#i always think that Snape must have been included in everything

[mymovingfingerwrites]

i was re-reading Deathly Hallows to get inspiration for my Snape story and I realized that Dumbledore straight up doesn't tell him about the Horcruxes!! Throughout all of ASOR, I thought that was my weakest plot point, that Dumbledore in this timeline wouldn't confide in Snape -- but he doesn't confide in Snape in canon either. He doesn't tell him about the Horcruxes at all, or why Harry needs to die, or why Harry needs the Sword of Gryffindor at the right moment, or what the ring was that cursed him. I think I've read too many Snape fics where Snape knows everything to realize that in canon, Dumbledore kept him in the dark about essentially everything. Wild.

(also, then have to decide if i want my Snape to discover the Horcruxes or if this should be a Horcrux-free story. thoughts circulating).

Also, this great exchange between Dumbledore and Snape:

"Lord Voldemort's soul, maimed as it is, cannot bear close contact with a soul like Harry's. Like a tongue on frozen steel, like flesh in flame -- "

"Souls? We were talking of minds!"

"In the case of Harry and Lord Voldemort, to speak of one is to speak of the other."

Chapter 33 - The Prince's Tale (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)

[heidi891]

Snape isn’t responsible for Lupin losing his job

Let’s look at the timeline:

The Shrieking Shack drama.

Lupin turns into the werewolf.

Harry, Ron and Hermione are in the Hospital Wing.

Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.

Snape has a meltdown in front of Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore.

In the morning Snape tells Slytherins that Lupin is a werewolf.

Harry talks to Lupin who’s been fired.

A lot of people think that Lupin was fired because Snape told his secret. But Lupin was actually fired because he betrayed Dumbledore’s trust—multiple times, as a student and as a teacher.

Lupin knows it himself:

 

“I sometimes felt guilty about betraying Dumbledore’s trust, of course ... he had admitted me to Hogwarts when no other headmaster would have done so, and he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my own and others’ safety. He never knew I had led three fellow students into becoming Animagi illegally. But I always managed to forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next month’s adventure. And I haven’t changed ...”

 

Lupin betrayed Dumbledore’s trust as a student when he was roaming around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade as a werewolf.

 

“That was still really dangerous! Running around in the dark with a werewolf! What if you’d given the others the slip, and bitten somebody?”

“A thought that still haunts me,” said Lupin heavily. “And there were near misses, many of them.

 

Lupin himself admits that there were many near misses. He’s extremely lucky that he didn’t infect or kill anybody. If he had, if others had found out about him, Dumbledore would have been finished as a headmaster.

 

Lupin’s face had hardened, and there was self-disgust in his voice. “All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn’t do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly. It would have meant admitting that I’d betrayed his trust while I was at school, admitting that I’d led others along with me ... and Dumbledore’s trust has meant everything to me. He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am. And so I convinced myself that Sirius was getting into the school using dark arts he learned from Voldemort, that being an Animagus had nothing to do with it . . . so, in a way, Snape’s been right about me all along.

 

Lupin knew Sirius was an Animagus. It was crucial information. Everyone—including Dumbledore, Snape and Lupin himself—believed it was Sirius who had betrayed the Potters. Lupin was (again) extremely lucky that it turned out it was in fact Pettigrew.

The Ministry and Dumbledore did their best to protect Harry, but the whole army of Dementors was helpless against Animagus Sirius. Lupin himself is disgusted with what he did.

That betrayal is even worse, because Lupin being a teacher in the same year Sirius is on the loose is probably not a coincidence. Dumbledore must have asked the person he trusted and who knew Sirius very well. Dumbledore hoped that Lupin would have some information about Sirius and help protect Harry; being a good DADA teacher was a pleasant bonus. But Lupin failed to do the very job he was hired for.

Lupin managed to deceive Dumbledore and Snape who were both skilled in Legillimency. What’s more, during the first war Lupin probably was trying to convince other werewolves / spying for Dumbledore just like during the second war, so probably he knew at least a little Occlumency. The thing is, Lupin was hiding something the whole year (that he knew Sirius was an Animagus) and Snape saw some clues that Lupin wasn’t entirely honest. Lupin admits it too.

So let’s get back to the timeline:

Dumbledore wants to know what happened in the Shrieking Shack. He’s heard the children’s account, but he must want to hear the story of the three adults involved in the incident: Snape, Lupin and Sirius. Lupin is obviously unavailable.

We know he talks to Sirius:

 

“Last night Sirius told me all about how they became Animagi,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “An extraordinary achievement — not least, keeping it quiet from me.

 

He tells Harry this in the morning, after Lupin has left. The conversation probably took place when Sirius was arrested, after the Shrieking Shack incident but before the rescue. Lupin was in his werewolf form at that time, somewhere around Hogwarts.

The most disapointing thing for Dumbledore must be the fact that it is Sirius, not Lupin, who tells him all about Lupin’s first betrayal as a student. That also reveals Lupin’s second betrayal—that he didn’t tell Dumbledore about Sirius’ ability, even though he believed him to be the traitor.

Dumbledore must be determined to hear Lupin’s account. So as soon as the night ends and Lupin turns back into his human form, Dumbledore has a conversation with him. We know it happened because when Harry talks to Lupin, Remus has already been fired. The only way it could happen is that the Headmaster fired him personally.

Of course Snape couldn’t fire Lupin personally, he was just a teacher, he had no power to do so. The only way Snape could have had Lupin fired was to tell the Slytherins about Lupin (which he did), inform the school governors himself or have the students (like Draco Malfoy whose father was a governor) inform their parents and then wait for the governors to force the Headmaster to fire Lupin. However, there was too little time for that. Alternatively, he could have just told the Slytherins about Lupin, thus manipulating Dumbledore and forcing him to fire Lupin. BUT (1) Snape is very loyal to Dumbledore and it would be surprising if he went behind his back and endangered his position as the Headmaster; (2) there’s no indication that Dumbledore is mad at Snape. He certainly would be if Snape forced him to do something he didn’t want to do.

But Dumbledore is mad at someone else.

 

“Well — good-bye, Harry,” he [Lupin] said, smiling. “It has been a real pleasure teaching you. I feel sure we’ll meet again sometime. Headmaster, there is no need to see me to the gates, I can manage...”

Harry had the impression that Lupin wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

“Good-bye, then, Remus,” said Dumbledore soberly. Lupin shifted the grindylow tank slightly so that he and Dumbledore could shake hands. Then, with a final nod to Harry and a swift smile, Lupin left the office.

 

"Mad" is perhaps too strong, Dumbledore is rarely outraged. He’s disappointed. He isn’t emotional (neither "Oh, that horrible Snape, what did he do to my precious Lupin?" nor "Oh, you horrible Lupin, you’ve almost eaten my precious Harry Potter!"), he assesses the situation rationally. He’s rather cold. Whatever he’s said to Lupin earlier has made Remus embarrased. Lupin wants to leave as quickly as possible when Dumbledore has come to avoid further embarrasment. He knows he screwed up and he knows that Dumbledore knows it too.

We know about two conversations. But there was another adult involved in the Shrieking Shack incident, someone who Dumbledore trusts more than Sirius (whom up until that night he believed to be a traitor and a murderer) and Lupin (who let him down at least once by forgetting to drink his potion and by not staying behind in the Shrieking Shack, thus almost killing a few people, including Harry Potter—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg). Snape. However, although it’s logical for that conversation to take place, we don’t know when it could happen. After the Shrieking Shack incident Dumbledore talks to Sirius, so he couldn’t talk to Snape then. Then he suggests the children use the Time Turner. Then Snape has a meltdown and is probably too unstable to hold a rational conversation. Then finding Lupin could be a higher priority than talking to Snape since Dumbledore already knows most of what happened, Snape is biased and wasn’t present or was unconscious for the most part and Lupin right now is a danger to students and Hogsmeade villagers (including Dumbledore’s own brother).

Another thing that is worth mentioning is that Snape kept Lupin’s secret for over 18 years, including two years when he was a faithful Death Eater and Lupin was a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Snape is also deeply loyal to Dumbledore. It would be illogical for him to betray Dumbledore like that and to face no consequences for that. So, logically, Dumbledore must have given him some sort of green light, even if it was just a mild sugestion that it was up to him now.

To sum up, the adjusted timeline looks like this:

The Shrieking Shack drama.

Lupin turns into the werewolf.

Harry, Ron and Hermione are in the Hospital Wing.

Dumbledore talks to Sirius and finds out about Lupin’s first and second betrayal.

Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.

Snape has a meltdown in front of Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore.

At dawn Dumbledore finds Lupin and talks to him. Lupin quits / is fired.

Dumbledore talks to Snape, probably implying that he isn’t bound to keep Lupin’s secret anymore.

In the morning Snape tells Slytherins that Lupin is a werewolf.

Harry talks to Lupin who’s been fired.

Lupin got himself fired all by himself by keeping crucial information from Dumbledore and endangering students, including Harry Potter.

Snape is responsible for ruining Lupin’s reputation but not for Remus losing his job.

