#harry is 1000% done

[theonceandfuturequeenoftarts]

It happens by chance, and while Harry wishes it hadn’t, this will at least clear up any lingering uncertainty for him.

There’s a skirmish between Harry and some friends from the Order and Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and a couple stray curses happen to catch him – one slices shallowly into his upper arm, the other sends him rolling across the ground. The upshot of this is that the left shoulder of Harry’s shirt is now in ribbons and hanging down around his waist, leaving his chest – and soul mark – bare to the world. Including Voldemort.

Who looks like he’s having one doozy of an emotion.

And that basically confirms the dark wizard hadn’t known, but right now Harry’s bleeding sluggishly and wants to go home and have a drink and pass out for at least a few hours, so Voldemort can rage on his own time. Everyone else from his side has already buggered off, so he’s not abandoning anyone if he does the same.

Unfortunately, the blood loss – while not severe – is enough to slow his reaction time, which leads to him apparating himself and the Dark Lord latched onto him to his flat. Not ideal.

There are a tense few moments of staring at the snake man, waiting to see if he’ll attack or start destroying Harry’s home, but when he doesn’t take advantage – when he just stares and frowns and stares some more – Harry decides he’s too tired for this shit.

“You are just impossible to ward out, aren’t you?” he sighs. The curse of being so physically and magically intertwined with the other man. (Well. And at the soul level, too, but he tries not to think of that.)

Voldemort yanks him by his uninjured arm towards the kitchen light that comes on automatically and stares at Harry’s chest, and the elegantly written Tom Marvolo Riddle thereupon.

Harry scowls when the staring drags on. “Oi, could you quit perving on me and piss off already?”

“You were never going to tell me?” Voldemort demands, ignoring Harry’s half-arsed attempt at distraction.

“Of course not,” he scoffs. “Why the Hel would I? Either you already knew and it didn’t matter to you, or you didn’t – and I wasn’t about to risk baring my soul to someone who has a history of wanting me dead.” He shrugs. “I’m reckless, not suicidal.”

Voldemort opens his mouth with an angrily indignant look, and Harry looks to the ceiling for patience before pulling out of the other man’s grip and opening his emergency bottle of firewhiskey, hidden in the pantry, because this conversation needs alcohol. He pours two glasses (his to the brim) because he tries to be a good host, even to the bane of his existence. And if Voldemort doesn’t want it, well, it’ll save Harry getting the bottle out again.

All throughout this, Voldemort is ranting at him. Harry tunes most of it out – he’s had to hear enough of the man’s monologues to know he doesn’t need to listen to the preamble; the meat of his diatribe won’t come until a couple minutes in, at least.

After he casts a quick episkey on the cut on his arm, Harry leans against the counter, watching Voldemort pace around his modest kitchen. He takes a long, slow drink, welcoming the fire flowing down his throat and warming his belly. And either the other man is taking even longer than usual to get to the point or Harry’s more exhausted and irritable than he’d thought, because he’s suddenly completely out of patience with this situation.

He cuts in boredly, “It’s not like it changes anything. It doesn’t matter.”

Voldemort is immediately before him, looming and enraged. “It matters to me!”

“Why?”

“I’ve waited decades for you,” he says vehemently, leaning closer in an attempt to physically intimidate or pin Harry in place.

Harry barks a harsh laugh. “You waited for a fantasy. You’ve spent my whole life killing and hurting the people most important to me. Some silly mark doesn’t change that – it doesn’t make it better, it won’t make me love you.” He takes a sip and rasps through the burn. “It won’t change who you are.”

“I never received a mark–”

“And that’s unfortunate. Clearly it affected you. But plenty of people don’t get soul marks and they don’t commit mass murder and incite civil wars.” He gives Voldemort a dismissive look, standing up straight and slipping out from between the dark wizard and the counter. He can almost hear the other man grinding his teeth. 

“You have no idea what it’s like, not having a mark,” Voldemort hisses caustically, face contorted in a furious snarl. “The contempt, the ridicule I had to endure. I was denied one of Magic's basic gifts and they took it as proof they were better than me, those worthless fools.”

It’s difficult to know how he would’ve reacted to not having a mark. His burden has been to have the mark of the worst possible person, and he thinks he’s handled it far better than anyone could’ve expected of him. Having no mark would’ve confirmed that he’s meant to be alone, that there’s no one out there meant just for him, but having Voldemort’s mark as Harry Potter essentially means the same thing.

“Maybe you mutilated your soul too much to deserve a mark,” Harry says in a fit of cruelty. Behind the wrath crackling in the other man’s eyes, he can see the misery bloom. As good as it feels to score a hit against Voldemort, he regrets it even more. And isn’t that the exact reason why this damn war has dragged on for so long?

(Harry pushes that thought away wearily.)

“You had choices, Voldemort, and you made yours,” he says quietly but firmly. “I’m making mine, and it’s that I don’t want anything to do with you.”

“This is not a unilateral decision,” Voldemort says, the frustration in his tone edging close to desperation. “Do my wants mean nothing?”

"Your wants." Harry slams his almost empty glass down on the table; his voice comes out dangerously even. “Alright then. Can you bring my parents back to life? No? How about Cedric, or Sirius, or any of the dozens of others whose lives you’ve cut short?”

Voldemort’s mouth is pinched shut, a thunderous frown on his face.

“Hel, let’s start small. Stop this war, swear to never harm another person and get your followers to do the same. You want me to care about what you want? Start by addressing all of that.”

“You ask this of me and promise nothing in return?” Voldemort says bitterly.

“That’s the bare minimum it would take for me to see you as anything more than a murderous, blood-supremacist monster. And I honestly don’t think you can do it, but feel free to prove me wrong.”

That puts an unsettling gleam in the other man’s eyes. Harry thinks back on what he might’ve said to cause that reaction and feels his stomach drop. Oh bother. He’d challenged Voldemort. Harry knows exactly how he'd react to someone saying that; apparently Voldemort is equally competitive (and motivated by spite – he should’ve guessed that).

“...If I am able to–”

“You won’t–”

“When I fulfill your requirements,” Voldemort arrogantly says, face intense. “You and I will explore our connection, and you will meet with me frequently to do so.”

And now Harry is in a quandary. If Voldemort does what he’s been asked, Harry will have achieved what he’s been fighting for all six years of his adult life; if Voldemort doesn’t, Harry’s no worse off than he was before. And he knows the dark wizard won’t give up his cause simply because his soulmate asked, but if Voldemort does…

“You do realise that your soulmate is me, yeah?” Harry clarifies, unnerved by the shift in the other man's demeanour. “You don’t like me. At all.”

“Nonsense,” Voldemort says, waving off Harry’s really very logical point. “We simply haven’t had a chance to become properly acquainted.”

“...Because you’re always trying to kill me.”

“Details, details.” 

Harry would very much like to strangle the megalomaniac who is still in his apartment. “...Uh-huh. Sure, you become a completely different person and we’ll talk.”

He sometimes forgets that magic occasionally disregards sarcasm. This appears to be one of those times, as the heaviness in the air snaps tight around them, signifying Harry’s flippant “sure” just turned this discussion into a magically binding agreement. Merlin’s pierced nipples. So much for intent over phrasing.

Catching sight of Voldemort’s smug smirk, Harry suddenly feels genuinely homicidal for the first time in his life. Sensing his non-existent welcome is well and truly worn out, Voldemort says, “I look forward to it,” and apparates away. Harry pitches a cushion through the space the dark wizard just occupied. It helps settle his irritation a little.

He drops onto his couch with a deep, bone-tired sigh and tosses back Voldemort’s untouched glass of firewhiskey. 

He wonders if he’ll feel disappointed or relieved when Voldemort realises he’d rather keep trying to subjugate Magical Britain than have Harry as his soulmate.

Three days later, the war ends.

[nina-scribbles]

Drarry x Atlantis Au; featuring Harry’s gay panic 🧜‍♀️💙

[jlhynde-insanitybrilliance]

UDLTTOM DIALOGUE DRAFT #78

(?): I assure you death is still very much on the table.

Harry: Of course! When is death not on the table?! It’s the bloody centerpiece at this point!

[wellpresseddaisy]

But with the Dawn, a New Day is Born pt 1

I have 0 self control when it comes to a new AU. The title comes from the 1931 song Goodnight Sweetheart. I recommend the Bing Crosby version (and also his version of P.S. I love you from a similar vintage).

I probably wouldn't have written this without some enabling from @sneverussape so thank you, friend. Now we all get Harry being Very Confused by a Tom Riddle who mostly isn't a homicidal dick and a Ron who is going to do his level best to make Dumbledore regret taking up teaching. Hermione is going to enjoy the hell out of the library and not having to only research things to save people's lives.

