the one who takes care of the injured girl on the grounds (soon after her brother died I might add).

[note: it's also a full circle moment for Harry and Ginny because, in the scene in DH, Harry is projecting on the injured girl]

[whinlatter]

author's note | chapter 8: bones 🦴

thank you for reading chapter eight of Beasts! this week, it's hotting up politically - ginny meets with the minster of magic, enjoys a hot beverage with all of her ex boyfriends, finds out about the clinton impeachment and rides the east coast mainline from edinburgh to london for free with no cancellations or delays a week before christmas. now that really is magic.

got a bumper author's note this week (and some metas to follow), plus a sneak peek of chapter nine (oh the cameos we've got coming! i've got flashback fever). i am also accepting any and all guesses for who the gang will go as for the grimmauld muggle-themed NYE party. we know anthony's going as tony blair, terry boot's deciding between a terry's chocolate orange or the golden boot, but what will the rest of the DA go as? answers on a postcard/in the askbox pls. ok let's discuss this wet and wintery chapter that i wrote at the beach during a heatwave in august, for some reason

✨ spoilers for this chapter below the cut  ✨

writing things and headcanons:

the hogwarts inquiry and graves on the ministry: the chapter opens with graves (himself an ex ministry employee, though we don’t know the circumstances of his exit yet) poking holes in the wizengamot’s approach to justice thus far in the post-war period, suggesting holding individuals accountable - especially someone like thicknesse who was imperiused - misses how the entire wizarding state is implicated in wartime crimes against muggleborns and other persecuted groups. also disillusioned by the way post-war trials are going, kingsley wants to take a different course of action to get to the bottom of what happened at hogwarts during the war. a lot of post-war fics do an amazing job doing post-war justice through criminal trials, and i wanted to do something a bit different for this fic that is explicitly interested in places and institutions and the cultures they foster (hogwarts and the ministry itself, but grimmauld place and, soon, the burrow, home to different kinds of institutions, including families). like a lot of people who grew up in the uk in the early 00s public inquiries - like the leveson inquiry into media culture and phone hacking, or the chilcott inquiry into the iraq war - really left a big impression on me (though i’m sure this is also true in lots of political cultures, not least in the US in things like senate hearings etc). i also really love seeing inquiries and hearings rendered in fiction (in tv, jesse armstrong shows like the thick of it and succession), so knew i wanted to have a go writing these into this fic. there are actually quite a few inquiries of varying scale that happen in the canon series (though none are public), so we know this is a mechanism the ministry has previously used to investigate various breaches of law or accepted norms (in CoS, arthur faces one over the car; over buckbeak in PoA; into percy over crouch; dumbledore asks for one after the dementor attack on harry, which fudge rejects; into bode’s murder at st mungo’s, and into the miscarriage of justice that saw sirius jailed for the potters’ murders). i’m literally just going to quote from taylor_fannon074’s gorgeous comment on this because it’s so well put: 

‘The Wizarding World knows that their children have been forcibly put at the center of a war they didn’t know existed for most of it. Children are the first line of attack when it comes to implementing fascist ideologies. People  areso sensitive about children and it’s a perfect weapon to utilize against anything that you want. It’s why Dumbledore became headmaster when he could’ve been Minister of Magic. It’s why the Malfoys are Voldemort’s greatest allies. If it were just about the Carrows they’d carry all the blame, now the defendants are the Ministry. Kingsley is using this tactic to direct the people’s anger towards the Ministry’s systemic oppression. He’s giving the kids a platform to talk about how a werewolf was the greatest teacher they ever had and several ministry officials tortured them. It calls the ministry’s competency into question, planting the seeds of doubt. I don’t think Kingsley aiming for a full scale revolution but trying to open the curtains and get wizards more active in their community.  He’s going after that statute of secrecy next, I can feel it in my bones!!!!’

kingsley: there are so many really great reads on kingsley as minister after the war, particularly kingsley taking on the ruthless (and manipulative) instincts of a politician, and speculation about that might clash with harry’s worldview and longstanding resentment of ministers carrying about things like public image and making moral compromises to get things done. i don’t disagree with those reads at all, and think they have a ton of basis in canon. what i knew i wanted in beasts, though, was to see if you could write a different kingsley, someone who hasn’t abandoned his principles but instead is trying to centre them. i wanted to play with the idea that all politicians are the same’, asking how kingsley’s contradictions - an avowed progressive, a lifelong ministry insider with more links to the muggle world than most, a resistance fighter turned a minister of magic trusted and admired by the children of the order - would shape his approach to try to capture post-war momentum for rebuilding and make real change, whatever that might look like. i also wanted this dynamic of kingsley and ginny having some familiarity with each other that we don’t see from the canon series that might hint at some wartime interactions we haven’t seen yet. anyway i wrote this scene with kingsley and ginny ages ago and then i read the unfinished but excellent fic about ginny and post-war justice cited below and was crushed to see someone had already written a version of the same scene much better. what a blow! (read that fic)

ginny’s card-making: ginny weasley loves to decorate and she loves christmas. canon could not be clearer about this. if you think she wouldn’t spitefully refuse to wish minerva mcgonagall seasons’ greetings then i’m sorry i think you are wrong with a capital W. graves didn’t get a card but he did get an essay because she’s warming up to him a bit but cards are only for those who aren’t on ginny approval probation 

writing on the wall: actually this is just me apologising to the anon who sent me this ask ages ago and i didn’t reply because i knew i had this scene in the bank and didn’t want to spoil it but yeah basically anon i could not agree with you more!!! i think it’s really a squandered opportunity in canon not to make more of this - in those old ootp planning notes jkr was going to have ginny write on the wall about umbridge in temper, but then removed it, so clearly was thinking of the DA wall daubing as a parallel with CoS but then… gave the line to neville lol. fuming. anyway! had to be done! thank u so much anon and so sorry again!

beasts, beings and patronuses: my favourite part of this chapter to write! (obviously that’s a lie it was the bit where harry and ginny shagged but second favourite for sure). graves goes all enlightenment subjectivity theory again smh, and then suggests what’s happened with the stag antlers might be something to do with a great disturbance to harry’s soul. @saintsenara think this is me steathily building up a tomarry endgame - other theories are circulating, all theories have me salivating

slughorn: hardcore hinny shipper, we have to stan. what’s he up to? also rina girl get back to school you're making ginny look conscientious

hermione: thank you to the extremely patient romione folks in my inbox - the trouble with this plot is that i have to keep all the romione bits off stage for now (and i have written some hermione and ron pov missing moment scenes that i might drop when this plot is fully developed and the mystery has ended) but for now i’m just sorry that so far in the published chapters the hermione plot is all unhealthy coping mechanisms and no answers!