Snape isn’t responsible for Lupin being unable to have a job afterwards, because Remus has already had this problem.

 

He let me into Hogwarts as a boy, and he gave me a job when I have been shunned all my adult life, unable to find paid work because of what I am.

 

Somehow his empleyers knew about his condition or quickly figured it out. If Lupin had been discriminated all his adult life, it wasn’t because of Snape.

He worsens Lupin’s situation, but it’s been already bad. His situation, his prospects don’t really change after that. They were bad, now they’re slightly worse.

[startanewdream]

Hey, a guy who suggested that Snape's reactions to Sirius/Lily bond here😅. First of all, THANK YOU so much😭, I'm sure this is going to be an excellent and very satisfying content to read, simply can't wait!

But since you mentioned you don't have all yet, I'd like to suggest one if you don't mind - please include a one where Order members come back from some mission (somewhen around OotP) and Sirius and Lily clean each other's wounds. But since they're too tired for magic they do it old fashioned way which means Lily is touching Sirius' bare chest and Sirius is touching Lily's upper body which has only bra on it.

Of course it's completely platonic for Sirius and Lily because they're completely comfortable with each other (and too worried about each other to think about stuff like this) but OH MY GOD, Snape's reaction at the sight and his inner thoughts would be PURE GOLD.

I know I promise more scenes but I just wanted to post this one sooner because this prompt was far too brilliant (and the other scenes are far less troubled — I think I'm done writing from Snape's pov truly). Fair warning that Snape's POV here is very biased and he doesn't handle it well 😏

Rated M for some cursing. 2k words of something.

***

Lily Potter was hurt.

He shouldn’t have gone to Grimmauld Place. Severus had done his part already; he’d translated Potter’s yells to the Order, had let them know that the brat somehow got in his mind the idea that Sirius Black (Padfoot, his friends had called him, thinking they were so clever with childish nicknames) had been captured by the Dark Lord, and had warned them when the kid had ran off dragging his stupid friends. That was all that was required of him.

He couldn’t know there would be a battle, couldn’t know that Lily Evans would be there fighting a Dark Lord that mostly wanted her dead, and yet—yet Dumbledore had told him, almost challenging to see how he still felt about her, that in the following battle Lily Potter had been hurt.

Dumbledore always called her Lily Potter, an unnecessary reminder that still stung. She wasn’t truly a Potter — she had lived more of her life as Lily Evans than she had ever been married to James Potter.

And if she were hurt—he had never told her how he felt, the lengths he had undergone to prove her his worth, how everything was about her. Lily should know, she deserved to know.

Grimmauld Place was quiet when he entered it. Snape hated that house, that gloomy place that Black owned as the spoiled pureblood he pretended he wasn’t; how hard it must have been, Severus always thought, to grow up with a house-elf tending to your needs, between richness and luxury, knowing his place on society, the eldest son of a noble family—

And probably because he had let his thoughts stray too near Sirius Fucking Black, he heard his loud laugh.

It was enough for the portrait of Walburga Black start screaming. Snape retreated hastily to the first room he found, just as he heard the sound of someone running the stairs.

“SHUT UP!” Yelled Black; there was a flash of light and the sound of the portrait’s screams died.

Snape peaked through the door; Black was still in the stairs, facing the other direction. He was panting, and if for anger or for running down the stairs, Snape could only guess. He wasn’t wearing any shirt, revealing muscled shoulders and back of someone who clearly had too much time to exercise and too little to do; then Black turned around—and of course he was fit, perfect biceps and torso, everything firmly shaped and did he shave his chest or—

And then a grim satisfaction broke through the acid that was bubbling inside him, because Black’s shapely chest was marked with purple bruises, giant spots that had probably hurt him when he had been hit, and how good was that—

“Sirius!”

Black turned again, following the same direction that Snape was now looking at, but from his angle he couldn’t see Lily. She sounded so disturbed…

“Come on! You won’t get away with this.”

Black sighed, shaking his head, but he climbed the stairs again. Severus hesitated for a moment before casting a Disillusionment Charm on himself; it wasn’t his best work, and if anyone would look directly in his direction, they might notice it, but he had to risk it, had to make sure that Lily Evans was fine…

Any worry they might notice him vanished from his mind when he reached the second floor. Black had entered one of the rooms of the house, and Lily was there, pulling him down to sit in the only bed of the room. She didn’t look hurt, though there was dried blood splattered in her jacket.

Snape looked at her, searching in her face for some sign of injury, or maybe that she was under pain, but there was only concern and it was directed straightly at the man that she was making sure was resting comfortable against the pillows of the bed.

“I am fine,” Black insisted, when Lily pulled a cauldron to the bedrest. 

“Of course you are,” she answered, flashing him a smile that made Snape’s inside churm. Black wasn’t fine, he couldn’t be with those injuries, and yet he was clearly pretending to look brave for Lily as if she was going to fall for this act—she had to see through him… “If you were good to go argue with that portrait.”

“I hate her more than I hate Death Eaters—and that’s a lot.”

She chuckled; it was a teasing laugh, one that made Black’s lips twitch as if he wanted to laugh as well.

“I mean it,” he insisted, sounding like a petulant child. Snape waited for Lily’s spurn; it never came. “She wasn’t one, but she supported them well enough, raised all properly Black Death Eaters—”

“Not you.” Lily’s voice was shimmering with warmth. “She could never break you.”

Black smiled. “I had a good influence,” he whispered, and then Lily turned her head to look at him. Snape couldn’t see the expression on her face, but he could see how Black’s eyes were shining, standing her gaze; Black looked greedy, demanding. There were only a few inches between their faces. 

Snape grabbed his wand, knowing he wouldn’t be able to help himself if Black threw himself over her, but after a moment Lily turned , moving away to bring the cauldron closer; Snape was glad that there was trouble in Lily’s green eyes now. She hadn’t felt comfortable with Black’s presence, she was repulsed by him…

“Lay back,” she told Black, and he did what was asked, laying still as Lily sat by his side, swirling the content of the cauldron. She grabbed a spoonful of the potion, a transparent almost-pasty liquid, and placed a few drops over the purple spots on Black’s chest.

He knew that Lily had always been an excellent potion maker, but still he wished that she had mistaken something, that the potion would burn through Black’s skin, melting his abs, unshaping his body, thinning him into nothing—

And for a brief moment, it seemed Snape’s wishes were granted.

“Ouch!” Black twisted in the bed, looking uncomfortable. “This burns.”

“Stop being a child,” answered Lily at once. Her words were scolding, but she sounded more fond than anything. “It will be better in a minute,” she assured, and then, without hesitation, as if that was the most normal thing in the world, she leaned closer, supporting her weight in the bed with one hand and caressing Black’s chest with the other hand.

No, it wasn’t a caress, she was just spreading the potion over his chest, and yet—her fingers were moving softly, smoothly, dancing over his skin. There was a smile on her lips that didn’t belong there; Black sighed contentedly, sinking his head into the pillows and closing his eyes.

“Fuck, this feels good,” he moaned.

“Oh, no more pretending this wasn’t hurting as hell?” She teased, amused.

“Not hell.” Her hand stopped moving for a moment, watching him. Black opened an eye, full of mischief. “Fine, but not a ninth-circle of Hell pain. Maybe a second-circle pain.”

Lily resumed her movement. “You could be in Heaven bliss if you haven’t acted all noble.”

Black opened both of his eyes now, but Lily didn’t meet his gaze; there was a severe frown on her forehead now. Black’s expression softened.

“I had to protect you,” he whispered.

That didn’t appease her. “It’s not your job, Sirius. I can take care of myself.”

“Of course you can, but—” He took her hand, intertwining their fingers, waiting until Lily looked him in the eyes. “I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

There was a long moment of silence. Lily bit her lip and lowered her head, her hair creating a curtain over her face; Snape couldn’t see her expression, but he could see Black’s, and once again, over a thin layer of fondness, Black’s eyes were greedy, lustful, as they moved over Lily’s face, admiring her, desiring her. 

That was wrong, repulsive, and Snape wasn’t surprised when Lily hesitated: “Sirius—”

But Black ignored her. “Your turn,” he said, sitting on the bed, and pulling the cauldron to himself.

“I’m—”

“Let me guess, you are fine?” He winked at her. “I saw you wincing there. Left shoulder?”

Lily pulled away from him, crossing her arms; she looked annoyed, lips set in a thin line as if she was just considering not answering at all, but after a moment she sighed.

“Right,” she said, defeated, turning his back to him.

For a moment Snape thought she was staring directly at him, and he didn’t dare moving, but Lily’s eyes moved past him without noticing anything. She raised her hands to remove her jacket, but Black stopped her.

“Let me,” he offered. Lily nodded, just extending her arms to help him. Underneath her jacket, her shirt was soaked with blood.  Black hissed. “Fuck, Lils,” and he ripped her shirt, exposing her skin and the black bra she wore beneath it. 