Harry startled as Ron and Hermione melted out of the trees to stand on either side of him. They weren’t shades of themselves, they were solid…and he’d dropped the stone already, anyway. They were real and breathing and they were with him.

“What are you doing?” His voice shook.

“Dumbledore may be convinced that you’re the one he needs to kill, but we aren’t letting you do it alone.” Ron set his jaw in a way Harry knew. Argument was pointless.

“We’ve done everything together.” Hermione continued, her own voice shaking. “And we aren’t…well, three is a magical number too, isn’t it?”

“But you have families.” Harry insisted. Hermione, in his other side, mumbled something he only caught snatches of.

Steadfast in this fateful hour

I place my magic with all its power,

And the sun with its brightness,

And the snow with its whiteness,

And fire with all the strength it hath,

“Think my mum knows.” Ron tried to smile, but it twisted. “She sent her love, you know, for all of us. Said she’d make them understand.”

“Your mum?” Harry couldn’t finish.

And lightning with its rapid wrath,

And the winds with their swiftness along their path,

And Black Lake with its deepness,

“Yeah. She doesn’t want to…after her brothers…I reckon she knows us all pretty well at this point. Anyway, she loves us.”

And the hills with their steepness,

And the moors with their starkness:

      All these I place,

      With my friends help and grace

Between this world and the bringer of darkness.

They’d reached the clearing.

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

After…after Voldemort accepted their triple sacrifice, after the green glow enveloped them, they tumbled together on the floor of Kings Cross, only it was much neater than Harry ever remembered it. So terribly white, really, from the lights to the tiles.

“I didn’t think there’d be an after.” Ron croaked.

“Neither did I.” Hermione’s voice quavered. “I hoped…”

Harry coughed, spat up something foul, and rolled to his feet. “What was that you were saying, Hermione?”

His voice sounded as raspy as his throat felt. Whatever he’d hacked up and spat on the floor pulsed there, thick and black and wet. Instinctively, he herded the other two away from it.

“A version of St. Patrick’s Rune.” Hermione admitted, flushing a bit. “I found it in the library at Grimmauld, tucked away in something ancient. Someone marked it as ‘for absolute life or death emergencies’ so I memorized it. I didn’t know if it would work for me. I’m not sure if it was meant to do…this.” She gestured at their surroundings.

He couldn’t say anything. There weren’t words enough in the world to say anything to Hermione and Ron, who loved him enough to walk with him into death. He launched himself at Ron with all the coordination of a drunk Niffler. Ron caught him, pulled him close, and Hermione crowded in from his other side. They stood for a moment, just breathing, just holding on.

“Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you.” Harry tried to tamp down on the ridiculous urge to cry as he mumbled into Ron’s chest .

(Even in the after…after he couldn’t be as tall as he wanted, which was a crock in Harry’s opinion.)

“As if we would do anything else.” Hermione huffed. “We’ve walked with you every step of the way and we aren’t abandoning you now.”

‘You’d probably muck up your…after by feeling guilty without us.” Ron pointed out, patting his back. “D’you think we’re waiting for a train?”

“The three of you,” a voice that reminded him of an annoyed Dumbledore came from behind them. “Are not supposed to be anywhere together.”

They turned as one, Ron trying to shove Harry and Hermione behind him. Harry decided that actually, Ron could take this one.

“I am meant to be meeting Mr. Potter to discuss his options.” It was Dumbledore, if you’d known him in the 1930s. Harry remembered the pictures.

“Huh, no wonder old Grindy went for him.” Ron mused.

Harry tried to muffle the semi-hysterical giggles that threatened.

Hermione thumped her head against his back. “Do not tell him what you think of his plans. Do not tell him what you think of his plans.” She whispered.

“But, as we seem to have had a change of plans, Mr. Potter’s options are no longer what they once were. You will no doubt be happy to know that Mr. Longbottom ended Nagini right before the three of you created a magical backlash that took out the Death Eater encampment and the Acromantula colony.” He spoke as sternly as Dumbledore ever did.

“Good on Nev.” Ron cheered. “You said something about options?”

Death, Ron discovered, took away pretty much all the terror of Dumbledore being upset with him. What was he going to do, dock points? Could people in the waiting room, if that’s what this was, have high blood pressure? Had anyone ever tried?

“I am no longer allowed to discuss options. That has been decided by…others. While I am not pleased with this disruption in a delicate plan, I am proud of your loyalty to one another and to the world you lived in.”

“Well we weren’t daft enough to let Harry walk off to his death. Figured we had the best chance of joining him and it wouldn’t be the same if we weren’t together.” Ron shrugged. “So, we just hopped on that next big adventure.”

Dumbledore opened his mouth, shut it with a snap, and then turned on his heel and stalked off, muttering something under his breath about the sanctity of life after death being lost on Weasleys.

“I hope he has to spend all his time with Great Grand Aunt Wilhelmina and Great Grand Uncle Bilius. They were in his class at Hogwarts and it would serve him right.” Ron muttered, making both Harry and Hermione snicker.

“I suppose now we wait?” Harry asked. “I wonder if a train will come.”

No train came and no one was quite sure how long they waited after Dumbledore stomped off in a huff. Pocket watches didn’t work, wherever they were. It was sort of pleasant, though, not having anywhere to be. Hermione still had her beaded bag, and after a little while she produced a non-magical deck of cards.

“Anyone for rummy?”

They played fourteen hands of rummy and three of hearts before they were interrupted again, which was just as well because Hermione and Ron were bickering over Hermione counting cards. Harry worked on ‘improving’ his own hand from the deck while they were occupied. They never noticed, not when they really got going.

“Beg pardon?”

They whipped around, staring at the young woman just stepping out of a doorway that didn’t used to exist.

“Are you here to take us with you?” Harry asked unsteadily.

“That…it isn’t an option yet. What you three did…well, you upset any number of those much higher up than me.” The woman chuckled. “In any case, they’ve decided to send you…sideways a bit. Finish your unfinished business.”

“What does that mean?” Hermione asked.

“You’re going to be sent…elsewhere. It’ll be 1941, and…it gets a bit complicated here, I’m afraid.” She sighed. “There’s only so much we can do when we get an, er…special delivery like you three. How to explain this? Well, you’ll keep your current memories because there are limits and we aren’t interested in playing dolls with people. You’ll have an…overlay, I suppose, of your 1941-current memories. I’m afraid before Hogwarts won’t be much fun, but we have to explain the twitchiness since we aren’t in the business of wiping people’s personalities away. You’re going back as firsties. That was a non-negotiable. As I said, you made quite a few people upset.”

“Will we be ourselves?” Hermione seemed to be absorbing everything they were told.

“You and Mr. Potter will be Harry and Hermione Perhalion. Mr. Weasley will be Galahad Weasley.”

“Why don’t I get to keep my name?” Ron looked disgusted at the thought of being Galahad.

“Because we can only change the essential nature of a Weasley so much, we aren’t making any of you have new faces, and the Weasley family isn’t slated to have a Ronald for a few generations yet.” The woman answered sternly. “We do try not to meddle too much, unlike certain teenagers.”

“You said we had unfinished business?” Harry picked up where Hermione left off.

“None of you finished school or did any of the things you might have done. And you, Mr. Potter, are actually going to feel the feelings you bottled up on your last go-round.” She poked him in the chest. “No more hiding behind anger. No stuffing everything into the feelings barn.”

“I…what?” Harry stared.

“Do any of you read the…bugger but that one’s in the future. Never mind that. It was from the New Yorker.”

“Oh, my parents like the long-form journalism.” Hermione said brightly.

“Yes,” the woman replied slowly. “They would.”

“Is my unfinished business now a quest to change my name?” Ron asked acidly, clearly trying to change the subject.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” The woman snapped.

“My name is now Galahad. I can’t help it.”

The woman raised her hand and snapped and all Harry knew was darkness.

[urgeforgoing]

I feel like as a writer you’re just predisposed to clinging onto everything way too long because you want to dissect it from every different angle and you want to be able to explain it, you want it to be digestible, you want to understand it because everything is inspiration. I also feel “phoney” when I write about an experience I haven’t actually had but if I can correlate an emotion to that experience e.g. heartbreak, grief, depression, and draw on my own experiences, the writing feels “natural” and “real.” one of my friends said to me the other day that “you have not handled this break-up, or any break-up, like a normal person. it’s been a year since you decided to split, get over it, you don’t need to talk about it anymore” but I can’t because I NEED to tie up every loose end and feel every emotion and every type of loss; I need to pinpoint the EXACT moment it went wrong and I need to pinpoint the moment it could’ve been repaired but I was too unaware in the moment but hindsight is 20/20. I never realized I processed my life differently than others until recently. I’ve never “gotten over” anything in my life, if it hurt then, it hurts now, just differently. then someday I’ll probably use that hurt as inspiration. because! I! never! get! over! anything!