muggle london: did i go rummaging on the freedom of information requests sent to transport for london to find out adult and child fares for central london weekend travel in 1998? yes i did. you never know when the transport pedants are going to flood your mentions !!! ‘are you a child’ ‘sort of’ could be summary of the entire fic really couldn’t it

the exes: i knew i wanted an unlikely character to speak a bit of truth to ginny, someone she wouldn’t be expecting to call her on her shit. the idea of using one of her exes to do it seemed satisfying for a couple of different reasons. i liked the idea of using a character who knows ginny well and who sees through her a bit, but also has nothing to lose throwing out some tough love to her face because they don’t really have any investment in being in her good books anymore. i also liked the idea of not taking ginny’s canonical descriptions of her relationships with her exes for granted, and using those relationships as an example of previous incidences where this character has kidded themselves, or at least come up with a retroactive narrative of something that has happened to them as a coping mechanism that actually masks a bigger, more complicated truth. (i have a longer meta on ginny and her exes i’ll post this week that isn’t expressly beasts-related where i’ll bang on about my read on what these relationships were to her, but for now suffice to say it seemed important in a fic that is at heart a coming of age ginny character study to draw in characters who were likely formative for her in her teenage years in some way). dean seemed a complicated choice, though (more about him below), so… michael corner it was. 

michael corner (or: characterisation when the character has about five whole lines in the whole of canon): 

this is michael corner this whole chapter:

i had a ball trying to figure out how to write michael corner, as the discord girlies can attest. michael is a very minor character in the series, with only a handful of scenes/appearances, and he spends most of them being a little dickhead lmao. the man never stops interrupting people to call them out/correct them. in his first scene in canon in ootp, at the hog’s head, michael sasses hermione on her motivations to set up the DA (‘“You want to pass your DADA O.W.L. too though, I bet?”’ - that earns him a snippy clapback) and then interrupts harry when harry’s being modest to both praise him but also correct him lol (‘“Not with the dragon, you didn’t,��� said Michael Corner at once. “That was a seriously cool bit of flying...”’.) in DH, he yells at harry for planning to nip in and nip out of hogwarts when all the DA are living in hiding (‘“You’re going to leave us in this mess?” demanded Michael Corner’), and then gets annoyed at luna for being dumb about the diadem (‘“Yeah, but the lost diadem,” said Michael Corner, rolling his eyes, “is lost, Luna. That’s sort of the point.”’) when it comes to ginny, she calls him a ‘fool’ when he almost gives the game away about the DA in the hall, and when they’re paired up at the DA and she’s killin it hexing him he’s “either very bad or unwilling to jinx her”. given his interest in his academics - and that he’s a ravenclaw - i think we can suspect it’s the latter, a display of chivalric concern that was never going to go down well with gin. they then break up after ginny decides he’s too ‘sulky’ about ravenclaw’s loss at quidditch, after which michael immediately goes off to get with cho (michael and harry bonding over their shared type fic when). but. michael’s also someone ginny (someone who does not suffer fools!) went out with for an entire year, so can’t be a total dickhead, clearly knows right from wrong and has moments of real bravery - joining the DA in the first place, but also enduring torture that neville describes as particularly horrific for trying to rescue a chained up first-year during the DH, which would almost certainly make him deserving of ginny’s respect after the war. being in the DA under the carrows must have been an intense bonding experience for all involved, and actually would have forced ginny and michael back into each other’s lives in a way that forced them to develop some kind of working relationship. all this then added up to the decisions i made to write him as he is in beasts: someone who is grouchy, sassy, contrarian, too competitive, a bit jealous of others’ abilities (the sore loser), and fond of calling people out/correcting people, but also someone who speaks his mind and whose heart is, ultimately, in the right place, a bit of an arse but not a baddie. and i think that makes sense as a character ginny weasley would be attracted to, at least initially, and who she can get behind as someone whose opinion she will listen to, with a pinch of salt.

bonus michael headcanons: other characterisation bits that are more headcanons than anything else: michael, terry and anthony’s band. ginny is canonically a fan of the weird sisters, with a poster up in her room. the weird sisters play at the yule ball.  michael and ginny meet at the yule ball. like literally nine billion other teenage relationships, wouldn’t be fun if michael and ginny first met/got to chatting because they both liked the same band? then that became: well, dean was artistic - what if ginny’s into creatives? wouldn’t it be a laugh if michael, terry and anthony, this three piece gang of boy besties, were in a band? so that became me imagining them all in a promising but bit-too-clever-for-their-own-good indie band, alt-j or vampire weekend of the 90s, very into the smiths. (the album cover ginny recognises in their flat ‘of a white turreted castle, lush woodland by a sunlit lake’ is blur’s country house - partly because the castle in that album art looks a bit like hogwarts, but also because country house was the single that, as british readers might remember, was in a very famous race for number 1 with oasis in the battle of britpop in august 1995, which became about the middle-class southern band (blur) vs the northern working class equivalent (oasis). in my mind the ravenclaw boys would have been team blur and the gryffindor boys are team oasis lol. 90s lore!) the ravenclaw boys being low key into hallucinogenic potions is literally because michael has a throwaway line in hbp where he asks slughorn about felix felicis lol (‘“Have you ever taken it, sir?” asked Michael Corner with great interest.”). so yeah that was enough to get me imagining michael and the boys as low key stoners but also into experimenting with different psychedelic substances and writing bangin’ tunes. they’re boarding school teenage boys, after all!