She shivered, but made no movement to cover herself, standing half-naked with her bare back to Black. On her right side, from her neck to her shoulder, there was a long scarlet cut, dried blood around it. Sectumsempra, Snape realized with a sudden rush of fury; it had been misfired, luckily, or she would have bleed out by now, but still he promised he would find whoever had done it, not Lily—

And then his gaze fell, following the light of the necklace she wore, to the golden ring that was swinging over her chest. The ring shone, but he forgot it quickly; her skin was cream-coloured, with freckles splattered over her bosom, soft to look; her bra marked her curves, lifted her tits, and how he had dreamed of seeing her like this, of sliding down the strap of her bra to reveal all her beauty to him.

Once again it seemed his wishes were granted, for there was a hand carefully moving the strap of her bra down to the middle of her arm, revealing more of her skin, and something stirred inside him, blood rushing—then the rage renewed, for Black was touching her skin now, applying the potion over her cut, his fingers treading over her skin with far too much intimacy.

“Oh, god,” she mumbled, closing her eyes and arching her neck to give him better access. “I am an amazing potion maker.”

Black snorted; that brought a smile to her lips as if she had expected that reaction. Snape closed his fits, hatred filling him, even though he couldn’t take his eyes off the scene, of how Black’s hand was massaging her shoulder, his finger brushing over her chest, almost touching the exposed top of her tit.

“I would rather you were an amazing dueler,” said Black, voice barely repreensive. 

“I am.”

“And how did you get hurt?”

Lily hesitated for a moment. “Bellatrix,” she admitted at last. “Your cousin is a nasty piece.”

“I was dueling her.”

“Yeah, well.”

“Lily…”

She shivered. “She was aiming at your back, you were too close to the Death Veil and—I didn’t think, I had to do something, I—” And then she broke, turning around to face him, her lips trembling. “You nearly died, Sirius.”

“Who acted all noble now?” He asked softly, caressing her arms. “Such a Gryffindor of you.”

“Stupid and reckless?”

“And brave,” he assured, and Lily smiled nervously in answer. “Just don’t die on my account, I could never explain this.”

“No one would blame you,” she assured him, turning around again to allow him to finish applying the potion. "He wouldn't," she added, her voice so low that Snape almost thought he had imagined it.

Sirius sighed. “I know,” he admitted in a low voice. Then he shook his head, a devilish grin taking control of his features as he moved the cauldron back. “Do you remember what you used to do when Harry scraped his knees?”

Lily frowned, thoughtful. “I kissed—” And then Black placed a kiss on her bare shoulder, over her cut. “Sirius!”

Snape waited for a reprimand, an unquestionable reproval of Black’s lack of limits, but Lily was giggling. “This is disgusting,” she said, nothing in her voice betraying any hint of disgust as she brushed the potion out of his lips with the back of her hand.

“You love me,” Black said easily, surely, confidently, and Snape decided he couldn’t hear her confirmation, couldn’t deal with even the possibility that Lily Evans had fallen for Black—somehow that was worse than seeing her with Potter, not him, not Black—

He brushed something on his way out, the sound waking up Walburga Black’s portrait again, and he welcomed the yells, hoping it was enough to dwindle any other sound he might hear in that house again.

[astaldis]

Whumpers-Monthly - Ambushed at Home

@whumpers-monthly

Found something that I think fits the prompt nicely, but it's VERY old, actually from the first fanfic I ever wrote back in the times when not all the Harry Potter books were yet published and the most fantastic fan theories cropped up everywhere. This was the beginning of one of mine (based on an anagram) concerning a certain greasy-haired potions professor and his family background:

A Nightmare

Fandom: Harry Potter

Wumpee: Helena Evans (Original female character)

Whumper: Tom Riddle

Published: 2003-11-06; Completed: 2003-11-10; Words: 4,932; Chapters: 2/2

Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage, Character deaths, unwanted pregnancy, attempted abortion

Characters: Tom Riddle, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, Lily Evans, OCs

Summary: After what happened at the Yule ball, Helena Evans' life turns into a nightmare. Pre-canon. 

From chapter 2 - The Nightmare continues:

Helena touched the doorknob and suddenly shuddered. Strange ... how could the metal feel so cold? It was a nice warm day in May, but oddly enough, the knob felt cold as ice. Something definitely was wrong, but what? Apprehension and fear crept into her heart and made her shiver. But she calmed herself down again. This was her apartment, situated in a nice and friendly muggle-neighbourhood, and, as always, she had locked it with several security-spells. The spells were still intact. Anyhow, she didn't work in any sensitive area in the Ministry but only as an apprentice in the department for muggle artefacts. There had just recently been incidents involving Aurors and employees of the Department of Mysteries being attacked for some unknown reason, but never anybody from her section, she assured herself. Her job was safe.

Since Helena was muggle-borne, she was pretty good at her job; she actually knew more about muggle artefacts than the rest of the staff, including her boss. Therefore, she was almost sure that she would get an offer for permanent employment before the start of holidays. She also enjoyed her work and did a lot of overtime. Working hard kept her from thinking too much, from falling into depression again. If only those dreadful nightmares didn't haunt her still ... But she kept a steady supply of Dreamless Sleep Potion, so her nights weren't that bad after all. Though she didn't think of herself as happy, she had found some balance in life again, thanks to her mother. If she had not taken control of her daughter's situation, arranged the apprenticeship (with some help of Professor Dumbledore, she suspected), found the apartment, and, most of all, taken care of her unwanted child, she would most probably have ended up in the gutter, Helena thought thankfully. And with the reassuring image of her mother in mind, she opened the door and entered her apartment.

Everything looked quite normal. Helena took off her muggle coat and shoes, and risked a quick glance into the mirror. Yes, she finally had gained some weight and didn't have this pale, haggard, haunted look about her anymore. Turning towards the living-room door, she suddenly felt a cold draft that chilled her to the bone. The door opened as if by its own will, and then she heard the laughter, high pitched and cruel like death. Panic-stricken, she staggered backwards toward the wall, shaking all over. This could not be, this must not be, oh, let me wake up from this never-ending nightmare!

"How are you doing, my dear?" The smooth and vicious voice asked as Tom Riddle slowly approached her, wand in hand ...

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

hello! I once heard the opinion that the zutara fandom (the loudest and most toxic part of it, of course, we are not talking about normal people who just enjoy their ship) has features of cultist, sectarian thinking and organization. I haven't thought about it much, but recently a friend of mine who understands quite a lot about cults and sects and to whom I showed the most popular zutara blogs and their meta tags here, tumblr (I didn't push him on this idea, we were just chatting about fandoms) said that according to the type of thinking zutara's fandom has features of a religious cult. this thought seemed interesting to me. what do you think about it?

I'd say it's true, but it does not apply solely to Zutara, or even to the ATLA fandom.

I lost count of how many times I've seen some legit insane news here in Brazil about angry fans of some soccer team violently beating, or straight up murdering, people that were wearing the "wrong" t-shirt after a game.

Harry Potter had the weird thing with the Snape wives, and now has the current cult-like TERF bullshit JK Rowlling encourages on a daily basis.

One of my cousins is VERY into K-pop and told me some WILD shit about some idols literally have to sign contracts that forbid them from dating (or at least publicly dating) anyone because half of the marketing around their persona is "You, regular person, could totally date them!" and faced some ABSURD backlash, including death threats towards them and their partners, when they were revealed to be in a relationship.

Anything, no matter how mundane, can be used by some disturbed people to excuse/encourage awful behavior. It's usually a result of desperate, lonely people needing to find ANYTHING that makes them feel like they belong, are part of a group, of a community, to the point that they shut off from anything else and become obsessed. That kind of thing has always existed, but BOY, has the internet made it sooooooooooo much worse.

I mean, seriously, just look at the things the "extreme" zutara fans do.

Creating whole conspiracies to justify why their was totally canon until some evil authority screwed it over, lying about anything and everything that happened both in canon and in the making of the show, even going as far as creating fake "evidence" of some huge power struggle between Bryke and other writers (mainly Ehasz).

Harrassing, bullying, doxxing and threatening anyone that has a different opinion, and justifying their actions with "Oh, but the people were doing this to ship Kataang/Maiko, which means they're all raging mysogynists, rape apologists, and 100% against interracial relationships."

The constant claims of "Bryke are creepy pedos because they only pushed Kataang because they are attracted to Katara, a cartoon character, and thus are attracted to real-life 14-year-olds! That's even the real reason why Aang is bald! To look like one of them!" that are not only ridiculous but could EASILY lead to a lawsuit, and ignores the fact that Zutara, like any popular ship, has tons of smut of it even though both characters are underage - make it make sense!

And, of course, the classic "This bad behavior people accused some of us of is completely false! I didn't see it, so it didn't happen! Nobody here would do that! Never one of us! Must have been one of them, the evil fans of kataang/maiko/(insert any ship for either Zuko or Katara here)!"

Some of the bad apples in the Zutara fandom are just entitled assholes, but I'm also pretty sure that some of these people legit need to see a mental health professional. There's being passionate about a ship and being upset that it didn't happen, and then there's being downright delusional.