[maesterchill]

Maester's 2023 Fic Recs

(eyyy, another banner art by me, snake of Slytherin, heheh🐍)

Not one to normally do rec lists, me, as they are tricksy, fiddly things, and I'm pants at knowing what to say about a good fic that accurately conveys my love for it beyond keysmash and 'aaargh i loved it'.

Which is why this has taken me 3 weeks to bloody pull together... 😄

So I'm just going to list them out and maybe comment a bit, we'll see.

And can I just say this has been a STELLAR year for fics, so many amazing ones to choose from. And I also apologise in advance to the authors if I haven't left you a comment, I am terribly behind, but comments will come, spurting in contrite ribbons over the stomachs of your fics, forthwith.

fyi: there's a mix of Drarry and other ships but it's 90% Drarry.

1k or less 🍬

💚 A summer afternoon in the parlour by fast_brother (Narcissa & Andromeda, G, 300 words)

'Narcissa's perspective on the day Andromeda is disowned by their family.' Stunning writing and so, so poignant.

💚 You Have Always Been My Bedtime Story by @squintclover (Drarry pre-slash, G, 435 words)

So many Smol Draco feels 🥺🥺🥺

💚 Uneasy Alliance, Enough Magic and After All by @the-starryknight (Drarry, T, 1000 words each)

GORGEOUS series written for FTH. Featuring Harry losing his magic, a set of microfics, and a Choose Your Own Adventure section! Plus there's a 4th part to come! Genius author is genius.

Less than 5k 🍭

💚 The Broken wand by @lqtraintracks (Drarry, T, 1.3k)

Absolutely exquisite pining. 2nd person POV done right.

💚Follow the Butterflies by @rainstormradish (Aragog/Flying Ford Anglia, T, 1.4k)

You might have to trust me on this ship, and you would be right to do so, because this sweet, melancholic and haunting fic made me feel a thing about a giant spider and a car.

💚Rise Forgetful From Your Sleep by @kbrick (Drarry, G 1.5k)

'Draco finds Harry Potter waiting for him at the Manor. But Potter has been dead for ten years.' CHILLING. Dark Harry deliciousness

💚Making Noise by @cavendishbutterfly (Drarry, E 2.4k)

Professors!Drarry. Fun, fun, fun and fab twist.

💚Proven lands by @oknowkiss (Drarry, E 2.8k)

Really loved this story told in microfics. Beautiful, haunting, bittersweet.

💚I Fall On Grass by @tackytigerfic (Drarry, T, 3k) 

Single-parent-middle-aged Drarry is ambrosia from the gods, at least the way Tacky writes it. Rec rec rec x1000.

💚Quick Quotes and Quibbles by @rainstormradish (Luna/Rita Skeeter, T, 3k)

Epistolary hilarity and now I ship it

💚Just another Friday night by @cavendishbutterfly (Drarry, E 3k)

Excellent. A potent shotglass full of of bafflement, curiosity, hesitancy and and recklessness and hope and realisations... ah honestly just all the feels.

💚The Roommates by @citrusses (Drarry, Draco/Sirius, E, 3.6k)

Fucked up, hot and wicked.

💚I've Got a Beautiful Feeling (Everything's Going My Way) by toomuchplor (Drarry, E, 3.6k)

Brilliant old-married Drarry PWP plus bonus pass-ag emails by Draco

💚That Lavender Haze by @lettersbyelise (Draco/Pansy, Drarry if you squint, 3.8k)

This 2024 bittersweet gem snuck in because I say so. Dransy platonic (hot) sex and love, plus Drarry fantasy.

💚Under the table by @xanthippe74 (Drarry, T, 4k)

An utter delight! Oblivious Draco POV of a string of dinner parties that's both funny and sharp.

💚Baggage Claim by @greattemptation (Drarry, M, 4k)

'The couples therapy had gone poorly. So poorly, in fact, that obliviators had been called.' Wonderful established Drarry with sharp character insights.

💚The real thing by @skeptiquewrites (Drarry, M, 5k)

Caretaker Harry surrounded by people who love him. Friendship, pining and a gentle love that's exactly my jam.

💚Two of Us by @sorrybutblog (Drarry, E, 5.5k)

CHARMINGEST of charming fics. Funny, sweet, sexy, and I would die for this oblivious Harry.

Less than 15k 🍩

💚Team Building for Dummies by InnerLilith (Drarry, E, 6k)

Bickering then fucking, yes please. Bickering WHILE fucking, even better. Plus Quidditch and angrily catching feelings. Chef's kiss.

💚The Realm of Possibility by @porcelainheart3 (Drarry, M, 6k,)

'You can't outrun your past, but you can fuck around with parallel versions of the present.' Amazing premise, as to be expected from porcelainheart's galaxy brain, and excellently delivered, as per.

💚Muscle Memory by @corvuscrowned (Drarry, E, 7.7k)

Another big-brained author with a cool premise. What if Drarry's hookups were erased from their memory each and every time? An amazing story, that's what.

💚Among the elements by @sweet-s0rr0w (Drarry, M, 8k)

Sweets has delivered the perfect Mpreg fic here. Beautiful, sensitive, hard-hitting. Spellbinding and full of heart. I emotioned a lot.

💚Blackjack by @cassiopeiasshadow (Drarry, Romione, M, 9k) 

Unwitting Seer Ron POV that had me howling. Perfect perfection.

💚Always the Last to Know by @nv-md (Drarry, M, 10k)

Ever wanted to hear the story of Draco's birth? Well snap, if only we could get him to recount it 😂 A brilliant take on the 'Everyone knows Harry's in love before Harry does' trope.

💚Mastermind by @schmem14 (Drarry, Dron, Rarry, E, ~11k)

Dark and delicious. Malevolent Draco and amazing Ron. Top-notch horror. TW: MCD, Infidelity

💚A Saviour’s Guide to Manners and Decorum by @wolfpants (Drarry, E, 13k)

Etiquette coach Draco is perfection! UST through the roof and so many touching moments (both meanings of the word, wink wonk).

Less than 25k 🍦

💚the earth from a distance by @andthepeople (Drarry, E, 15k)

Accidental time travel ... to 400 years ago. WELP. Worth it even just for Hogwarts in the 16th century. Highly rec!

💚Still the pine-woods scent the moon by @fluxweeed (Harry/Remus, E, 15.5k)

Written in 2022 but I read it this year, so it gets included. STUNNING fic. The meltingly hot UST. Remus's restraint hanging on by a thread. Indescribably hot.

💚the eighth sin by @honeybeet (Drarry, E, 16k)

Mesmerising and dreamlike - uncanny and unsettling. Beautifully written and thought-provoking. The seven eight sins motif is so subtly done.

💚If i could never give you peace by @poisonivy206 (Drarry, E, 17k)

Aah. Two broken lost men reluctantly working a case together. Hook it up to my veins! Beautiful.

💚The Boys of Summer by @saxamophone (Drarry, E, 19.5k)

Post Eighth Year summer vibes. The bittersweet dread of a summer fling ending. Just lovely!

💚Freely Given and Entirely True by @rockingrobin69 (Drarry collection of one-shots, various ratings, 22k)

If you're in need of heart-warming fluff and adorable antics and happy happy boys, then look no further. These will soothe the soul.

Less than 50k 🍰

💚With Love in Her Luminous Eyes by @starquestingfordrarry (Drarry, T, 30k) 

Adored this. Gentle, heart-warming sentient Grimmauld Place fic, with fluffy OCs and a captivating Outsider POV. Just fab.

💚Draco Malfoy & the Journal of Dreadful Things by @lilbeanz (Drarry pre-slash, G, 34k)

I'm not normally into canon rewrites but lilbeanz has a way of writing that brings me unbridled joy, so I lapped up every word. Written in 2022, but part 2 was posted in 2023 and I can't wait to get my teeth into it!

💚Nothing Gold Can Stay by @moonflower-rose (Drarry, E, 40k)

Rosie knocking all our socks off with this belter of a multiverse fic. Massive rec. You will laugh and you will gasp and you will cry.

💚A pulled down shade by fast_brother (Drarry, M, 43k)

Another galaxy brain fic that pulled my heartstrings tight. All my favourite tropes in one place!

💚The Unplottable Time Conundrum by @writcraft (Drarry, E, 45k)

Sucked me in from start to finish. Plus Marauders goodness that will make your heart ache. 😭 But we will forgive. Amazing

💚Find a new place to be from by @oflights (Drarry, E, 47k)

When drunk stalking turns into more. Loved Draco in his scary modern Muggle home. ❤️

Less than 100k 🍗

💚Yellow Is The Colour (Of My True Love's Hair) by @mintawasalreadytaken (Drarry, E, 64k)

When minta posts a Deathly Hallows re-write you know it isn't going to be a cookie-cutter happy-ever-after story. TW: MCD

💚Rookie Moves by peu_a_peu (Drarry, E 75k)

Dumb unhinged Auror partners. A thoroughly enjoyable read.