dean: ah dean 🥺 one day i’ll finish that damn dean fic. the dean we see here is who i imagine dean would be after the war - more lost and alone than literally any of the other main characters, properly unhappy. unlike the golden trio, or the silver trio, dean spends his deeply traumatic war alone, and i think that would fuck him up. he has to go on the run and leave his muggle family behind, a family he’s lied to about the severity of the war (“My parents are Muggles, mate,” said Dean, shrugging. “They don’t know nothing about no deaths at Hogwarts, because I’m not stupid enough to tell them.”’). he must have struggled, as the trio did, with accessing food and finding places of safety, but also had far fewer protections than the trio (no perkins tent, no invisibility cloak, none of hermione’s abilities). he’d also have had to deal with the fact that he’s a young black boy on the run in majority white racist nineties britain, where he would be hyper visible and vulnerable to the suspicions of muggles as well as the wizarding ministry and snatchers (the police/suspicious members of the public are never going to have treated a black teenage boy who seems homeless well). he briefly has the company of ted tonks, surrogate dad figure, dirk cresswell and the goblins, but then watches all but griphook get murdered. then he’s snatched, rescued, and goes to live at shell cottage with his ex’s brother lol. he would have none of the wartime bonding and sense of group solidarity that the wartime DA seem to have built, and while it seems likely he too would join the aurors if invited to punish the people who persecuted him, i think he would feel intensely isolated and lonely as well as challenged by the demands of that job, one he never really seems to crave in canon. got our first few deamus hints here but yeah basically if michael’s going thru one kind of trauma, dean’s going through another, one that he’s never going to open up to the ex who hurt him about. he doesn’t hate ginny - in DH, when he hears about the sword theft, he shows clearly still wants her to be safe and well - but he’s had none of michael’s time to build a post-relationship working friendship with her, and the emotional trust isn’t there anymore. wow bummed myself out writing that out jesus. he could have offered her a cup of tea, though. that’s just basic brit etiquette

baby’s first almost smut: look. what was i supposed to do. these two haven't shared a bed since august. if you think they’re not fucking immediately on sight i simply do not know what to tell you

(gif courtesy of @uncontainedhybrid)

reading list: 

postwar justice (and kingsley as MoM): 

The Weight of the After by PaperyInk  Castles by @pebblysand

the ravenclaw boys: 

these three brilliant fics by chaserzachsmith (crikey)  Notes from the Ravenclaw Bulletin Board by lost_robin

grimmauld place:

haunted house by @bronzeagepizzeria Grimmauld Place: Azkaban by a Different Name by @artemisia-black

beasts and beings:

this meta by @myrskytuuli on harry potter as colonial fantasy 

on the politics of childhood in 20c european politics, especially post-war (not hp fanfiction but historical non-fiction lmao): 

the lost children and kidnapped souls, both by tara zahra 

songs from the playlist for this chapter:

la jeune fille en feu by para one and arthur simonini | i horó 's na hug òro eile by duncan chisholm | blue ridge mountains by fleet foxes | lull by vraell and rosie h sullivan | if we make it through december by phoebe bridgers | please, please, please let me get what i want by the smiths | wading in waist-high water (solstice version) by fleet foxes | feels like a dream by alice boman and perfume genius

and a sneak peek of chapter 9 because now we're at grimmauld and you know what that means... 🐕‍🦺🐾

‘Wow. What a shithole.’ ‘Fred!’ ‘Don’t lie, Mum, you think it’s a shithole, too, I can see it on your face.’  ‘Well, yes, but don’t be rude, this is someone’s house.' ‘Be as rude as you like,’ says a bored voice. They all jump, turn to see a man standing at the foot of the stairs: tall, gaunt, long hair like curtains framing a ten-thousand galleon face. ‘I assure you,’ says Sirius Black, ‘this house is an insult to shitholes everywhere.’

[h3lfaerie]

If you're under 18 and reading Path of Alfheim.

Please keep in mind that Path of Alfheim is very much MDNI. I've put up all the necessary warnings.

It's an explicit story that contains horror, gore, tragedy, sex, death and I'm fairly certain the great majority of you love it all the more for that, however-

While the fic is easily accessible on AO3 and I can't stop anyone from reading it, please keep in mind that if you choose to interact with me (be it to share your art, discuss the story or to send me an ask) and I have a reason to believe you're a minor, I am generally not going to feel very comfortable talking with you, and I will likely choose not to full-stop.

For nothing other than the fact that my fanfiction is really not something that you should be reading if you're under 18, even if I greatly appreciate the support.

With that said, I'm fully conscious of the fact that I can't tell you what to do, I'm just some rando on the internet.

And I used to read explicit shit too.

But as of now I'm a grown ass adult (a child with a drinking permit at the ripe age of 23 but that's besides the point), I'd feel highly uncomfortable discussing such graphic themes with someone who's underage. And by extension, if you're a minor, I can't and won't share any art or asks from you, because I can't ethically do so without "encouraging you" to read the fic. If PoA was a book it would come with a list of content warnings, an 18+ sticker and a rightful place in the Dark Fantasy corner.

And trust me, I know ya'll read that stuff anyway, like I said I did too, I'm not holier than thou.

You do what you want.

But if I engage with anyone under 18 over this project, as an adult, I'm basically putting said highly-explicit-hypothetical-book in the hands of a minor and saying "Go read it!"...

I'm not doing it.

Please respect my boundaries. If you're a minor, I am not going to interact with you and I ask that you don't reach out to me either.

I do not mean offense, I do not mean disrespect, and I hope that in case you find yourself reading this and you're under 18, that you don't take this personally. It is not. ❤️‍🩹

I simply want to remain respectful and safe with my audience.

[gigglesandfreckles-hp]

🧡 and 💖!

hi arti! welcome to my marauders' themed sleepver. you can put your sleeping bag next to mine!! just a reminder: you sent me spiralling back into this. you. you!

🧡: What is a popular (serious) theory you disagree with?

i've ranted about this before and also it should be said that i choose to ignore my own thoughts about this theory pretty often because it is a fun plot device. but i just don't think "the prank" was as big a deal as most people make it out to be. not that it wasn't terrible and that it didn't jar all the marauders a bit. but i really just don't think—realistically, using what we see in canon—the marauders even missed a real step of friendship. it think, realistically, james was like "so that was terrible and we all know it right?" and they were like "yes" and he was like "sirius say you're sorry and hug remus" and sirius was like "i'm not sorry but okay." because that's exactly where we see them pick up in the shrieking shack in poa. sirius literally saying that snape deserved it and snorting derisively when remus brings it up. which just doesn't run parallel with some big huge falling out. but again...i also love the big huge falling out for Plot. so eh.