And before anyone tries to pull the ableism card on me: I've been through this shit. Thankfully I've never reached the point of ever harming anyone in any way, but I was a mentally ill child/teenager that just latched onto the media I liked, and it made it my whole life.

I had full on panic attacks because the power went out and I couldn't watch my favorite TV show, and I'd cry for DAYS when something bad happened to my favorite characters. I legit started showing signs of depression because one of my favorite bands had broken up, to the point that my parents were really fucking scared. I got FURIOUS at an annoying classmate in school who talked shit about my favorite singer, to the point that I legit had to get away from them as fast as humanly possible because I was three seconds away from starting a physical fight - again, all because a random kid whose opinion on literally anything else wouldn't have meant a damn thing to me.

That is not being passionate. That is not being a loyal fan. That is a clear sign that something is VERY wrong and that you need some help FAST. See a therapist, deal with whatever it is that is pushing you to act like that, THEN engage in fandom stuff as much as you want. But don't ever make this your whole personality.

[stark-tony]

today is my 22nd birthday so i’m celebrating by reccing 22 of my favorite fics and giving my general thoughts about them.

atla

 i'm still here by owedbetter (77.7, T, zutara) "You see me."And somehow, that makes all the difference.

thoughts: One of the first zutara fics i ever read and it’s still one of my absolute favorites. The characterization of all of the characters is superb and the gradual development of zuko and katara’s relationship is amazing.

 such selfish prayers by andromeda3116 (47.6k, T, zutara)  Katara's ambition, so long set aside for the good of others, breaks free and sets fire to her soul. Or, Katara has a vision of her canon future, casts it aside, and becomes a world-changing politician instead.

thoughts: while this fic is a zutara fic, the majority of this fic is centered on katara and her helping rebuild the world after the war and it does an astounding job of portraying just that. and honestly this probably has my favorite characterization of katara i’ve ever read in a fic.

 Southern Lights by colourwhirled (501.8k, M, zutara) A world where the Avatar has disappeared from memory. Where Sozin’s Conquest was successful. Where the unsteady order of the empire is threatened as members of the royal family are picked off one by one and lines are slowly drawn in the sand.One last chance for peace forces an unlikely alliance between a homesick waterbender, a carefree Air Nomad, a runaway Earth Kingdom heiress, and the fire lord's inscrutable son. Together they must learn to shed old enmities and become the balance they seek to restore to the world.OR:The avatar has four heads.x[[Chapter 4: "And always, his eyes, cautiously watching her. Even when he thinks she isn’t looking. It drives her mad"]]

thoughts: when i say i was unable to put this fic down i genuinely mean that. like i’m pretty sure i was hooked from the very first chapter and i never looked back.

bnha

  stickers and stars by aloneintherain (1.9k, G, gen) “Aizawa, are you sure I’m the best person for this job? There are a lot more qualified people on campus. People who have been teachers for years, and—”As All Might spoke, Midoriya Izuku crawled the length of the couch, ducked under All Might’s arm, and made himself comfortable on his lap. All Might’s hands rose into the air, as though unsure of what to with his arms now that he had a toddler curled against his stomach like a cat seeking the warmth of its owner.“Um,” All Might said.

thoughts: is it not enough to say ‘baby deku’ and leave it at that?

 Butterfly by aconstantstateofbladerunner (198.8k, T, gen) The first over-night trip off campus since the training camp was supposed to be a fun break from more intense work back home. But between a bleak introduction to chaos theory, a chilly reception from the locals, and the looming threat of a villain attack, Izuku has too much on his mind to properly enjoy the fresh air. But those worries are a light breeze compared to the hurricane that accompanies what he finds on the outskirts of town.Or rather, what finds him.

thoughts: it’s incredibly well written and the horror aspect is so good. also the dad might in it is top tier.

villain eradication plan 5C: let them attack budding heroes mothers, wait appropriate time for mother to defeat them (3.4k, G, toshinko)  Targetting the civilian families of hero students should be cakewalk. Pity they decided to go with Inko first.Or the one where Inko accidentally defeats the League of Villains.

thoughts: this fic is basically inko accidentally being a badass and it’s as hilarious and awesome as it sounds

 see it all in bloom by aloneintherain (57.2k, T,  tododeku, kiribaku, momojirou, bullying) Midoriya looked over the occupants of the room with butter soft eyes. “We should do this again. Seeing everyone in one place … it’s like we’re back in school again.”Todoroki said, “It feels like a family reunion.”(Social media fic, counting down the five months to Class 1-A's ten year reunion.) 

thoughts: this series deals with social media + the lives of class 1a after they become pro heroes and it is amazing.

 remember from here on in by aloneintherain (8.1k, G, gen) Aizawa glances from All Might to Midoriya quickly. It sounds impossible—he’s never heard of a quirk that can be handed down like a family heirloom—but at the same time, it makes perfect sense. Midoriya’s inability to use his quirk at the start of the year. The strange, familial relationship between All Might and Midoriya. The slow malnourishment of All Might’s body, like his power was being siphoned away.“You’re …” Aizawa begins.“I’m All Might’s successor.” Midoriya’s proud but shaky voice rings clearly down the empty corridor.Aizawa finds out about One for All. 

thoughts: this fic deals with one for all being revealed to aizawa + midoriya getting more quirks and it is amazing

could i but teach the hundredth part by terra_incognita (5.2k, G, gen) Ito Matsu knows three things about her neighbor, Mr. Yagi: he's very skinny, he's very kind, and he has enough children to overthrow the Japanese government.Or:All Might is retired, but his former students keep coming up with reasons to visit. 

thoughts: this fic is so lovely and i adore it so much

mcu

 the talk by parkrstark (3.1k, pepperony) “Wait, man, what’re you doin’?” Rhodey asked, leaning forward.“Giving the kid his talk before he goes off to college.” Duh.Rhodey blinked. “At 3am when you’re probably too drunk to even spell your name, months before he actually has to leave?”“Yeah.”Rhodey blinked again. “Okay.”

thoughts: this fic is absolutely hilarious and poor peter is suffering throughout all of it

 call you home by Madelinedear (19k, G, pepperony) sometimes family is who you're born with.and sometimes family is a spider boy, a rich not-dad, and a kickass aunt.(or; tony, may, and peter find a place in each other's lives)

thoughts: to me, this fic is the tony may co-parenting fic. like i honestly don’t think that anything can ever top it

I Never Lived 'Til I Lived In Your Light by losingmymindtonight (38.4k, T, pepperony, character death)  As the world shifts to make space for Morgan Stark, everyone around her shifts, too. (As it turns out, this also includes Peter Parker's sleep schedule.) 

thoughts: this fic is both fluffy goodness and heartwrenching angst and it handles both beautifully.

 Lazarus, come forth by iron_spider (47.9k, T, pepperony) Tony's mind is a chaotic mess but he remembers the moment—remembers his death, remembers the red hot pain and Peter screaming, Rhodey rushing to his side. How he knew he’d never see Pepper again—but they’d fixed it. They’d fixed the world, erased the lost time, set things right—and the kid was back. The kid was crying, the kid hated him for doing what he did, but he was back. He was alive.Tony Stark was dead. But now he’s breathing again, trying to think, gasping, hands tracing the box surrounding him, covering him, suffocating him.He’s in a coffin. He’s under the ground. He’s under the fucking ground.(Tony Stark dies defeating Thanos. But then he comes back to life. He has to find out how, why, and how to live again. And how to deal with the changes in the people he's coming back to.)

thoughts: although this fic was written and finished pre-endgame but to me this fic is the fix-it fic for film.

Identity Saga by KitCat992 (400.7k, T, pepperony) An organically developed, platonic slow-burn of Avengers-fam dynamic with a heavy hand of Irondad & Spiderson. Throw in an overdose of whump, a couple of cunning villains and a big-bad hiding in the shadows, and you got yourself this hot mess.

thoughts: i just love the avengers dynamic in this series and the whump is medically accurate which is amazing.

college applications: the biggest meme by sagemb (3.3k, T, pepperony) Tony covered his face with both hands and screamed very gently. “Can I just bribe the school to let Peter in?"

thoughts: this series is absolutely hilarious and i love it

hp  

 The Changeling + Armistice Series  by Annerb (586.6k, M, hinny, rape) Ginny is sorted into Slytherin. It takes her seven years to figure out why.

thoughts: this fic is absolutely golden and i adore it so so much. the characters are so well written and the worldbuilding in this fic is fantastic and it actually has an original aspect of hogwarts (aka the parlor) that i practially consider to be canon at this point. also the depiction of slytherin house + house unity in this fic is just *chef’s kiss*

 boy with a scar by dirgewithoutmusic (208.7k, T, hinny, romione, jily)  A series of "what if" rewrites of Harry Potter, books 1-7. Cross-posted from tumblr (ink-splotch).

thoughts: every single one of these fics are exquisitely written and i wish that i could experience the beauty of this series again for the very first time.