More than 100k 🥩

💚Always already by @aibidil (Drarry E, 170k)

Aib at the top of her game. Drarry in the 1970s. Funny, twisty, clever and brimming with the smart stuff. And more goddammn Marauders heartbreakyness😭.

💚I do not love you by @writandromance (Drarry, M,  228k)

Another fic that's from pre-2023, but I'd seen so many recs for it and gave it a go this year. The hype was right, a rollercoaster of emotions, both in the past and present settings, deep love and deep angst beautifully and heartstoppingly written. One you'll think about for weeks afterwards.

[hopeluna-archived]

Obey Me! Characters reacting to them walking on you changing

Obey Me! Side characters x GN!reader

Genre: crack?

Warnings: suggestive, strong language cause its me, my broken humour, i've had like 7 cups of coffee

The brothers

M.list

Diavolo

Alright lets see how you got in this scenario, shall we?

You were staying in the Demon Lord's castle for the night for a sleepover cause Dia insisted and come on who can say no to him?

You two planned to watch movies all night

Barbatos didn't like it at all

But you see Diavolo is a very busy person, so just before your sleepover began he had it take care of some paperwork.

So while he is working in his office for a little while, you decided to change in his room

What could go wrong? He wasn't gonna be back for a while right?

Hahaha wrong

So you're there, changing

Thinking that Diavolo is working

But noooo

In bursts this bright ray of sunshine aka Diavolo

And you're just frozen there in shock, half naked

Diavolo doesn't even realize your state at first, he's just rambling on how fun this sleepover will be

Once he does, oh hohoho

Why did I turn into Santa Claus?

He's flustered, flabbargasted, shocked, whips the other way so fast-

Waits for you to change while he apologises for barging in, feeling his face flush

After you're done changing, give him a second please

After a moment, he totally teases you about it

Like he wasn't the one who was dying from blushing

Barbatos

Now you see, usually Barbatos would know if you were changing cause of the you know, time thingy

And even if he didn't, he knocks. Always

Unfortunately today was a particularly busy day for him, running around assisting Diavolo and he had more paperwork to look at than usual

So now he just wants to go to his room and get some rest

Now what he doesn't know is that you were there in his room, in hopes of surprising him

You know? Make him some tea to de-stress and maybe other ways to relax him

But here is the thing, you come here so often that half of your clothes are in Barbatos' room

So you thought, i'm gonna be here for a while why not get comfortable?

So you decide to change into something more comfortable

I would say bad timing

'Cause the moment you take off your clothes, behold the butler opens the door

You're blushing

He's blushing

Its probably the hot weather haha

Barbatos immediately turns around, apoligising even though he didn't know you were even here

And you're changing, apoligising for not telling him you were going to be here

Barbatos doesn't really make a big deal out of it but he will occasionally blush thinking back to it

Always checks before he opens doors now

Simeon

Well this is gonna be interesting

So lets first set up how this happened

So you were at purgatory hall, making potions with our local 1000+ year old harry potter, when he "accidentally" slipped and dropped shit on your clothes

After wacking Solomon in the head, you headed for Simeon's room

You had some of your clothes in Simeon's room from when you stayed over so there you were changing in his room as he was out running some errands

So as he came back, walked in his room, saw you in your underwear, he turned off

His soul left his body, mf started praying i swear

As soon as he comes to his senses, immediately turns around, stuttering out an apology

Now you're scrambling to put on some clothes, saying that is wasn't his fault, he didn't know you were here

Once you're done changing, he turns around not knowing what to say in his flustered state

So you two are just standing there like 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♂️

It takes Solomon to call you to break the awkward silence between you

Its fair to say Simeon wasn't the same for a few weeks

But he finally came over his flustered state, and now he just chuckles thinking back to it with a light coat of blush

Solomon

Ah yes our favourite shady magic grandpa

Alright lets get to it

You're at purgatory hall, staying the night there so you're changing into something comfy cause Luke decided that you all would watch some movies before bed and how could you say no to him?

Solomon....knew

I just know that he knew you were changing but decided to walk in the room anyway cause he knew you would get flustered

He is a little shit, but he's your little shit

So you're changing, you know? Minding your own shit

And in bursts this motherfucker

And you screech, cause it scared the crap out of you

Now you're screaming at Solomon to get out while you're trying to cover yourself up

He's on the floor wheezing

Simeon and Luke come running to see if you're alright

Now you're screaming more cause Luke is gonna see you half naked

This causes Solomon to wheeze more

For a second, you were scared gramps was having a heart attack

Simeon being the life saver he is, understands the situation and quickly coaxes Luke away from the chaos while shielding his eyes

Solomon had to make it up to you when you weren't talking with him for that stunt

───────────

Tags: @jaidenisasimp

Comments and reblogs are appreciated!! Do not repost or claim as yours though, its not cool.

[novalupin24]

Personal opinion on harry potter/marauders ships cus Its late and I don't wanna sleep

Drarry-toxic in canon and Draco has done terrible things to people and hasn't even thought about apologizing but fanon drarry is amazing(without the cringe mpreg or things like that)0/10 for canon 10/10 fanon

Wolfstar-perfect, no buts, perfection on bread infinite/10

Pansmoine-I don't know where it came from but I love it, it won't happen in canon but fuck it 10/10

Remadora-it's a 13 year old difference in age, only happened cus J.K is homophobic, don't get me wrong I love tonks but not this ship 0/10

Grindeldore(I'm pretty sure I didn't spell it right)-Its so toxic and so good at the same time 9/10

Dorlene-amazing, good thrope 200/10

Blairon-I feel like it only happened cus of pansmoine and Drarry but it's a good ship 8/10

Chedric-If only they didn't have such a big age difference it would be perfect but since of that 9/10

Hedric-I don't personally ship it but I feel like Cedric was more Harry's bi awakening than his boyfriend or crush or idk but there was indeed something there 5/10

Jegulus-It obviously wouldn't happen in canon but the thrope is freaking amazing and I love and ship it so much 100/10

Jily-I'm a big Jegulus shipper but it's alright and it's canon but James kept on asking Lily out in ATYD so it's kinda weird 7/10

Jegulily-I don't ship it but it's cute and I have seen a lot of skits with it 8/10

Marylily-perfect. Need I say more?100/10

Dramoine-No. It would be more toxic than poison -1000/10

Deamus-perfect. I haven't seen much about it but I know the basics and I love it 10/10

Linny-Amazing, it's cute, it has a good thrope, brilliant 100/10

Theville(Neville Longbottom x Theo Nott)- It's cute, I ship it 10/10

Ok that's all I can think of, give me more ships if you want

[anime-lover-forever-1127]

Reasons I Hate Hayley

So people have been about some reasons to hate Hayley, so I made this:

Attitude. She kept going around acting like she as better than the Mikelsons - she wasn't - she wasn't better physically, financially, or intellectually. And the whole werewolves are "noble" and "strong" creatures, is complete BS.

they literally trigger there curse by killing someone - so their standing on sand in that moral ground

without witch intervention - their only deadly to vampires on full moons.

Killing. Her hands are just as bloody as anyone elses on the show, and she acts like she's completely innocent. Ex. Davina asked her to kill ONE witch, and Hayley decided she wanted to create another expression triangle.

Mother. Everyone treats her as if she was this standard for motherhood, when

she tried to kill her kid

She put the kid in danger multiple times during her pregnancy running into danger like an idiot - like why don't you drink some bear and smoke some pot on top of that - it would honestly do less damage than running around like an idiot.

I've done the math of when Caroline opens the school and Hayley sends Hope to boarding school and she literally did it as SOON as it opened! Like yeah, I'm going to send my kid who likely has a mountain of trauma alone over state lines.

Characters - They literally made other characters appear weak just so she could appear "badass".

Mikael, no, she can't take on the 1000 year old vampire that made the rest of the originals go running.

No, her enemies - hundred of years old vampire don't respect her - she ain't all that.

And NO, she's not someone Klaus fears, the only way she scares is him is his frightening sudden urge to get checked for supernatural STDs!

"Female empowerment" - She was supposed to be this strong female character who took charge, but she had no strong female qualities.

She was physically weak

relied on the mikaelsons for power, wealth, and housing

demanding and spoiled

relied on the men around her for her position: Klaus, Elijah, even Jackson

Quick Note: Caroline > Hayley On the other hand we have Caroline. Miss Mystic Falls, 4.0 GPA, Headed tons of committees and was a strong leader. Had tremendous growth and was relatable as a character.