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

i mean...this isn't particularly unpopular. and it's certainly not a hill i would ever die on. but i do think harry and hermione make more sense together than ron and hermione. you will never catch me DEAD saying a single bad thing about ronald billius weasley though so don't even try. that is not what this is about. i think it's just because i rank intellectual chemistry as so important in romantic relationships. but just because *i* value that in a partner doesn't mean the fictional characters i read about have to haha.

my other unpopular opinion is that james and lily should have lived obviously duh NEXT QUESTION

[enbysiriusblack]

Hamilton for the ask game thing

alexander hamilton- i feel like lily. i'm not sure why but it's giving lily & like y'know her growing up poor & a nobody and becoming one of the most important/influential people i suppose

aaron burr, sir- i feel like it's emmeline talking to amelia bones like with the war & emmeline excited to join & amelia advising her about the dangers (then also like maybe the marauders in the next bit of the song)

my shot- not sure of a specific person but like. the marauders & co joining the order straight after finishing school FOR SURE

the story of tonight- ^ lowkey just the same thing as my shot

the schuyler sisters- its giving andromeda, narcissa, and bellatrix

farmer refuted- sirius & regulus arguing 😭😭

you'll be back- bella to andy FRRRR <333 ("i will kill your friends & family to remind you of my love")

right hand man- dumbledore to mcgonagall. i shall not explain myself.

helpless- marlene & dorcas. marlene is very helpless against her love for dorcas fr (also thinking about that hc i had a while back about lily crushing on dorcas too but squashing it down to help out marlene cause she knows marlene likes her too)

satisfied- ^ i suppose then this is lily

wait for it- this is sooo mary. literally her theme tune i suppose (and like referencing emmeline i suppose as her 'hamilton')

stay alive- i mean,, ig the first war?? right??

that would be enough- andy & ted fr

guns and ships- SIRIUS !!!!! literally literally i swear. sirius during the first war 🫶🫶

history has its eyes on you- dumbledore to the order

what comes next- walburga when sirius runs away (giggling at the "when your people say they hate you don't come crawling back to me" bit)

dear theodosia- frank & james when neville & harry are born

non stop- sirius & peter, like with peter as burr and hamilton as sirius (i think i'm funny with this.. and i am)

what'd i miss- hestia jones. this is like purely cause she was only in the second war & part of advance guard and just missed the first war for some reason (which i do hc being partly cause she decided to travel the world after she finished school)

cabinet battle #1- i'm not too sure. so imma just say severus & sirius arguing all the time during second war order

take a break- very much pandora, xenophilius, and luna fr <33 (xenophilius trying to make pandora take a break and spend time as a family 😭😭)

say no to this- i'm not really sure who's giving cheater vibes... [i consulted the discord server and narcissa cheating on lucius with mrs zabini]

the room where it happens- it's giving me peter vibes (like the end of the song), but ig before that maybe it's just like the closed door meeting peter's friends seem to keep getting invited to whilst he's not

cabinet battle #2- again, i'm still thinking just like sirius & severus in second war order meeting 😭😭

washington on your side- marauders discussing severus & sev having dumbledore seeming to protect him (like maybe specifically after the prank perhaps?) or just dumbledore like later protecting him from facing consequences for de involvement

one last time- i cannot think of anything other than slughorn retiring🧍🏻‍♂️

i know him- ^ i mean carrying on, ig severus' old peers finding out severus is the new potions teacher 😭😭 they'd be shocked fr like "really? that emo kid that literally hung out with death eaters???"

hurricane- i'm not too sure why but it's giving me remus lupin vibes

the reynolds pamphlet- i mean i suppose the only thing that sorta works would be remus at the end of poa? like his lycanthropy becoming public so like,, never gonna be dada professor now

burn- remus after halloween 1981

blow us all away- literally james when he first meets severus 😭😭 he does NOT let people insulting his parents slide

it's quiet uptown- andromeda 💔💔 like after second war

the election of 1800- uhhh. idfk for this man. hmm,, maybe just like peter betraying the order to back voldy?? idk

your obedient servant- def peter & sirius fs

the world was wide enough- emmeline & severus (again. i shall not explain)

who lives, who dies, who tells your story- i think the marauders in general but also perhaps mary specifically (like with still being alive and all)

[joannerowling]

i don't know if its actually a thing or my imagination but ive always found poa to have many parallels with macbeth (which is why i LOVED the movies doing the double trouble song!). set in scotland (being a wizard story no less ), the theme of equivocation regarding all the bad omens and the prophecy etc

The whole series has some Macbeth influence for sure! I wouldn't have thought of it with regards to PoA specifically, but now that you mention it, maybe?

There's the self-fulfilling prophecy, but imo the "self-fulfilling" part comes up more explicitly in OotP than PoA: the original prophecy which Snape overheard

And then the big one, the betrayal of friends, though Peter's true reasons for betraying James are… ambiguous. We never really know how it happened because we can't trust his word. It's hard to believe he was simply threatened and forced into it, because he played a key part in bringing Voldemort back. Then again, he had multiple occasions to kill Harry in his sleep while disguised as Ron's rat, and didn't. Peter is a character who seems defined by a desire for grandeur and power (as Sirius notes, he always stays around powerful individuals like James or Voldemort) and an ineptitude for it. So… not unlike Macbeth, who is weak-willed and unfitted to be king.

(That would make Voldemort Lady Macbeth in this transposition which is hilarious to me.)

[fizzyginfizz]

Hi!! So for the wip ask game I really want to ask you about QifL ( one of my favourite fanfics EVER), but the I saw Hifl and went OK WHAT, I need to know, what is it about, what does the "H " stand for?

I also want to take this opportunity to mention and remember one of the best Ginny scenes ever in the hole fandom, including the original books: pink nailed dragon 😚🤌🏼

Anyway, I will patienlty wait for an update of QifL, It will be great I know, you are a fanntastic writer!

The “H” stands for Hogwarts.

When I first started writing QifL I wasn’t sure whether it was three separate stories or one humongous one. Looking at the structure, themes and plot, I’ve realized Ginny’s tween arc does have a specific beginning, middle and end. So, I’m wrapping up this first section at the end of the PoA timeline and I moved all the scenes I had written ahead for her teen years and put them in another folder "HifW (QifL part 2)." Working title “Hogwarts is for Wankers.”

Yeah, I might need to rethink that title. I was tired; there was wine. But pfft, details, I’ll work that out later.

And thank you! That dragon scene was one of my favorites to write. I go into chapters having an idea of what needs to happen, but the detail work comes out as I’m typing and listening to Ginny’s voice in my head. That scene was the result of some sort of unholy amalgamation of both me and Ginny internally chanting “more… mooooooooore… MORE.”

A story that asks the question, “Is Ginny really Ginny without Quidditch?” has to figure out what pieces of Ginny Quidditch created vs. what pieces did Quidditch serve (or temper).

What that scene argues: even without Quidditch, Ginny is a deliciously impulsive, stupid-brave Champion of Self who ends up high on adrenaline and delights in not only her own cleverness but her ability to improvise her way out of trouble. She has an intuitive grasp of the art of bullshit and a superlative mastery of her own bladder. Thoughts are obstacles on the road to action and failures are a bump, not an end – this is Ginny at Peak Awesome and this scene exists so we understand exactly what Tom takes away.