  Hogwarts, to welcome you home by gedsparrowhawk (FaceChanger) (11.1k, G, ginny) “You understand, Professor,” Harry began, after a moment, “that I don’t have my N.E.W.T.s. I never even finished seventh year. Between everything, I never had a chance the first time around, and then afterwards there didn’t seem to be much point. Hermione argued for it, of course, but I was so tired of Britain. So technically, I am completely unqualified for the position.”“Quite a way to begin an interview, Mr. Potter,” McGonagall said, dryly.Or, three years after the war, Harry Potter becomes Hogwarts' newest Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

thoughts: this is my favorite harry as dada professor i’ve ever read. no doubt about it

 And the Unethical Binding Contract by justafandomfollower (14.6k, G, gen) AU. What if the Triwizard Tournament took place in Harry's first year, not his fourth? 

thoughts: this fic is beautifully written and i love the relationship that forms between harry, cedric, krum, and fleur.

Regulus Black and the Way Things Changed: A Not!Fic by imaginary_golux (8.8k, T, wolfstar) What if Regulus Black, and not Severus Snape, ended up being the turncoat Potions Master of Hogwarts?A not!fic written in bullet points, ignoring the Deathly Hallows entirely because they annoy me.Beta by my immensely patient Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw, and by the delightful starbirdrampant.

thoughts: this fic may be ooc at some points but it’s so funny that that makes up for it

spn

 Broadway Musical by Griftings (12.5k, M, destiel) This is the day that marked the Holy and Blessed Union of Dean Winchester and Jo Harvelle.The merging of prominent bloodlines is always a grand occurrence, but breeding pedigree hunter families like Winchester and Harvelle is something to be rejoiced. It is also something to be meticulously planned, which thankfully the Host is very good at.Or, the romantic comedy where Dean Winchester and Jo Harvelle are destined to get married, Castiel is given the task of playing matchmaker and fails terribly, the entire Heavenly Host becomes a sitcom audience, God warns against male pregnancy, and Jimmy Novak is incredibly unimpressed with angels in general.

thoughts: this fic is quite possibly the single most funniest thing i have ever read. like i was straight up cackling when i was reading some of the scenes.

  Down to Agincourt by seperis (1 million+, E, destiel) There is no such thing as a guarantee when it comes to war.The outcome's known. Why try? Return your rusty sword to battered sheath, bow your head and bend your stubborn knee. Why take the field when you cannot win the war? But Harry -- he went down to Agincourt.

--Harry Takes the Field by bratfarrar (AO3 link here.)

thoughts: this fic is an absolute work of art. the characterization dean and cas and all of the ocs is astounding the world building is immaculate and the writing is so detailed and in depth. a fair warning though to the first time reader as this fic can get very confusing at times but trust me it is worth it. 

[enchantedblackrose]

All the Pieces Pt 2

Sirius Black/Fem Reader

Warnings: light swearing, kinda long, unedited. I broke canon and will probably continue to do so in other parts now?

Part 1|| Part 3|| Part 4|| Part 5

Part 2 of ?

No more secrets from you I would lose to love you And I have never felt so Like a man that's been set free I can spread my arms now - Pieces, Dan Powell

Your questions wait longer still as you watch Sirius step hesitantly into your living room. It's not completely conscious, but you can't stop looking at him. He's so skinny and looks defeated, but then that fresh morning sunlight dances across his face. For a second you see glimpses of the boy you knew years ago.

Sirius clears his throat. The sudden noise startles you and you nearly jump.

"Shower!" You yell, though you're not sure why it comes out as a shouted demand.

"'m sorry, what?"

"I mean, you must want a hot shower?" 

Disbelief creeps onto his face. "I would love a hot shower so don't take this wrong, but you must have a hundred questions for me?"

"A thousand actually," you smile, "but they can wait."

Your compassion causes a warmth to fill Sirius that he hasn't felt since the last time he was in your presence. He nods his gratitude, not trusting himself to speak. 

You direct him to the top of the stairs and inform him of the fresh towels in the linen closet and the second bedroom he may use. Before he closes the bathroom door, you tell him you'll see if you can scrounge up any other clothes for him.

"And then if you want," you say, "we can set those damned robes on fire." Sirius laughs as you walk away.

Never being one able to throw anything away, you know for certain you have some old clothing belonging to Sirius. Not trusting the old rickety steps of the pull down ladder, you apparate to the attic. 

"Lumos." The tip of your wand illuminates enough of the storage space that you easily find the light fixture and gently pull on the chain. You put out your wand.

Immediately you spot the desired trunk and the sight of it causes you to draw a sharp breath. Your habit of saving everything while at times like this is beneficial, it often brings you some pain. You sit in front of the trunk, opening it slowly.

Photos and a small midnight blue velvet jewelry box sit on the very top. You pick them up and hesitate before setting them aside. 

Next you pull out a large leather jacket, followed by men's pants, several shirts, including tees with the face of David Bowie, another with the Stones, and even one with ABBA. You throw your head back in laughter; you really do keep anything and everything, but this is why. Even these mundane items hold precious memories.

You set the clothes beside you and thumb through the photos: Sirius kissing you on the cheek, Sirius kissing James on the cheek, you and a very pregnant Lily at her baby shower, you and Remus laughing with a pink haired, confused Sirius in the background, Peter attempting to rollerblade, Sirius in his dog form, the marauders near the Whomping Willow at school, you and Sirius slow dancing at James and Lily's wedding. You sigh before gently placing them back in the trunk. You pick up the little box, the delicate fabric still plush and smooth in your hand. But you decide to return it to the trunk without opening  it. 

Sirius should be getting out of the shower soon and you want the clothes ready for him when he is. You turn off the light before disapparating to the guest bedroom. The clothes were well preserved and a few incantations later they are freshly laundered. You leave them at the end of the bed.

You retreat to the kitchen to prepare brunch. The food is mostly done when from above you hear the water stop, squeaks of doors opening and shutting, the creaking of floorboards and then Sirius barking a hearty laugh. You smile to yourself.

"You always were a pack rat," he says, appearing after a minute. You see he opted not to wear any of the muggle musician shirts, but instead he's in a solid black t-shirt and dark jeans. Both hang loosely on his thin frame. You say nothing about his playful quip, mostly because it's true. You indicate for him to sit in one of the wooden kitchen chairs. "That said where's your engagement ring?"

Your heart sinks as you think to that blue box upstairs.

"Sirius," you warn, your voice low.

"I'm sorry. That wasn't fair. Though you not wearing it was the second thing I noticed about you." He offers a smile, but you don't relent, refusing to dive into this conversation when there's still so many answers he owes. Seeing your hardened expression, he holds his hands up signaling he still means no offense.

You sigh. "What was the first thing?"

His grin widens into a full smile. "Your eyes of course. They're just as I remember. Beautiful,  full of goodness and emotions. I could always tell what you were feeling."

Despite yourself, you feel heat rise to your cheeks, blushing over Sirius Black's words like you were still a schoolgirl. It's mortifying to adult you and you take a large sip of orange juice to avoid eye contact.

Sirius smirks slightly, but begins to eat. The array of food mimics a small buffet: chocolate chip muffins, pancakes, bacon, toast, oatmeal and scrambled eggs. A glass pitcher with orange juice sits beside jams and butter.

Sirius takes more than a bit of everything. A mostly comfortable silence falls over the table as two of you eat. Even when you have finished, you refuse to bombard Sirius with questions, allowing him to enjoy the meal.

Finally, getting his fill, he peers at you across the table. It's finally time for you to learn the truth.

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything," you reply without missing a beat. And so Sirius starts with Peter's betrayal ("literal filthy rat! How could he?" you cry) and ends with knocking at your door.

Your eyebrows furrow. Sirius told you his story and you're still left with questions.

"What's on your mind?" He asks knowingly.

"How did you know where I was? Remus stays here once in a while, did you know that? What's Harry like? Merlin, Peter escaped? He's out there free and you're...do you think he knows where You Know Who is?" You rapid fire questions without thought or pause, but Sirius chuckles.

"I can only answer one at a time, darling. Slow down. Breathe, maybe. I'll answer them all." He shifts in his chair, leaning back slightly. "Dumbledore came to that tower where I was held and told me, in his way, that I may have a friend here. That he would send an owl to that friend explaining my innocence. Remus and I had little chance to chat dealing with that treacherous rat, and Snape," he sneers "and the full moon, of course. But I am glad to know you and Remus maintained your friendship," he pauses as if wanting to say more, but thinks better of it. 

Both a sad and happy smile plays on his lips as he answers your next question. "Harry is a carbon copy of James, with the same knack for trouble, though he has Lily's eyes. I'm hoping he has her common sense, too. He's got a good head on his shoulders and the right sorts of friends surround him." Sirius's expression goes dark. "Peter will go wherever he thinks he'll be protected. Voldemort is out there, and I'm willing to bet Peter will do anything to get to him."

Another silence falls over the two of you and you shudder at the prospect of Voldemort returning.

"I'm sorry if I asked too many questions," you finally say after a long moment.

"You didn't."

"You're welcome to stay here. For as long as you need."

"I'd like to. I'm not sure how long, but a couple nights at least if it's no trouble."