Hayley was a pancake flat character. She had no growth, stayed the same throughout the show, it was always: Me, myself, and I with her, and on occasion "Elijah, Klaus, Jackson" look at me (that's why I said pancake - she had a slight curve in her character with which man she was screaming at for the week).

Queen - she called herself a werewolf queen which I hated. Werewolfs don't/shouldn't have queens! There werewolves, it means wild, a force of nature, pack animal. It should have been Alpha, not Queen! So her going around calling herself Queen just triggered me.

Overall, Hayley was an annoying, childish character, that brought nothing to the plot yet the writers insisted on shoving her down our throats. She was a poorly executed Mary Sue, unnecessary, cringy, and just painful to watch on screen. I have read Harry Potter and would honestly rather be in detention with Umbridge than in a room with Hayley.

Reasons I Do Not Hate Hayley: Klaroline. She was never a threat to the ship, she was a druken one night stand, nothing more. Like she may have been the reason Klaus went to New Orleans - because she got knocked up, but she was never a threat to the ship herself.

Well, whoever made it to the end, thanks for reading. Honestly, this rant was more for me, I've been seeing way to much Hayley content on my youtube page my tumblr for some reasons and I really needed to went.

KLAROLINE FOR LIFE, BECAUSE I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP!!!

[the-empress-7]

They should address the cheating rumours because it’s already too late for that. But they need better PR, because their kids will be hearing about it and it’s going to be very difficult for the kids to hear that and deal with it as well.

Do more PDA (not like at a fucking funeral but still). I wouldn’t even mind a small docu about their family and how their lives changed by becoming PPOW. Their kids wouldn’t even need to be in the docu, it could also be about their work and how they approach it. Leak some info about dates and stuff to counteract the cheating rumours.

Look I know this is a very Hollywood approach but it does work. I’m not saying they should go 1000% over it ala Meghan and Harry. But making it more gradual and small will make the pr strategy more natural.

But they have done some of this. Remember the video they released for their 10 year anniversary and the behind the scenes video for the Coronation. IMO small snippets like these are far more effective than full blown documentaries. People these days have the attention span of a goldfish.

[ladykailitha]

All My Roads Lead Back to You Part 7

Hi guys! Now that “Rescue” is done, I’ll be focusing on this one a little bit more having already written 1000+ words in the next part. This one is cliffhanger-esque as well. A tad dramatic on Edie’s part. We find out what secret Edie’s being holding on to for a while.

Pt 1 Pt 2 Pt 3 Pt 4 Pt 5 Pt 6 

***

Edie tapped nervously on the steering wheel of her Ford Focus. Her dad insisted she get a sensible car and got her a Focus. It was ugly as fuck, but it was new and that was what was really important to the assholes at school.

“You want to give me a preview of the shit storm that’s about to go down?” Harri asked.

Edie chewed on her lip as she deliberated what to tell him. “My mom liked brag about all the things she had done to my dad when she was drunk and feeling especially vicious. She wouldn’t tell Dad these things. Me. I don’t know how she thought that by revealing how vile she was I would want to live her, but she did.”

Harri thought for a moment. “Just how bad are we talking about?”

Edie gripped the steering wheel tighter until her knuckles turned white. “She would gaslight him.”

“Come again?” Harri asked, eyes wide.

“She would tell him one thing and say she had said another,” she said between clenched teeth.

“Holy hell,” Harri hissed. “And how on earth did she get away with that?”

Edie released the steering wheel with her fingers so she could stretch them out from how tightly she had gripped the wheel. “Dad had three concussions in three years, so his memory wasn’t good to start with.”

“Holy hell,” Harri said again. “Let me guess, ‘can’t talk about it because of the NDAs’?”

Edie nodded. “Well, for one of them anyway. Uncle Jonathan decked him once. Dad said he deserved that one.”

“What did he do?” Harri asked as the pulled into his driveway.

“Made fun of Uncle Will, Uncle Jonathan’s little brother,” Edie said with a wince. “Made fun of all the Byers, to be honest. But I think it was the bit about Uncle Will that really got Uncle Jonathan pissed. Because Uncle Will was missing at the time and Dad was still a bit of dick in high school.”

Harri shook his head. They both got out of the car. Harri closed the door and leaned on the roof of her car.

“And what was the second concussion?” he asked.

She let out a sigh. “Dad put himself between a bully that was threatening to kill someone Dad was in charge of and took a plate to the head.”

Harri tapped the top of the car and began walking to the front door. “Do you know who the target was?”

Edie shrugged. “I do, but he’s kinda famous, so I’m not allowed to say. It’s not an NDA or anything. Just a family secret, I guess.”

Harri shrugged back. He knew his family had plenty of those so he couldn’t really judge her for that.

He opened the door and called out, “Hey, Dad! I’m home!”

Eddie came out of his studio and shoved his hands in his pockets, staring down Edie.

“So Harri tells me you have a piece of the puzzle I didn’t have before regarding how shitty your dad was.”

Edie winced. She hoped she would be helping and not hurting things. “The list of things you don’t know could fill the ocean, I’d bet.”

Eddie huffed out a bitter laugh. “I suppose so. Well come on. I’ll make us a snack.”

Harri and Edie followed him into the kitchen. They sat at the counter on the bar stools. From what Edie could tell from what she’d seen of the house so far it was very different from hers. In both tone and color. Her house was bright blues and sunny yellows. The Munson house was earth tones. Browns and reds and oranges.

Her house was home, but this was homey.

Eddie got out some celery and carrots and began cutting them up.

“So how much do you know about my mother?” Edie asked.

Eddie shrugged. “I know everyone calls her a grade A bitch, but not much beyond that, I guess.”

Edie took a deep breath. “Right then you need a shit ton of backstory before I get to the main event.”

Eddie and Harri shared a look of concern.

“She was setup by my grandparents to steal Dad’s trust fund,” Edie said bitterly.

“I didn’t know your dad even had a trust fund...” Eddie admitted. He set the cut veggies in a bowl and started making his own ranch dressing for dipping.

Edie folded her hands in her lap. “He didn’t either. Not until he married her.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow. “Um...what now?”

“It was one of those you receive it when you turn twenty-one or when you get married kind of deals,” she explained. “Both of my great grandparents set it up when he was born and poured a lot of money into it over time and then upon their deaths, a sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was put in the account. For each grandparent.”

“Your dad had a trust fund of a million dollars?” Harri asked, nearly choking on a carrot he’d snatched.

Edie shook her head. “Plus the interest and the money they had been putting into it since he was born it was worth seven point five million.”

Eddie eyes went wide as his jaw dropped. “That is a lot by today’s standard, twenty years ago that would have been quite the nest egg.”

She nodded.

“And your grandparents, what told her that she would get a cut of the trust if she married and then divorced him?” Harri asked.

Edie shrugged. “It’s a bit more complicated than that. She was to funnel the money from the trust to his parents’ account and then split town.”

“So what went wrong?” Eddie asked. “Because I’m guessing she didn’t get a red cent if she’s so bitter.”

Edie’s features grew hard. “Everyone thinks my dad is stupid but he’s not.”

“He’s never been,” Eddie agreed, he leaned against the counter and folded his arms and legs. “But go on.”

She nodded. “He decided not to touch the trust at all when they got married. He wanted to make it work on his own merits, so he got a financial advisor he could trust and started investing with it instead.”

“I’m betting your mom didn’t like that,” Harri said between bites.

“She’s not my mom,” Edie snapped. “Call her Addison if you have to use something other than ‘that bitch’, because someone who has only spent a total of a single year with me my entire life does NOT get the honorific of ‘mom’.”

She was breathing heavily and her cheeks were flushed with rage. Eddie came around the counter and began rubbing her wrists gently with his thumbs until her breathing even out and she no longer looked as though she was going to run.

“You okay now?” He asked bending his head down and round to her in the eye.

She nodded. “Sorry about that. She just makes me so mad. Not just because she was a horrible mom. But a horrible wife and worse person.”

“I’ve met more than a few of those,” Eddie agreed. “You think you can give us the Cliffnotes version of events?”

Edie looked between the two of them and then nodded. “Bitch cheated on Dad, Dad found out, divorced her, she found out trusts aren’t included in shared monies, and fucked the fuck right off.”

“She–she cheated on him?” Eddie asked a little breathless and lot pained.

Edie nodded. “It’s why Dad doesn’t date anymore. His last partner Andy Miller cheated on him, too. He said three strikes and he was out for good.”

Eddie eyes fluttered shut and he pursed his lips trying to hold back the tears that sprang unbidden to his eyes. He took a moment to get a hold of himself before he asked. “But all that isn’t the puzzle piece you mentioned before. That’s the backstory. So what’s the puzzle piece?”