[findyourrp]

(Resubmitting bc I messed up my first ad!)

🌸 hello there!! 🌸 I'm Allie (she/they), 31, and I'm on EST.

A Little About Me

I’m 31, Non-binary 🏳️‍⚧️, I’ve been writing since I was 11, over various different platforms!

I consider myself a literate (to novella-ish) writer! I often match lengths the best I can but I do not obligate you to! However, if I’m constantly hit with one sentence replies, I probably won’t proceed 😅

Further rules and about me found https://allieabout.carrd.co/! (Please read through this!)

What I’m Searching

Harry Potter: Golden Trio Era RP starting from POA (long term, to play through the end of the series and potential sequel) (I am Anti-JKR)

20+ RPers ONLY! 25+ PREFERRED.

Character I’m seeking: George Weasley against my OC. Please make sure to have a writing sample ready! (not specifically for George, just one in general!)

Characters I’m willing to double as: Fred Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley

Content/Themes: Friends to lovers/slow burn (heavy emphasis on the slow burn), death, angst, action, war, fantasy, violence. No NSFW with minors.

Willing to be canon divergent

RP on Discord in a private server using Tupper.

.

[dufferpuffer]

Yeah I'm perched upon the old man like a hissing possum. Not an American Opossum, idk what noise they make, but a proper Aussie Possum that sounds somewhere between clearing your throat and hitting a window with a hose. That's me. But I always appreciate how deep you dive into things and how well thought out your stuff is even when I don't agree - because so many people go "Idk he just has bad vibes :\" and that's BORING and LAME. Give me a STORY. Give me something to THINK ABOUT and CHEW. This is fiction so give me FICTION.

Augh I think it makes sense but this sort of shit does my head in. Time and fate and bullshit I hate it, I hate messiah and destiny...

Like, for a story that places so much emphasis on personal choices, on what you chose and not fate, it's weird how much hinges on a prophecy that is vaguely worded and it's unclear if it really means what we mostly think it does.

Yeah. This has always been my single biggest issue with Harry Potter: this incredibly odd mix of base, core themes. It makes things like time travel and messiah shit and prophecies... not really satisfying. It doesn't subvert them - It plays them straight, Despite having a story that should otherwise be... the opposite. The most it does is have the old man twist the word of fate in a path-of-most-resistance, hoping he can actually save a boy he loves

But I like the idea that prophecies are.... wobbly. That there are stored prophecies that haven't come true and prophecies that have - like a one eyed daruma. Snape wouldn't go on a holiday. Harry would choose to die. But I don't like that fate is standard, that it is destined... (and thus I dont like lame time travel stories - I can forgive POA for being a fun kids adventure, but I do wish it didn't have the time travel element lol it is stinky lame)

I wonder: If prophecies don't HAVE to come true. If a prophecy is a magical prediction, a vast reading of people, of the motions of time and history... but aren't NECESSARILY true. If there is always a chance that a prophecy will be interrupted. Altered. That 99.99% of the chance is that Snape wont go on holiday, it isn't his personality, it isn't who he or his magic is - and yet here is the very slimmest chance that he will go anyway.

That fighting against a prophecy, or trying to twist it, trying to understand everyone and everything enough that it can be altered... is a viable option.

I think this is what we see ol' Dumbles do: He is more than happy to stay separated from Harry, knowing he will die early, knowing he was a lamb for slaughter: but he should train him into a pig. To ENSURE they get the ending they wand.

But then he does start to love him. He didn't mean to, he meant to keep his distance, to do things 'for the greater good' - but he started to want a different fate for him. He opens his soul, his thoughts, his most secret processes to Harry at the end of OotP - shit he aint shared with anyone before - and decides he is going to try and twist fate, twist destiny, as much as he can. That prophecies aren't solid. That they are flexible by design. They are a window into common sense and logic - but sometimes the world doesn't always work like that. Miracles are real.

But this is me on four shots of Vodka. hehehe

Hey :^) I was wondering if you had any thoughts on how prophecies work, if they work at all. There's so many of them stored... Specifically in the context of 'What would have happened if Snape never overheard the Prophecy, never delivered it to Voldemort' (like he was on a holiday in the Bahamas and skipped the whole thing) But also in any context. You are cool and have cool thoughts

Hi!

Thank you so much!

I know we don't agree on everything (*cough* Dumbledore *cough*), but you have some great thoughts too and I like reading your posts!

It took me a while to get to this ask because I'm slowly getting through my inbox, and this was a really interesting subject.

So, to the question of prophecies, honestly, I'm not sure. I mean there are so many prophecies in that hall and I have to wonder how they are recorded? And they seem to know when they are fulfilled:

Tiny, yellowing labels had been stuck beneath each glass orb on the shelf. Some of them had a weird, liquid glow; others were as dull and dark within as blown lightbulbs.

(OotP, 778)

The glowing ones are still unfulfilled, while the dull ones are prophecies that already come to pass. At least, that's what's implied.

There aren't really any official answers to the hall itself though, so all I have is my personal headcanons, speculations, and what makes sense to me with what we do know about the Wizarding World and the Department of Mysteries.

I think, similarly to the trace, the magic of the Hall of Prophecies is ancient and not something modern wizards would know how to replicate. We know the ministry and the DOM were founded where the veil was already located, and I think the Hall of Prophecies (or at least the magic that powers it) was one of the first things built there. Well, built into the building, it wasn't the Ministry yet.

Basically I have like a whole timeliness in my head for the history of magical government. I mentioned some of it here when discussing the Wizengamont, but basically I think the Department of Mysteries was built before the ministry. Like, initially it was a place for rituals and studying magic before wizard society really got together. Around the time Hogwarts and the Wizengamot were founded though, I believe that's when the Department of Mysteries was built (with a different name then). It was built around the veil and was dedicated to the study of magic.

Later when the Ministry was founded, it was built over the existing magical study institution. So the hall of prophecies was there for a good few centuries before the ministry. That's my headcanon, at least.

I think the hall is powered by very ancient magic and when a prophecy is made, it appears there and it goes dark when what it foretells comes to pass. The prophecies appear without labeling, the labels are added by the Unspeakables who don't really know how the magic that makes the prophecies appear works, and they hate it. At least, that's my headcanon. I believe it probably works on the same system of magic that traces magic in Britain I mentioned in the post about the trace. Basically, when a prophecy is recognized by the Trace, the magic of the hall acts up to record it.

Now, it brings me finally to the actual question, what if Snape didn't overhear the prophecy? Would it still be set into motion?