"It's no trouble. Er, does your hippogriff need anything?"

"Buckbeak? Nah. There's plenty for him to hunt and he's free to roam a bit, right? I'll introduce you two later."

You laugh. "I'll show you to your room. You must be exhausted."

He catches your wrist before you walk away. His touch makes you feel as though you're on fire. You ignore the sensation and look Sirius in the eye as he speaks. "Thank you. Your kindness is truly unmatched, y/n. Always has been." You don't know how to respond. As if on cue, he yawns and then frowns. "I haven't asked anything about you."

"There will be time for that later. C'mon." You smile reassuringly but mentally you're thankful to prolong any more heavy conversations.

Sirius follows you up the stairs into the bedroom. Your eyes scan the room and you frown. The pale green wallpaper accented with tiny pink rosebuds and the bed donned with oversized blankets and half a dozen throw pillows is a stark contrast to Sirius. You mumble something about not being able to redecorate this room just yet. But Sirius just smiles. You draw the curtains shut in an attempt to block the midday sunlight.

"I think you should have everything you need? Of course help yourself to anything in the kitchen. I'll head to town to get some things."

His face is solemn. "Y/n, stay with me?" He clears his throat. "I mean...will you. Please?"

Wordlessly you nod. You let him climb into the queen sized bed first. Once he's settled, you get in, laying next to him. He moves you closer. Your head rests on his shoulder. He breathes in your scent as his arms wrap loosely around you. You drape an arm across his chest, assuring him his touch is welcomed. His grip tightens slightly as his breathing slows. You watch the rising and fall of his chest until your eyelids flutter shut.

Light tapping on your front door pulls you out of your dreams. Confusion hits first as you're heavy with the weight of a man's arms around you. Sirius. You smile as you become more awake, remembering the moments just hours ago. The knocking grows louder. Urgent, even. Panic sets in.

You shake Sirius awake. He bolts upright in bed, his breathing labored. You place a hand on his chest to calm him. For the moment at least. "Someone's at the door." You tell him in a harsh whisper . Sirius's eyes widen. "Transform," you urge. "And for Merlin's sake stay here." He wants to argue, but knows you're right. You wait until he becomes a large black furry mass of a dog. You close the bedroom door behind you, earning a low whine from Sirius in the process. You hurry down the stairs, clutching your wand in your dominant hand. Fear courses through your veins. You feel your heartbeat quicken with each step.

Drawing a deep breath, you swing the front door open.  The sight nearly stops your heart.

"Finally y/n. Is he here?"

Taglist: @oingo233

[lyallblacklupin]

Don’t miss the Yule Ball

Remus is worrying his next move after how Sirius has cried in his arms, and the ball is approaching. He doesn’t know what to do now. 

Tags: Post-Incident with Severus Snape, Angst with Happy Ending, Getting Back Together, Trust Issues.

Chapter 2

If there was anything to stop the girls from giving hopeful stares at Sirius, Remus would have done it. He was stuffing his porridge—not because he wanted to eat it for his breakfast—like he needed to, otherwise the world was going to be on fire. He scanned the girls around the Great Hall, murmuring ‘Sirius Black’, whipping their heads in all of the directions to find their target.

However, the target was sound asleep in his dorm because Remus came down quite earlier since he couldn’t sleep at night after witnessing Sirius’ awful sobbing. He had looked so vulnerable, and hopeless. Remus couldn’t stop himself from playing last night’s memory in his head, and how he had to keep a poker face while his insides were clenching. Sirius’ sobs had been hurting him like a physical pain since the night. He hadn’t known the best way to comfort him, so he had held him in his arms as tight as it was possible.

“Hey Remus!” He started a little to find Lily Evans smiling at him.

“Oh hi, Lils.” He smiled back, “What’s up?”

“Nothing, just thinking about tomorrow.” Her face was dissolving into something unreadable.

“The Yule Ball?” She nodded with a serious look, “You don’t have a date?” And she shook her head.

“Hey, Lils,” Remus squinted to look into her pained emerald eyes, “It’s okay. I also don’t have one. And I think it’s perfect! We can go together! It wouldn’t be weird at all.” He beamed up at her but soon his smile turned into frown because Lily was not at all thrilled with the idea.

“It’s not like I haven’t been asked, you know…” She began to play with her fruit salad.

“Who asked you?”

“James.” She smiled weakly. Remus thought for a second that his ears were deceiving him.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“Thatswhy…” She trailed off with a disappointed look, but he held her by her wrist.

“No, no, no. I just—you mean James? James Potter? My best friend James Potter?”

“No, my uncle James Potter.” She rolled her eyes, “Wait—I thought Sirius was James’ best friend?”

“Oh yeah, whatever. But you mean you want to go with him?”

“Is it really that weird, Remmy?” Remus melted on that look of hers. She so wanted to go with James, and at the same time James was going get lucky. He smiled genuinely at her.

“Lily, it is not at all weird. It’s like the opposite of weird.” Her smile stretched into a real one as she launched herself into his arms.

“God, Remus Lupin, your approval is all I needed. You’ll be the death of me.” They both laughed and held each other tighter.

And then, Remus’ eyes found Sirius walking stiffly to the table, alone. His eyes had bags under them, his hair were disheveled, as he slipped into the seat far away from Remus and Lily’s. Remus felt his stomach twist, and he untangled himself from Lily. She looked skeptically at him. By few eye contacts, he was able to communicate with her that he was worried about Sirius. She knew everything, including the fact he was a werewolf, the fact how he always had a crush on Sirius, and then fell in love with him, and the fact how Marauders fell apart because of the incident with Snape, and also the fact that even after forgiving Sirius, things were not going back to normal.

“Remus, it’s just that you guys stayed away from him for months, and things cannot just slip in the same old times in few days. It will take time.” She whispered to him.

“It’s not just that, Lily. He’s hurting. Like he is sick or something.”

“What do you mean?”

“He stopped in the middle of the crowd when we were heading back to the Tower after dinner. He was breathing hard. He was standing by the support of the railing of the staircase. And then I tried mending things with him, he cried—“ Remus felt like his heart was falling, “—like a lot, Lily.”

“Oh poor Sirius,” She said, eyeing Sirius sitting and staring at his breakfast, “Do you think he was having a panic attack or something?”

“Then why didn’t he tell me? Of all people, huh? He knows that I have a history with panic attacks. I know how to help!” Remus realized he was speaking louder.

“Honey, he already feel indebted after what he—I mean whatever happened between you two, maybe he didn’t want you to feel responsible for this…and you know he doesn’t take pity…”

“He is Sirius Black. He likes attention.” Remus instantly regretted his words.

“You and I, both know that’s only partly true.” Then they fell silent. Remus wanted to stand up and go straight to Sirius to hold him, kiss his head and tell him that everything was going to be okay. They were going to be okay. But then there was this fear, buried in the depth of his heart. He was scared, and the truth was that this fear was tearing them apart.

“Okay,” Lily sighed, looking very concerned, “What do you want?”

“Does that matter?”

“Of course, it matters! He loves you.”

“No, I don’t think so…”

“What!?” She gaped as if she had caught him saying a slur to her, “How can you say that? Sure, he did a mistake but that doesn’t justify the fact that he doesn’t love you anymore. Sirius is not like that!”

“I don’t know…I just I think he is better off without me, I guess? I just don’t want all of this for him. It’s too chaotic. He should move on, and just be my friend.”

“Remus,” She waited until our eyes were locked with each other, “I asked you what you want?”

Remus was out of words, suddenly.

Who said that he didn’t crave Sirius Black? Who said that he didn’t love him? Who said that he didn’t want him? He did. In fact, a lot. He wasn’t sure if he should be wanting him. Truth to be told, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to deal with their fierce relationship all over again.

Sirius was like fire, and Remus was less likely to be water all the time. He had tried shaping himself into one but sometimes it had been hard, because Sirius had been all over him. While they had been dating, Remus had lessened his reading in replacement to spend more time with him—not that he hadn’t enjoyed their time together but it had made him feel rusty. Sirius had always tried to sway him away from his studies. He had had the upper hand in their arguments because Remus had known that Sirius’ anger lasted hardly five minutes and then it dissipated into thin air, so he had always let him say mean things to him, not matter how bitter they had been to him. He’d gulp down everything, but the incident with Snape had not been worth swallowing down. Now that Remus was not with Sirius anymore, there were loads of time for him to study, read, be himself, and yet he was still feeling very useless.

No matter how many reasons Remus could list down to prove the disadvantages of being in relationship with Sirius, the opposite side of the list never failed to outweigh all of those drawbacks, and that was: He was unconditionally in love with him. And despite of everything, he was never going to stop loving him. And he knew that, but feelings also clouded decisions.

“We can only be friends,” He found Lily staring him with a resigned look, “I think I need to go.”

He stood up and walked out of the Great Hall because he felt suffocated. He loosened his tied to breathe properly, “How are you supposed to feel claustrophobic in the Great Hall?” He said under his breath because yes, that was a fun fact about Remus Lupin that he was a claustrophobic. It had taken him ages to get comfortable with physical interaction, and Sirius had been the one who had helped him.