She took a deep shuddering breath and let out slow and ragged. “I was born the week after Brian Martin’s funeral. Dad wanted to go, but Addison faked Braxton Hicks contractions and they spent the day at the hospital instead.”

Harri cried, “Faked?!”

Edie looked down at the counter again and traced her finger along the lines in the marble. “That’s what she told me. She didn’t want him connecting with his old crowd again because she was sure he’d leave her if he saw how much better life could be without her.”

“I’m not sure I understand the logic on that one,” Harri admitted.

“It’s because she wouldn’t have been able to fly out because it would be too close to her due date, huh?” Eddie said, pursing his lips.

Edie nodded. “Yeah.”

Eddie closed his eyes again and leaned on the counter, his head bowed. His hair hid his face as it traveled through the different emotions. That made more sense than Steve refusing to show. This was the age before cell phones and by the time someone would have gotten a hold of Steve, Eddie was too mad to hear the reason. Even if it was a good one.

“So yeah,” Edie said. “I don’t want you judging Dad for that. He may have done a lot of shit in his life, but that wasn’t one of them.”

Eddie nodded. As much as he wanted to still be angry at Steve over his not being at Brian’s funeral, viewed in this new light, it was impossible. He let out a low, shuddering breath, letting the hurt feelings go with it. He could forgive Steve this.

“Thanks,” he said. “You’re right, that does help in lessening the sting a bit.”

Edie nodded again. “It’s been so hard on Dad these last few years and he’s been struggling. He thinks he doesn’t have a reason to be upset or depressed, but the only friend with in easy visiting distance is Jeff and Uncle Dusty. But I don’t think he counts because him and Aunt Suzy are more like family. Everyone else has scattered to the literal ends of the earth.”

“Edie...” Eddie said, his shoulders slumping.

She held up her hands and waved them back and forth. “I’m not asking you to be BFFs or whatever. Just...a friend, I guess. Or something, I don’t know.” She got up out of her stool, head down. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything.” She looked up at Eddie, tears in her eyes and then over at Harri. “About any of it.”

And then she ran out the door.

***

Part 8 Part 9  Part 10 Part 11  Part 12  Part 13 Part 14  Part 15  Part 16 Part 17  Part 18  Epilogue

Tag List: @spectrum-spectre @estrellami-1 @zerokrox-blog @artiststarme @swimmingbirdrunningrock @gregre369 @pyrohonk​ @trashpocket @goodolefashionedloverboi @chaoticlovingdreamer @maya-custodios-dionach @messrs-weasley @val-from-lawrence @plyerice27 @mightbeasleep @thedragonsaunt @chaoticlovingdreamer @trashpocket @sapphirecobalt-1 @a-little-unsteddie @i-must-potato @danili666  @carlyv @rozzieroos @wonderland-girl143-blog @itsall-taken @steddie-as-they-go @lillemilly @callas-shitshow @bisexualdisastersworld @renaissan-vvitch @immortal-iratze @bookbinderbitch @thylatrek @lilacrobin @nightmareglitter @nerdsconquerall

[yodaprod]

Just a heads up that the anime art of the girl with the black bikini and headset on is ai art, if that doesnt bother you feel free to ignore this message

Hi, it's the second time i reblog what is clearly an AI post on my tumblr (the first one was a surfing geisha animation name Ukiyo Surfer). I find this last one (the Cyber girl) cool because it's remind me my childhood favorite paper RPG Cyberpunk 2020 in the early 90s. What disturbs me the most, in images generated by AI, are those which are clearly made to lure you about their origin (more often photos and not illustrations). By the way, I don't really like the term "AI art" but rather Ai generate. when Andy Warhol uses an amiga 1000 to create a portrait of Debbie Harry, it's art. But when someone asks an AI to do something from keywords, it's just an image generated. Some will say that AI is only seeking inspiration from what has already been done in the past. This could also apply to real artists nowdays (who said Kygo's Donna Summer Remix 😂). What is certain is that it will soon be more and more difficult to distinguish what is an AI from reality. In a way, this arouses the same fears (but also the same hopes) as the beginnings of computing in the early 70s. We especially see the bad sides because we were lulled by films like Terminator or I, Robot.

I have no idea how things will evolve, but in my field (medicine) it has been a few years now that an AI is more effective than a dermatologist in detecting a mole that will become cancerous. Why? Because it can refers to a database of millions of patients where a doctor can only have seen a thousand in his entire career.

Algorithms, artificial intelligence are already part of our lives now. We have to deal with it. Great times ahead...

(Sorry for my English, i'm french. For some sentences I used Google translate's AI)

[ndiebrioxhe]

Another Rambling post about Ascendance of a Bookworm:

BLUE - ORANGE MORALITY

(with minor digs at Harry Potter)

When I was younger I used to browse Tv Tropes and I really enjoyed looking at them describe things I noticed in media but didn’t have a name for. On a rare occasion, I would find a trope that I had no real reference for and one of those was “blue-orange morality”.

The concept of having a morality system completely divorced from our own that we can’t really judge it. Now it’s not like I have never seen like a series or text attempt to create a character or species that has different standards of morality but the issue I always had was, that the supposed “different moral standards” were always included as a contrast to a more recognisable real world standard - which meant it was framed from a real world standard anyways.

It is always seemed like one of two scenarios:

Scenario A:

Alien/Monster/Non-human: “Here is our horrifically barbaric practice that has no functional purpose to our society and entirely superstitious!”

Human/Humanoid 1: “That’s bad”

Human/Humanoid 2: “Oh that’s just their culture”

And its like no… the narrative framing still shows that is weird and barbaric and not at all a foreign concept which is it’s own morality system so divorced from our own. If we have to be advised not to judge it on our own standards, it can be judged by our standards.

Scenario B:

Olden Times!

Stories being set in a distant past/medieval times where there are different moral standards is not true blue-orange morality. They are just the worse models of current moral standards. We are not divorced from those at all. They are just uncomfortable to think about. Like, yes it is fucked for dudes to claim to be kings and murder thousands to maintain their power… but people weren’t super cool with massmurder back then either - it was just an inevitability due to the social economical problems. It’s like being a billionaire with hundreds of sweatshops now. Even with people who are cool with the system - we all know that shit isn’t our “moral standard” - it’s our uncomfortable reality. Pushing the setting back or forward a 1000 years doesn’t really change anything. Our countries’ leaders still go off to kill and exploit people to maintain power, they just don’t get crowns for it anymore.

And I don’t care if you chose to do this with fictional races and places, that is just set dressing. They still resemble human society as we know it.

So I just never really saw a series that really grabbed me as authentically blue-orange… just typically shades of grey.

But then I read AOAB… and I really saw the potential of blue-orange morality. And it was done well.

Now it might seem logical to treat Bookworm as a Scenario B.

After all, it’s literally nobles presiding over commonfolk and elizabethan era political drama… but heres the thing… the framing of Scenario B is based on understanding that some characters still fit our present mold of a good person:

caring

considerate

fair

just

humble

attractive (no literally)

would not murder babies

religious in the right way

And these characters are the ones we root for. The characters we aren’t rooting have qualities we do not desire

mean

selfish

powerhungry

bloodthirsty

unattractive

will murder babies

over zealous or cult-like

Like in a Scenario B you can’t show the main characters enslave children in a sweatshop and allow grown adult attendants put their hands on them - and still be the good guy. You can’t plan the purging of an entire faction and hold their children hostage under penalty of death - and be THE GOOD GUY . Can’t overtly tax a city to the bones and deny them the best possible harvest because the previous mayor annoyed YOU — AND EVER HOPE TO BE THE GOOD GUY.

Well you can in ascendance of a bookworm tho.

And the readers will agree with you.

And it’s NOT because readers can overly moralise the actions of main characters.

And it’s because unlike a Scenarios A and B which are just OUR WORLD where we are all AWARE that we don’t really need kings or billionaires and antiquated traditions that rely on human suffering for the world to work. AOAB is different

The world of AOAB is not our own. Nobles have more rights because the world explicitly requires their mana to function. Nobles are human plus. They are what rich people in the regular world pretend to be.

Remove the army, the wealth, the status of a king and he is commoner. AOAB Nobles are literally magic batteries that build cities, make harvests happen, keep the population safe from deadly magical creatures …like the yearly giant blizzard monster that won’t literally won’t let spring come unless you have an army of trained magical knights slay it. Without Nobles the world literally be a giant sandpit.

So right of the bat, the nobility are integral to society. You simply don’t live your life raised as a necessary part of the world functioning and not have a social structure that reflects that. Its our world turned on it’s head. All the commoners could die and all that means is the nobles have to do more work. Instead of rich needing the poor, the commoners need the nobles. Otherwise they rarely even interact. The commoners and nobles are almost different species.