And the answer is that I'm not sure. I have my headcanon about prophecies, but like what I said about the Hall of Prophecies, it's based on loose speculation and what makes sense to me.

Like, for a story that places so much emphasis on personal choices, on what you chose and not fate, it's weird how much hinges on a prophecy that is vaguely worded and it's unclear if it really means what we mostly think it does. I mentioned in the past how vague the wording on it is, the seventh month could be so many other months except July (my favorite being September, as it literally translates to "seventh month" in Latin). Because of this, I see prophecies in HP as a combination of fate and choice.

If we assume this prophecy is real, for the sake of this discussion, because we do see real prophecies, like in PoA when Trawlany predicted Pettigrew would bring Voldemort back. We know prophecies are real in this world, just not this specific prophecy (I mean, we know a prophecy about Voldemort and Harry was made and is in the hall, I just have my doubts regarding its contents). But let's say it's real and it says what Dumbledore said it does because I want to explain my concept of fate in HP as a whole.

Like, Voldemort's choice to go and kill Harry marked Harry as his equal and vanquisher, if Voldemort hadn't actively chosen Harry, the prophecy wouldn't have referred to them. Now, because how choices are a matter of free will, I think it doesn't have to be Harry, that Voldemort doesn't have to chose. But he would choose and he would always choose Harry over Neville because that's how he would always interrupt the prophecy.

Kinda like I mentioned in the Harry is the MOD post, fate in the wizarding world is weird. Harry would always be the Master of Death because he would always be the kind of person to eventually choose to die. In the same way, Voldemort would always choose to mark Harry as the prophesized child because it's who he is. In the same way, Severus would never choose to take a vacation in the Bahamas during the first war because it's the type of person he is. Basically how things went down had to go down this way because these people would always make the same choices because that's who they are.

I think that's how fate works in the HP world. Like, that's my headcanon/speculation of it.

I actually have a piece of evidence for it, sort of. When Harry and Hermione go back in time, we see explanations for what has already happened (like the stag Patronus). Basically they didn't change the past because they always went back in time. The stag Patronus came to save Harry because Harry was always going to cast it. Basically, time is linear in the HP world, but it's not because your choices don't matter, it's because you are the kind of person you are at the moment you make a choice — and the choice will always be the same one at a given moment because that's who you are.

So, the answer is that Snape will always overhear the prophecy, he'll always tell Voldemort and Voldemort will always choose Harry. If we want to change things, we need to go earlier and change the situation so the choice would be different. But if we do that, it always happened that way and the prophecy would then not be made at all.

I hope my rambling about time and fate makes sense, but this was lots of fun to think about, so thank you!

[thecat-isblogging-blog]

Please what’s Favorite (good) things about Remus lupin?

I think one of my favourite things about Lupin is how he lets you stumble over your own answers. He has tremendous faith in young people and gives them space to think for themselves. He really is a great mentor in PoA. Here are some instances: When discussing the Dementor's Kiss, the end that awaits Sirius Black, Harry is quick with his answer:

“He deserves it,” he said suddenly.

“You think so?” said Lupin lightly. “Do you really think anyone deserves that?”

“Yes,” said Harry defiantly. “For ... for some things ...” Lupin doesn't correct him or pretend to know better. He is having a really mature exchange with someone much younger than him. "Lupin said lightly" shows how he isn't letting Harry feel in any way that this isn't a safe space, despite the topic being a sensitive one for himself too. He doesn't explode or reprimand Harry, but he doesn't agree either, he lets Harry think about it... Interestingly, this all works to bring Harry to his PoA arc! Themes on who gets to decide who is guilty, is justice to be trusted? With Harry being someone quite emotionally shut towards adults (understandably so), it always gets to me how quickly he opens up to Lupin. Lupin said, “Anything worrying you, Harry?”

“No,” Harry lied. He drank a bit of tea and watched the grindylow brandishing a fist at him. “Yes,” he said suddenly, putting his tea down on Lupin’s desk. “You know that day we fought the boggart?

Then when Harry asks him why he got skipped for the boggart lesson, Lupin says:

“I would have thought that was obvious, Harry,” he said, sounding surprised.

Harry, who had expected Lupin to deny that he’d done any such thing, was taken aback. Harry is surprised - gee this adult is actually agreeing with me? He isn't denying or saying I'm imagining things? This exchange, leads to: “Well, well ... I’m impressed.” He smiled slightly at the look of surprise on Harry’s face. “That suggests that what you fear most of all is — fear. Very wise, Harry.” Lupin is actually learning from Harry, and giving him credit. How often have we known a teacher to do this this? His faith in Harry, and in all his students, has always been something I've loved about Lupin.

[ashesandhackles]

Nearly Always Right: Remus and Harry

By @thecat-isblogging-blog , me, featuring inputs from @dragonlordette

I have talked about Harry and Remus' relationship before in Resurrection Stone meta, where Harry sees Remus as a mentor. A mentor who consistently equips him with tools - his favourite subject (DADA), his strongest spell (Patronus), a connection to his father and godfather. But there are themes in their conversations in POA that sets off seeds in Harry's arc. This conversation for example:

Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth. But then he thought of Black.

"He deserves it," he said suddenly.

"You think so?" said Lupin lightly. "Do you really think anyone deserves that?"

From the beginning of Prisoner of Azkaban, the moral theme is "do bad people deserve bad things done to them". It starts with Uncle Vernon saying Sirius deserves the death penalty:

"When will they learn," said Uncle Vernon, pounding the table with his large purple fist, "that hanging's the only way to deal with these people?"

And, of course, the delightful Aunt Marge about Harry's case in "St. Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys":

"Do they use the cane at St Brutus' boy?" she barked across the table.

"Er-"

Uncle Vernon nodded curtly behind Aunt Marge's back.

"Yes," said Harry. Then, feeling he might as well do the thing properly, he added, "All the time."

"Excellent," said Aunt Marge. "I won't have this namby-pamby wishy-washy nonsense about not hitting people who deserve it. A good thrashing is what's needed in 99 cases out of hundred. Have you been beaten often?"

[ Quick note, because I can't resist pointing out more connections the book sets up between Harry and Sirius from the beginning, apart from them being in innocents in these instances:

"No need to tell us he's no good," snorted Uncle Vernon, staring over the top of his newspaper at the prisoner. "Look at the state of him, the filthy layabout! Look at his hair!"

He shot a nasty look sideways at Harry, whose untidy hair has been a source of great annoyance to Uncle Vernon]

Justice and Mercy

Harry completely rejects the Dursleys as caregivers in this book by running away and he gains a mentor figure and a godfather in this book. The mentor, asks him a moral question that sets up an arc: "Do you really believe anyone deserves that?"