Before he registered where he was walking to, he crashed into someone.

“Oh Merlin, I am sorry!” An unfamiliar female’s voice, “I am so, so sorry! Let me fix that for you.”

Remus didn’t even get the chance to know what needed fixing when his werewolf ears heard her whisper ‘Episkey’—

“OW!” Remus held his nose instinctively, and he found his fingers were soaking with blood.

“Scourgify.” She murmured that too, and his blood was gone. Remus finally focused his vision to find a brunette girl staring at him with big grey eyes—so like Sirius’, her yellow and black tie was there. Hufflepuff. He smiled at her. She had a beautiful smile, but not as dazzling as Sirius’.

“Hi, I’m Catherina Johnson, fifth year.” She held out her hand, and Remus took it.

“Nice to meet you, Catherina. I’m Remus Lupin, sixth year.”

“Oh, I know who you are,“ She smirked at him, “The smart one, and also the one every girl trying to steal for tomorrow.”

“Ha-ha,” Remus didn’t like taking compliments because he didn’t believe in them, “You must be mistaking me with Sirius Black.”

“Oh him, too! But hey Black is never a long-term material. We girls like guys like you, sweet and loyal…”

Remus felt so reminiscent. The girl was reminding him of Sirius. A lot. He huffed out a sarcastic guffaw.

“Looks like bumping into me was not a total coincident, was it?”

“Like I said, the smart one…” Catherina was an attractive girl, and cunning too, and Remus couldn’t say he didn’t her, “So, is that a yes then?” She was smiling, and Remus thought it was for the best.

“Yes, indeed.” He replied back.

Chapter 1

Chapter 3 is coming soon!

[kinsey3furry300]

5 ships I hate, why I hate them, how to (kinda) fix them, the better ships you should be doing in that universe, and why you should ignore me and keep writing them if it makes you happy.

Note: this is done for amusement, please don’t be offended; I’m not attacking your ship, I’m just listing some ships I do not always care for, and how I think they could be improved, and maybe made brilliant, by clever writing.

In no particular order, and focusing on ships that often annoy me, with no attempt by me to say anything meaningful or popular about the current state of any particular fandom. I’m also a firm believer in the idea that there’s no such thing as a bad ship, only a badly executed ship, so my objections to these is less a dislike of shipping, or the paring, and more that they raise writing issues that I think are difficult to fix in a satisfying way. That’s why in a lot of the examples below I prefer AU ships to ones that try to messily work it into the cannon. Anyway, enjoy... I guess?

 Marco x / anyone (Animorphs)

Why I hate it: Animrophs is an intensely character-driven story, where the tension of each book comes from the conflicts, external and internal, that the five Animrophs (and Ax) face during a long, hard, traumatic war.  And while several of the character are paired off romantically, it’s always to emphasise character conflict over their different points of view. Jake and Cassie are a pair because Jake’s struggle with having to make hard, grey, morally ambiguous choices as leader is highlighted by Cassie’s burning need to make the right choice, the lesser evil, the choice that leaves some small shred of humanity and dignity and kindness left in this bleak world. Tobias and Rachel are a pair as their arcs deal with literal and figurative loss of humanity, as the slow accumulation of trauma over time turns these happy(ish), normal kids into psychologically ruined husks of their former selves and destroys them slowly, one fight at a time.

Marco’s arc, isn’t about either of these things: Marco’s arc, is about the bright, clear line between A and B, between problem and solution. Marco is a utilitarian, a pragmatist: his concern isn’t the burden of leadership, or the cost of the decision, but about how to put that all aside and make hard decisions that actually work regardless of cost. It’s not about what to do, the path is obvious: the bright, clear line of ruthless logic, but how to do it. His match, his counterpoint, the other character who’s all about the logic of taking awful decision in a way that actually works for the team, and his foil, his female counterpart in this, is not a romantic partner, but his mother: Visser one, making the exact same hard, difficulty ruthless decisions using logic and maths, but for the other side of this war. A romantic paring gets in the way of this arc because a partner doesn’t help him with that bright, clear line, and worse, any attempt to pair him of with either Rachel or Cassie breaks up not only a cannon paring, but their respective character arc.

How to (kinda) fix this: Marco’s arc is, at the end of the day, a trolly problem. So make sure whoever you ship him with is one of the people tied to the tracks. Introduce a character he crushes on, and then in the second act reveal that they are either a Controller, or in the family of a Controller or the proximity of the target of their next mission in a way that will make them collateral damage ,and let Marco struggle with what happens when that bright, clear logical line from A to B cuts through someone he actually loves; you know, like it did with his mother. See, even trying to fix this ship is weirdly Freudian.

The far better ship you should be doing: Ax x / EVERYONE. Ax in human form is described as a worryingly pretty, worryingly androgynous male of indeterminate race. He is a literally Bishonen alien hedonist with no familiarity with human senses, poor impulse control in human form, and no knowledge or understanding of human courtship rituals, and he can shape-shift, including into other members of the core team if needed to compel a mission, he calls Jake his prince,  and he is incredibly close to Tobias, the lonely outcast woobie that the LGBT fans adopted as their poster boy. Come on, the potential for shipping, both with wacky hijinks and sad, tragic star-crossed lovers’ trope is endless. Every line dedicated to Marco shipping is a line of text that could be dedicated to Ax trying to eat a Cinnabon erotically on his first date as a human and hulking out mid way because he forgot just how good they are. What could be better than him leaning into to erotically kiss a team-mate, and then fucking up due to his failure to understand human mouths, making weird mouth sounds, and then licking crumbs of the table in the middle of the mall, in front of the entire school, while his crush awkwardly tried to pretend this is normal? What’s wrong with you Marco-shipper people, do you hate fun?

 Riz/Tem (beastars) Why I hate this ship: Okay, just to quickly ask a question, to people who un-ironically like this as a serious ship and not a dark joke, just one little question: What’s wrong with you? I mean,are you okay? Keep taking the meds: the show is VERY clear on that point.

It’s like those people who say Joker X Harley Quinn is their ideal dark, edgy relationship: no it’s not, it’s abusive! Morticia x Gomez is dark and cool but CONSENTUAL and HEALTHY. This… this is a deeply imbalanced person murdering someone and telling themselves after that fact it was special and rare and magical. ITS HOMICIDE! And even if you write that out (and you shouldn’t, because that changes the character arc of every other major character) it’s still got more red flags that a soviet military parade. This is the botulinum of a toxic, one-sided teenage infatuation. Riz’s entire arc is about how he projects his thoughts and feelings about himself onto this idealised, made-up version of his and Tem’s relationship which, from Tem’s point of view, never existed. Riz never loved Tem: he loved the idea of Tem, the idea that someone would see the real him, see his inner pain and accept him anyway, but he never once told Tem this. He didn’t warn him “Hey, because of you I don’t feel I need my meds any more, do you mind if I try not taking them and we can meet and talk about this in a safe, well-lit pace?” He’s not honest with Tem, and on top of that It doesn’t make sense from the point of view of either of the characters for them to be actually, romantically in love (although  they were clearly close friends), because it undermines and cheepens Riz desire to just be seen and accepted for his real self, and the cannon Tem X Els ship. It also doesn’t make sense from a story point of view: Riz is a shadow archetype for Legosi. He’s what Legosi would have become if someone hadn’t interrupted his attack on Haru. That’s why Legosi needs to beat Riz with his own hands: because then he’s beating the darker version of himself he’s been carrying with him, and he can finally move on with Haru guilt-free. Having Riz and Tem’s relationship actually be what Riz imagined it to be undoes that. It undoes Riz’s interesting, dark inner struggle between truth and fantasy, it turns Tem’s tragic, unsolved murder that sets the entire story in motion into a just sort of weird Romeo-and Juliet suicide. It’s ruins the character arc not only for Riz, but for Legosi, and also, by extension, Louis and Haru, because Legosi’s internal angst over whether or not herbivores and carnivores can have a relationship as true friends needs this example of a tragic, flawed, toxic, failed friendship to bounce off of.

How it could (sort of) work: an AU where Riz’s attack on Tem is interrupted and Tem lives with a slight arm injury, and doesn’t tell anyone out of his complex feelings for Riz. Meanwhile, that bunny girl from the gardening club had been brutally devoured and Rz and/or Tem are so horrified with how close this was to their own near-miss, they start to investigate the murder, and in doing so get caught up in Louis’ inner struggle. Because that’s how the story needs to work, it’s about duality and struggle: and if Riz takes Legosi’s role, and by dating a herbivore he de facto takes the role, so Legosi must take Riz’s. This could be a great AU!