And not like it’s particularly unfair on the commoners. Not having mana simply bars you from a lot of activities, duties and experiences. Hell, not having a lot of mana as someone born into a noble family arguably sucks more than being a commoner. Nobility is earned, not given. Being born into a noble family that doesn’t have the means to regulate your mana means you won’t even make it to age where you are considered a separate entity from your parents in that society. If you have enough mana to make it to the Royal Academy without getting sent to the temple and the ability to pass or even excel at the Royal Academy - congrats you are now an asset to your duchy and that includes the commoners inside it. Just make sure you don’t blunder and cause your own execution.

So if murder, classism, deception and greed aren’t necessarily immoral in AOAB, what is?

The only real way to be a labeled a bad person in AOAB noble society is to endanger your duchy and cause widespread problems. Which only means the real way to be immoral in AOAB is to be incompetent or to FAIL.

You might initially think The Veronica-Georgine faction are the antagonists because they try to murder a barely baptised child but the guardian trio literally admitted they had plans to kill her too. They are ones committing the most one sided mass murders in the series. Ferdinand being able to outmanoeuvre and manipulate his enemies in the ring of politics is considered a SEXY TRAIT.

So what’s the difference between the Florencia faction and the Veronica-Georgine faction? Easy. The V-G faction is DESTABILISING AN ENTIRE DUCHY WITH SHORTSIGHTED NOBLE BULLSHIT. And just escalates into the entire nation being in jeopardy… because the Ahrensbachian Archducal family keeps producing nobles that are profoundly worthless with no sense of noble duty. They are defective.

In the next paragraph, I’m just going to state something this legion of defective nobles did and the names of who did it/involved.

They don’t respect the authority or wisdom of nobles of higher rank so they disobey orders (Bezewanst, Veronica). They force already new brides on married nobles that ruin established marriages for no benefit besides sating their schoolyard fantasies on a whim (Gabriele). Their spitefulness and cruelty to one of the biggest archnoble families in the duchy has made the Ehnferestian faction politics a disaster (Veronica) and were forced to create an entire section of mednobles not even loyal to Ehnferest because archnobles rightfully disliked them (Shikikoza and Gloria). They’re such suck ups it endangered their own duchy’s stability to the point where their only options is an intermediate archducal candidate that was poorly raised by all metrics (Gieselfried). Ahrensbach archducal children are regularly raised to be puppeteered by the parents instead of independent thinkers (Detlinde). Which is a real fucking problem for duchies when you keep trying (and typically succeeding) in making these children the Aubs of duchies (Georgine).

Ultimately it comes down to the fact they believe in their ideological RIGHT as nobles over their ideological DUTY to prioritise their duchies running smoothly. And that leads them to overestimate their APTITUDE as nobles.

Which is REALLY telling when a little powerhouse is redefining what it means to be an accomplished noble and entire political career is to the benefit of Ehnferest. Which is why the Ehnferest archducal family and Florencia faction who prioritise the stability and growth of the own goddam duchy instead of their own personal grudges are the good guys.

Bad guys are bad because they are bad what they are supposed to be doing and the good guys are good because they focused on what they should be.

There’s even a moral gray zone which is “trying your best but not being enough” and the prime example of that is the current the royal family. The country is only in this sorry state because one prince allowed his ineptitude and thirst for power to spiral and cause the nation lose the most important tool, and now it has a king that was only ever raised as a vassal is struggling (impressively) to keep a nation that should have dried up to keep running… A shame his intel gathering is dogshit so he keeps making mistakes and even overlook things that could have solved the problem.

So the dynamic of magic and morality is baked in the worldbuilding and it’s doesn’t feel dumb that nobles have all this power but somehow DON’T really interfere the non magical inhabitants in the world on a grand scale. These features, not flaws.

It is so much better than making a magical world where wizards hide their shit IN non magical places but don’t interact with non magical humans and have poverty and slaves that do house chores despite HAVING MAGIC that handles that shit. And also celebrate non magical people’s holidays despite thinking non magical people are beneath them because despite the book apparently being about fascism being bad - it doesn’t address any of the core issues of it and even has extra issues layered on top!

AOAB doesn’t operate on regular morality so it’s not mind numbingly incongruent when bad things happen in the universe because the magic people choose to let it happen despite thinking it’s bad. Even tho nobles do not care about the commonfolk it would stupid if they hid magic from the non magical folk and even dumber if entire spinoffs were based in fighting to keep it secret. Having a series where the protagonists realise that a faction in their world is a problem and getting RID OF THEM? Imagine getting rid of people who are the problem instead of fighting them in a WAR and reading checking the epilogue and that faction caused the fascism is STILL THERE and children are scared to end up there?? WHY DOES SLYTHERIN STILL EXIST—

Anyways,,,

I haven’t had the pleasure of reading past the translated pre-pub myself, but from what I do know is the Ahrensbachian penchant for stupidity and shortsightedness in the pursuit of positions of power they couldn’t hope to manage effectively… while destabilising as much of the nation as possible continues and I can’t wait to read it.

[bp4545]

Eyes For Her (My Sunshine - Part 4)

Word count: 1000, its a shorter chapter

Warnings: Angsty, swearing.

Summary: After last night, you feel in love with Draco, but maybe nothing was ever between you two...

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.

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You woke up in your dorm room. Your mind was a bit foggy as to what actually happened last night until you suddenly remembered. You fell asleep underneath the willow tree, with Draco. How were you back here? You were praying it wasn't all just a dream. Until you found a small note on your bedside table.

'Carried you back to your dorm. I didn't have the heart to wake you up from your peaceful sleep. :) D.M'

Your heart skipped a beat. He carried you? All the way to the Hufflepuff dorms? You grew self conscious once again. Was I heavy? Oh no, did he struggle to get me back into my dorm? That's so embarrassing! He must've tucked me into bed too.

You flipped the note over and saw more writing at the back of it.

'I know what you're thinking darling, no you weren't too heavy I'm stronger than you think, also why did you not tell me you weren't wearing a shirt under that damn hoodie.'

You flushed red. Gosh no girl actually wears a shirt under their hoodie, especially if they are alone, its usually just a bra underneath. You laughed at the thought of Draco realising that you weren't wearing anything but a bra underneath before some dirty thoughts started to bubble in your head. You shook the thoughts away and got up to put the note into your drawer.

You had already missed breakfast, but you didn't mind so much. Hannah went though, so you were left alone in the dorm. You got ready in your school robes as you prepared for potions class next. 

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

You arrived in potions class a little bit late. Luckily, Snape was taking his merry time to get to class so you got there before him and avoided a telling off and 5 points from Hufflepuff. You looked around for any available seats next to your friends, but you realised it didn't really matter because Snape was going to put you into random pairs for the practice test anyway. 

You took a free seat next to Ron, while Hermione and Harry were seated on the opposite side of the 4 seater table. The door of the classroom squeaked and you half expected Snape to be there, but instead you saw a head of platinum blonde hair, messy as if it wasn't tamed since Draco got out of bed. 

Your heart beat a bit faster as he entered the room. He smiled as he saw you and walked in your direction. He had his potions book in one hand and he grasped your shoulder gently with the other, making butterflies erupt in your stomach.

"Where were you at breakfast?" He asked in his deep voice. You giggled slightly, and Hermione gave you a weird look.

"I was asleep" you said, and mouthed a 'thank you' to him for carrying you to bed last night. He winked back at you and went to take a seat with his friends.

"Hello class" you heard the monotone voice of your professor. "I have paired you all for the practice test today. I will not be tolerating complaints or requests for swaps." The class nodded as he continued his list.

"Theo and Luna, Harry and Draco, Pansy and Hannah, Daphne and Blaise, Y/n and Hermione, Ron and Justin, Chris and Zach..." The list went on but you didn't listen to anything after your own name.

You were paired with Hermione which you were okay with, though she was acting a bit off lately. You didn't complain, you would rather be with her than with Pansy. 

You and Hermione started off with making the Veritaserum in the cauldron and mixing the ingredients. Hermione was brilliant at potions, but so were you, so you both were doing great so far. You decided to look around to see how the other pairs were going with their work. Theo and Luna looked like they were having trouble, while Zach and Chris looked practically done. You took a glance at Harry and Draco and how they were doing, you were actually surprised that Draco hadn't complained about being paired with his one true greatest enemy. Maybe he had changed more than you thought. 

That's when you caught him staring in your direction... but not at you. You followed his eyes, and realised where he was actually looking. Hermione. You inspected his gaze, it was a gaze of admiration, you could almost see love in his eyes, hearts. Did he actually like Hermione, is that why she was acting weird when you were talking about him.

You felt the butterflies in your stomach dying at the thought of both of them liking each other. 