The question sets up seeds of mercy that Harry grants not only Peter, but also makes him the deliverer of justice to innocents: Sirius and Buckbeak. He drives the Dementors away from Sirius with a powerful Patronus, a spell Remus taught him and frees Buckbeak, delivering the justice promised at the beginning of the book.

Another notable factor is that Remus didn't answer the question for Harry (although it's clear he has his own feelings about it, especially since he brought up the idea of Sirius getting the Dementors' Kiss unprompted - a first for him in a book). He is opening space for Harry to process what he is thinking and feeling by asking the right questions, and trusting that Harry will make the right decision.

In the Shrieking Shack scene, both Remus and Sirius defer to Harry's judgement on what must be done with Peter. Harry also similarly rejects Remus' stance in Deathly Hallows about using Expelliarmus on Stan Shunpike - "I won't blast people out of the way. That's Voldemort's job."

In the final book of the series, Harry will come to a position where he will grant mercy to many: Draco, Snape, and even Voldemort. Have a look at how he reacts to Voldemort's mutilated soul:

He was afraid of it. Small and fragile and wounded though it was, he did not want to approach it. Nevertheless, he drew slowly nearer, ready to jump back at any moment. Soon he stood near enough to touch it, yet he could not bring himself to do it.

And Harry does not believe that Voldemort deserves it, a mutilated soul, stuck helplessly in a limbo and unable to go on. He offers Voldemort a chance to heal his soul:

"But before you try to kill me, I'd advise you to think about what you've done... think, and try for some remorse, Riddle..."

"What is this?"

Of all the things Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. Harry saw his pupils contract to thin slits, saw the skin around his eyes whiten.

"It's your one last chance," said Harry, "it's all you've got left...I've seen what you'll be otherwise...be a man.. try...try for some remorse..."

[Another note: a soul is sacrosanct in the series. That specifically Voldemort's mutilated soul being stuck and unable to move on, and the question of whether Sirius "deserves" to be rendered soulless - it is a strong thread in the series, and as @artemisia-black pointed out to me, in keeping with ideas of annihilationism: "hell is not existing"]

The Idea of Shame

Another theme that comes up prominently in conversation between Remus and Harry are the ideas of shame (and self loathing).

"Why? Why do they affect me like that? Am I just-?"

"It has nothing to do with weakness," said Professor Lupin sharply, as though he had read Harry's mind. "The Dementors affect you worse than the others because there are horrors in your past that the others don't have. (...) The worst that has happened to you Harry is enough to make anyone fall off their broom. You have nothing to feel ashamed of. " - POA

Remus picks up on Harry's feelings of embarrassment and insecurity and just like how Remus plants the seed of justice and mercy in Harry's mind, he also starts it with getting Harry to be kind to himself. Harry feels really vulnerable and insecure about "weakness", and Remus gets him to forgive himself for it before he even fully articulates that he shouldn't feel that way.

The roles reverse in Deathly Hallows, and Remus runs to Harry with his deep rooted shame and self-loathing:

"How can I forgive myself, when I knowingly risked passing on my own condition to an innocent child? And if, by some miracle, it is not like me, then it will be better off, a hundred times so, without a father of whom it must always be ashamed!"

(...)

"If the new regime thinks Muggle-borns are bad," Harry said, "what will they do to a half-werewolf whose father's in the Order? My father died trying to protect my mother and me, and you reckon he'd tell you to abandon your kid to go an adventure with us?"

Harry, of course, can't solve Remus' problems or his own internalised shame and self-loathing due to the stigma he faces as a werewolf in the wizarding society. But Harry can remind him what's important - the feelings of the child that will be left behind ("Parents shouldn't leave their kids unless they've got to").

And Remus gets the message, and is grateful for it - and he names Harry godfather to Teddy in honour of it.

Like many mentor figures and fathers Harry surpasses in the series as part of his arc (James, Sirius, Dumbledore), Harry surpasses Remus as well and Remus chooses to display trust in Harry's moral compass and instincts:

"I'd tell him to follow his instincts, which are good and nearly always right," - Remus Lupin, Deathly Hallows

[albi-bumblebee]

There are reasons

-James wasn’t actually explored that much during book 3 even if we do get marauders backstory, he was also dead, and Sirius and Remus did actually have exes vibes during POA, I do have to admit even as someone who clearly only has wolfstar as a B- tier ship. Also adult and older HP fans of the time wanted to explore more adult themes with the adult characters, and Sirius and Remus were really the best way for this seeing as James was ya know dead

-People were already shipping wolfstar when GOF was released, and we get mention at the end of that book that Sirius would stay with Remus. Then in OOTP Sirius and Remus share a room, and give Harry the joint present which gives shippers more fodder.

-But OOTP is also where we get SWM and the fireplace convo afterwards which provided a lot of new info! Sirius and James’s relationship in SWM is a large contributor to why a lot of us ship them. As has been pointed out by many, the “if it bothers you” scene reads very much like it could’ve come from a gay fanfiction lol. Sirius and Remus didn’t really have anything in SWM that read remotely romantic either

-Many people, as previously stated, already shipped wolfstar when the book came out and people in early HP fandom seemed to not like breaking up the few canon ships at that point(i.e Jily)/not everyone is a multishipper so that worked against prongsfoot’s favor

-Another potential, more controversial reason might be that James and Sirius are shown and thought of as equals and that isn’t really common among ultra popular slash ships😅

-Also while there is a lot of angst with the ship(almost similarly to Jily), it is not the kind that the HP fandom really likes for its larger non canon ships. Sirius and Remus have the “they both thought the other was the spy” thing which relates to thinking the other was on the opposite side of the war, and pretty much all of the other non-het popular fanon ships(and many popular het fanon ships)involve one of the characters being a death eater at some point, even if their fans will swear up and down the character was forced into it. Think of ships like Drarry and Snarry

There were probably more contributors to the fact that Prongsfoot isn’t as popular as wolfstar, but i am sleepy lol

Though I do want to point out that I have heard that Prongsfoot was at some point as popular or almost as popular as Wolfstar in some early fandom places, I wasn’t there I just have an interest in fandom history😛Other more knowledgeable people can correct me if I was wrong, or give more info I would appreciate it

Genuine question that i want an answer to. Why isn’t Prongsfoot(romantic) more popular? I feel so drawn to it idk how to explain it.

Like sure they’re popular but why aren’t they suuuuper popular yk?