It was like he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Draco flicked his eyes back down to his potion, and you were left heartbroken. Everything was sort of making sense now. Why he said he needed you for something. He needed you to get closer to Hermione, because he knew you were friends practically everybody, including her. The reason why he was saying he didn't mind blood purity anymore; why he said he had grown quite fond of muggleborns. It's because he was in love with one. All this realisation was hitting you all at once, and you didn't like it. You felt sick. You had just started to fall for him.

"Y/n!" You heard a yell from Hermione "Are you mixing the potion to the left?!" You snapped back to reality, tears threatening to escape.

"Yeah I am, sorry" you mumbled quietly.

The class went by fast, so did the rest of the day. And you were left to think about everything. You really were beginning to love that boy, but of course he doesn't love you. Hermione is fucking perfect, of course he likes her.

You didn't like this feeling. The feeling of butterflies dying.

[citrusses]

July 2023: AO3 Wrapped 🎁🍊

A monthly roundup of *some* of my favorite fics of the year.

January | February | March | April, May, June | July | August | September | October | November | December

A Saviour’s Guide to Manners and Decorum by @wolfpants (E, 13K)

Honorary Minister Harry Potter (yes, he's fully aware his job title is meaningless, and he quite likes it that way) is a disaster at public events.

Listen, if there's two things I will never, ever, ever get enough of it is etiquette lessons and longing. This fic is perfect to me.

Everybody Hates a Tourist by @wolfpants (E, 51K)

On a stag do in sunny Brighton with the Gryffindor lads, the last person Harry expects to run into is Draco Malfoy.

Started reading this at night and went, sorry, sleep, you aren't happening. Could not rest until I finished it. The most beautiful discovery of love and oneself.

Fledgling by @tackytigerfic (G, 3K) 

Two young dads meet at a farmers market. They exchange parenting tips, longing looks, and root vegetables.

This is so very, very lovely in a chaotic (newborns!!), achingly sweet way. In my head this is "*The* Drarry dads fic."

heaven to gaudy day by @maesterchill (M, 809)

Istanbul. The morning after the night before. And Malfoy's in a mood.

Under 1000 words of pure gorgeousness.

I only want the ones I envy (I envy) by @porcelainheart3 (E, 13K)

Despite this arrangement he has with Draco, conducted entirely in the privacy of a dusty stationery cabinet, Harry is definitely not gay. But to appease his friends, he agrees to go on one (1) date with a man. Just to be sure.

ABSOLUTE TREAT, SUPREME BANGER. A confection of a fic -- the dialogue, the details, all adding up to a densely-packed, seven layer slice of dessert.

Muscle Memory by @corvuscrowned (E, 8K) 

There's something just beneath the surface, just at the periphery of Harry's mind. They've been here before — they've done this before. If only he could remember it.

I think this has my favorite last line of a fic all year. Maybe ever. This is exactly the kind of narratively layered, brilliant and beautifully captivating fic that Crow has done so well so many times. A gift.

Rich Friend by @sorrybutblog (E, 19K)

As far as Harry can tell, Draco Malfoy is still rich as hell. He’s just not a wizard anymore. Featuring: Draco Malfoy trying to make it as a Muggle pop star, Harry Potter as our confused and horny hero, bad driving, good music, and the mysterious magic of falling for someone.

LKSJ:FLKJSD. I mean, this is a perfect Harry POV fic, the most believable Drarry dynamic in the midst of a fic about Draco as a Muggle pop star named Dragon, the "I'm with the band" fic I didn't know I needed. I love it with my whole soul.

Sun Thief by @floydig, (E, 28K)

It’s 2005, and Draco Malfoy says, “Fuck the Ministry,” Harry works as a handyman in muggle London, and Draco should really stop pissing off the Squib gangs.

Bracingly original, thrilling to read, does not hold the reader's hand at all and just throws you into it -- fantastic.

Waking Up Slow by @sweet-s0rr0w (E, 22K)

'Twas the night before Christmas, although it’s July/Draco’s a shopkeeper, no-one knows why/There’s hiking and witch caves, freak snowfalls and more/Bad Christmas jumpers, nosy neighbours galore/Narcissa’s here too, but… something’s amiss/And what’s in those chocolates that’s making them kiss?

No one can make me SEE a fic the way Sweet does. The writing in this is so tangibly gorgeous, the love story is so tender and sweet and funny and lovely. The most charming of fics.

[in-my-feels-probably]

✨1.7K Followers Celebration✨

just hit 1700 followers, omg. thank you so much!

doing another followers celebration, of course!

please read everything carefully so i can get back to you quickly. the bolded sections are the most important. (this sounds so pretentious omg, but it’s just for my own piece of mind and to make everything clearer and easier)

also, a few things have changed for these celebrations. since i’ve gone over 1000 followers, i will be doing a celebration every few hundred followers like i did with 1200 and 1500, and doing a big one every thousand. so after this one, i won’t be doing another until the bigger one for 2000, then 2200, and the cycle will repeat from there.

because of the increased amount of submissions i get for these celebrations, i’ll be keeping the many options for fandoms, but i’ll be narrowing down the options to just two. if you're interested in more options that i've done for past followers celebrations, or you have any ideas for one, let me know and i'll include them next time!

also, because of the influx of submissions, i will be narrowing down the time i’ll be accepting asks. i’ll consider keeping them open longer next time, but i want to test a shorter window this time around. while i love writing these and i appreciate everyone participating, it takes me a while to do each one and i end up with a flooded inbox. i still accept and write requests at the same time, so i think this will make it easier to balance.

this celebration will be open for four days. starting today, january 1, ending on january 4th. please don't send anything in past night time on the 4th.

if you want to participate, keep reading :)

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the fandoms i can do this for are harry potter (marauders era or lightning era including the slytherin boys), game of thrones, house of the dragon, bridgerton, the walking dead, the hunger games (including TBOSAS), outer banks, marvel, gen v, and the grishaverse (six of crows and shadow and bone, show or books).

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option one: after picking a fandom, give me a character from that fandom you like. tell me why you like them, and/or what it is about them that made you choose them. if you really can’t choose one, give me a few. this can be either that they’re your favorite character, you platonically love them, or you romantically would be interested, it’s up to you. this part is required.

you can also give me a bit about yourself, whatever information you’re willing to share. it can be a physical description, your favorite things (like books, movies, places, music, songs, tropes), your hobbies and interests. any information about yourself that you want to share. this part is optional.

with your character, explanation, and anything you choose to share, i'll write a blurb for you with your character (either platonically or romantically, that’s up to you, please specify). the idea here is that instead of me shipping you, you instead give me the character you’d want to be shipped with (either in a best friend or romantic kind of way) and i'll write a blurb scenario thing for you and the character.

✨so to participate for this one, all you have to do is give me a character from a fandom and why you picked them, and any information about yourself you want to give me, and i’ll write you a blurb and tell you why i think your chosen character would like you.✨

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option two: this option is similar to the first, but instead of you giving me a character, you’ll instead just give me the fandom and i'll ship you with a character from it and write a blurb. just give me a bit about yourself, whatever information you’re willing to share. it can be a physical description, your favorite things (like books, movies, places, music, songs, tropes), your hobbies and interests. any information about yourself that you want to share and you think would help me give you a character, its all up to you, go wild. this part is required to get a ship.

if there are any characters from the fandom you choose that you don’t want me to consider shipping you with, let me know and i'll avoid choosing them.

for this option, if necessary, and only if you’re willing to, please specify your pronouns (and sexuality, or just say if you want me to ship you with a boy or a girl) and i’ll do my best to give you your best fit in my opinion.

i’m going to ship you (either platonically or romantically, up to you, please specify) with a character from a fandom of your choice. i’ll write a little blurb for you with the character/why i think they’d like you.

so same idea here with option one, except i'm choosing the character for you, and including why i think they’d like you (either romantically or as a friend) and then writing the blurb.

✨to participate in this one, just give me a fandom, any information you want to share about yourself, whether you want the ship to be platonic or romantic, any characters you want me to avoid, and i’ll get back to you as soon as i can with a ship and a blurb!✨

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if you have any questions, feel free to message me or submit an ask.

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i really never imagined hitting over 1K followers on here, and look where we’re at now! it’s crazy how much love and support my work has gotten, there’s so many nice and cool people on here. it’s crazy seeing all the attention my posts get. i really enjoy writing for you, and it’s such a highlight to my day seeing all the nice things people say about my work.

i just wanted to say thank you again, im gaining followers so fast and i really appreciate all the love and support with my work. very much appreciate you all and anyone who has supported my work in any way, and i hope you participate and enjoy :)

and also, my requests are still open! check out my navigation post and masterlists to see who i’m currently accepting requests for. i’m also working on multiple full length fics! if you check them out, i hope you enjoy them!

thank you again! see you later for another followers celebration :)