[whinlatter]

author's note | chapter 3: nocturnal 🌙

here is the author's note for chapter 3, with a few short reflections on writing, headcanons, fic recs (and a tiny sneak peek of chapter four). for an explanation of why i'm inflicting these author's notes on you see here!

✨ spoilers for this chapter below the cut (and a tiny sneak peek of chapter 4…) ✨

thank you for reading the third chapter of beasts! this chapter follows ginny’s first (proper) day back at hogwarts after the war, from morning til night. we have some familiar faces back with us, as well as a couple of new ones. lot to talk about - let's get stuck in...

[ nocturnal, adjective: being active or happening at night rather than during the day:of the night, or relating to the night ]

acknowledgements:

thanks to @pebblysand @evesaintyves and @takearisk-ao3 for their extremely helpful suggestions on introducing and sketching out O.Cs. and thank you to @incalculablepower on TTB for clarifying what did or did not happen with ginny’s OWLs!

writing notes and headcanons:

on canon references (or: back to the prisoner of azkaban): i’m having so much fun pilfering and borrowing my favourite tropes or moments in canon and sort of interpolating them into the vibes of certain scenes for this fic. for this chapter, the book i kept going back to for this chapter was PoA. this is the book we see ginny the least in, save for a brief intro in diagon alley and her traumatic experience with the dementor on the train, where she and the trio all meet remus, but we know, for her, it’s the aftermath year of her deeply traumatic first year. it only seemed right to do PoA here, as we find ginny, again, starting a new aftermath year now that the war is won. there are references to PoA throughout - remus’ DADA lessons, obviously the hippogriffs and the care of magical creatures lessons, but also werewolves, dementors, the press, and the beginnings of criminal trials. with the opening scene i was trying to do a call-back to the opening of PoA, which begins with harry in the middle of the night, writing in bed, quill between his teeth, worried about getting ink on the sheets, receiving the daily prophet clipping and letters from his friends. two soulmates mimicking each other i die i die. (also time-turning because you know ya girl loves a flashback)

on letters: letters, writing, handwriting, reading between the lines: these are really crucial in canon - there’s often a romance and magic to them, and they serve a rich way of characters connecting across distance and time (lily potter’s little wave to her son through her letter Gs!) as we know, though, writing to others is canonically also a loaded theme, fraught with risk and danger and secrets, the threat of interception. ginny more than most has reason to feel wary when she picks up a pen. expect lots more letters and refections on this in future chapters…

on the camera and the nimbus: when i one day put out the summer ‘98 fic that i write and re-write and scrap every so often, you’ll get the story of how harry and ginny come to possess these two items - but for now, i’m keeping hush, you're going to have to forgive me trust me

on head boys and head girls: as we see in this chapter, hermione and justin finch-fletchley are the first postwar heads of school. these are symbolic appointments as well as reflections of the staff and governors' faith in them - two muggleborns, both plainly bearing the scars of their, very different, wartime experiences. there’s been some super interesting discussion about this (here and here) and although i don’t think hermione should be head girl, i think she would be, in ways that make for an interesting arc for her. stay tuned on this...

on lavender: i just don’t think she’s dead, i’m sorry 🥲 it’s just too brutal for her to have died and her only plot service to be ron’s clingy ex! my girl was a proud DA member and fought in the battle and deserves a chance at having a meaningful life after her injuries ok

on ginny and mcgonagall: i strongly suspect ‘forgot to brake, sorry professor’ was not the first time these two gryffindor ladies clashed. i assure you, in this fic, it will not be the last.

on professor graves: i’ve always been so so so fascinated by the department of mysteries and the unspeakables, and so introducing a former dept of mysteries guy to take the defence class - already a tricky posting, especially after the students have had a year being taught how to do dark magic by death eaters - seemed really compelling, especially as we play with some of the themes about beasts and the darker parts of a person's nature. stay tuned for more prof graves action...

on ginny and remus: we have only tiny hints that ginny and remus have some kind of friendship that harry doesn’t really see in canon - the poa interaction, moments in ootp where remus stays with ginny and the twins on the night bus (ofc he’s also living at grimmauld with ginny and her family in that book, too); ginny’s closeness to tonks; and that fantastic moment in DH where remus vouches for ginny to her parents and persuades molly and arthur to let ginny stay in the room of requirement during the battle, so she’ll know what’s going on. i’m absolutely not the first one to suspect remus lupin might see something of himself and try and look out for ginny in her second year, but i am loving thinking through their dynamic here, and the idea of remus and hagrid also having their own existing friendship and rapport

on little women: fraught, fiercely loving sisterhood, matriarchs, writing, war… hermione just had to be rereading little women, didn’t she?

on siegfried sassoon and the death bed: i know it’s extremely pretentious wanky of me to start with a poem but one of my favourite favourite books is pat barker’s regeneration, which is about soldiers at a scottish convalescent home suffering with PTSD during the first world war (it’s a fictionalised account of real people, including sassoon the war poet, who were patients at craiglockhart during the war). there are lots of themes and dynamics in that novel that i’m shamelessly trying to play with here, strongly recommend a read, and i’m also just a massive huge sassoon fan and this is one of two of his poems that i keep coming back to for this fic. (graves is actually a reference to robert graves, the poet and classicist, who appears as a character in regeneration). the vibes are very much this!

reading list for chapter 3

on epistolary fiction and letter-writing (esp. harry/ginny):

castles by @pebblysand warm front by flagpoles (@jiilys) enough of both by @takearisk-ao3

on harry calling ginny ‘gin’: 

you’re the only one who gets to call me that, you know by @hiinnys (AO3)

on postwar ron and ginny:

hide-and-seek by stuckwithminusharry

on postwar hermione:

Failure by @floreatcastellumposts

on mcgonagall:

Autumn is a Time of Change by wasureneba

on hannah abbott: 

naive: in defense of hannah abbott by dirgewithoutmusic

on remus and food: 

It’s just what you do to get by by anonymous for remus lupin fest 2023

songs from the playlist particularly for this chapter:

dismantle by peter sandberg | september - instrumental by sparky deathcap | this is how we walk on the moon by arthur russell | tommy's tarbukas by alasdair fraser | sinnerman by nina simone | lonesome am i by missisipi john hurt

plus a very short sneak peek of chapter four... 🧹

‘Right,’ she says. ‘You can all put your brooms down over there.’ Thirty blank faces stare back at her. ‘You know,’ she says, raising her eyebrows, ‘an important part of being on a Quidditch team is following direction.’

🦉 thoughts & questions? ask me anything!