The better ship you should be doing: Pina/Riz (with a dash of Pina x Els), no, seriously, I’m not shitposting. You want to give Riz a redemption arc with a cute woolly boy? How about a story where Pina, out of a need for closure about at happened to him, starts to visit Riz in jail and they talk, mockingly at first, confrontational at first, but later Pina slowly becoming more fascinated in Riz and Tem’s life and asking Riz for more and more detail until they both bond over their shared traumatic experiences and their sense of loss for Tem’s senseless death, Tem’s unfished life casting a shadow over both off them. Eventually, the two of them find, from Legosi who still has the diary, that Tem had planned out an elaborate and beautiful first date with Els that he never got to take her on, and Riz, guilt ridden and sad than Tem never got this beautiful moment, decides to ask Pina take her on that date for Tem, with Riz coaching him by phone cyano-de-Bergerac style, Riz finally getting some closure that he helped one of Tem’s wishes come true and finally acknowledging to himself that Tem had a life and loves outside of him that were cut of short by his actions, and just crying over his lost friend, as Pina and Els slow-dance in Tem memory. Or if you just want to see Tem awkwardly date a carnivore boy from school, why not something less creepy and more wholesome and ship him with Jack? That would be cute AF, and more importantly, not romanticize brutal murder. Or an AU where everything is happy and nice, I’d argue at that it’s no longer Beastars at that point, but if it makes you happy, go for it. Let’s not shame anyone here.

 Snape X Lilly (Harry Potter)

Why I hate this ship: honestly, it’s not for the reason you think; I just like Snape too much as a tragic character, and making him in any way happy destroys his arc in my opinion.  The objection’s others have raised: that Snape acts in a worryingly possessive stalker-ish way towards Lilly, and that if Voldemort had gone for Nevil rather than Harry as a child Snape would have remained a loyal death eater, are true and I acknowledge them as having some validity, but that’s not why I can’t stand this ship. Snape is supposed to be a morally and emotionally complex, tragic figure. That “After all this time?” line was the best line in the Deathly Hallows.  Snape is supposed to show the equality destructive and redemptive power of  love. It’s sort of trinity: Lilly shows the pure power of true, unconditional love in her sacrifice to save Harry, Voldy shows what self-destruction and cruelty a life without understanding love leads to, and Snape sits somewhere in the middle: his one-sided  un-requited love being both the cause of his darkest, and his greatest actions. His curse, and his redemption, fall and rise. Making him happy messes that up.

How to (kinda) fix this ship: make them miserable. Make them fall for each-other only to be pulled apart by circumstance (you know, like they were in the darn original source material). You’re serious about making this a tragic, dark romance? Don’t ship them when they’re at school: Ship them during Voldemort’s rise to power, in the 80’s, after Lilly is married. Have the original Order of the Phoenix send her to meet with Snape and use their previous relation to try to milk some information out of him. Have her feel conflicted about it, have James furious about it, but have her do it anyway for the greater good. Have her meet up secretly with Snape who is angry and distrustful, knowing his must be a trap, and talk. Have the relationship slowly build over time against the backdrop of a cold-war spy thriller, as Lilly slowly realizes that she has some lingering feelings for Snape, but can’t reconcile them her loyalty to the order and her family. Make this a love story of conflicted feelings, divided loyalties, and spy-work against the background of drawing war-clouds. Have Snape offer to leave Voldemort, if she’ll leave the Order, and run away with him, but by that point she knows she’s pregnant and chooses to stay, out of loyalty even though she’s crushing on Snape. Have him show up at the rendezvous expecting for her to be there only for James to lead an Order Ambush, and a fight to ensure, on top of Tower Bridge in the howling wind and rain, Snape surviving but having his spirit crushed and fleeing before Lilly can tell him her true feelings. Make it big, and melodramatic, but above all, make it tragic.  Because that’s the only way Snape works as a character. Always.

The better ship you should be doing: Ginny X Nevil or Luna x Nevil: You want tragic lovers, at school, with divided loyalties, who never get together in the main cannon because a Potter ruins it and gets the girl? Ginny X Nevil. Write what was happening that final year Harry wasn’t at school when they took Dumbledore’s Army and make it work in earnest. Heck, you could even have Snape, as headmaster, hated by them but secretly trying to protect them as a secondary character to their secret, forbidden love. You don’t want to break up Harry X Ginny? Luna X Nevil is sweet and wholesome, but also tragic as they never get a chance, having their school life taken over by the horror of that final year and the need to fight for their very souls in a school run by Death Eaters and the trauma of the Battle of Hogwarts meaning that in order to put away the past and move on, they need to leave each other behind. Hell, do an AU where they canonically end up together, why not? They deserve happiness.

 Dean / Sam AKA Wincest (Supernatural)

Why I hate this ship: They’re brothers. The show even makes a joke about how squick this is. Several times.

How you could (sort of) fix this ship: You can’t: They’re brothers. The show even makes a joke about how squick this is. I guess a body-swap arc could fix this, as it’s less squicky if its just their bodies with someone else’s minds,  but seriously, the reasons why this shouldn’t exist are extensively covered in the show, and it was hilarious.  To be honest, I don’t hate this ship done as a joke, but I have seen some dark spots on the internet, and I can say with all honesty it’s not always treated as a joke. Some folks are really invested in this, and all I can ask is, is your home life okay?

Now, done as a joke, I’m 110% behind this. This is exactly the sort of insane wacky bullshit that makes for a good crack-fic. For example imagine that the supernatural threat of the week was book that made anything written in it come true, and the brothers are trying to find and destroy it, but they keep getting distracted by their burgeoning romantic feelings for each-other, and suddenly realise that the owner of the book is a fan on the in-universe novels, and writing slash-fic in the book. They need to find the writer before they make them do something they’ll both regret, but it’s just so distracting when Sam’s beautiful eyes are right there and- dammit, Sam, it’s happening again! Make Sam less concerned and even a little amused, with it, but make Dean hate what’s going on. Especially when the writer’s description suddenly makes Sam noticeably better hung that him. Make the villain turn out to be Becky from “Sympathy for the devil” and end with them trying to take the book away as she writes frantically to force them to do her bidding, and you’ve got yourself a good fic.

The better ship you should be doing: Cas/Sam or Cas/Dean or Cas/Sam AND Dean fic. Duh. Once again the show-runners beat the fans to the mark and pointed out that this is the best ship, and then they took it away just to fuck with us.

 Any Katniss ship that ignores her obsession with Emotional Security Logic. (The Hunger Games)

Why I hate these ships: Katniss is, briefly put, a mess before the books ever start, her father’s death and harsh upbringing have arguably given her PTSD before she ever volunteers for the reaping, and it doesn’t get better from there.  In psychology, Emotional Security Theory (EST) is a hypothesis that the heightened emotions surrounding repeated violent exposures leaves children vulnerable to dysregulated distress responses and eventual psychopathology, aka, why Kat be so messed up.  Her internal monologue makes the books completely clear that her choice in partners is not motivated by normal affections, but by deep, deep fear. A fear of loss, abandonment and death that leads her to make every decision about what minimises her, and her sister’s, exposure to potential physical and emotional harm. It’s frantic, fraught, cold survivalist thinking. And the other characters in the book notice and acknowledge it! “Which of us will she pick?” “She’ll pick whoever she can’t survive without.” Kat doesn’t like herself for it, but she does eventually admit to herself that she makes her decisions like this.

How do we fix this ship: Ship Kat with whoever you like, but give her a good reason to pick them: and in Kat’s mind “A good reason” is based on Emotional Security Logic, she needs to have a pressing reason why this ship makes her and her sister safer. Do that, and you’ve got yourself a good Katniss story. Don’t do that, and while you may or may not have a good story, the person staring in it isn’t Katniss Everdeen anymore.

The better ship you should be writing: Finick X Annie. Or, Haymitch prequel ships

FinAnn. This, this ship has some real potential to it, and is criminally underutilized. Finick and Annie’s relationship is one of the most tragic and romantic in the story, and has so much to offer. Or, if you want to have a hard-bitten character from district 12 struggling with trying to find love in the hellish combat of the games, do a prequel in which Haymitch finds love in the capitol during training, but loses then in the area and turns to drink as a result. Heck, you could even have some fun with this and turn it into a dark comedy, or a great tragic love story, whatever you like. It’s got potential, and his backstory is vague enough you could do a lot with it.

So, tell me below why I’m wrong, and have fun with your writing: just because I hate that ship doesn’t mean you should. Enjoy yourselves.

I’m off to write awful Ax/Pina/Luna Polyjuice’d into Nevil/Cas/Finick fiction set at an anime high-school that fights a magical war against other fictional schools, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Oh great, McGonagall’s back to being a bitch again in this new TLSQ 🙄

Is anyone ready for another rant? Because I've got another rant.

My friend messaged me after this quest came out and simply said "Tell me this quest pissed you off too." I hadn't seen it yet, so I went to watch the footage. Having just finished...oh god.

Going into the quest, I wasn't angry. At first, I was mostly bewildered. Unlike the Torvus TLSQ, this one doesn't really beat you over the head with mean-spirited guilt-tripping. But it does follow the interpretation that MC is to blame for the chaos. And that idea is so ludicrous that I was genuinely laughing. To hear McGonagall say "Be that as it may, your actions have caused this." Was unintentionally hilarious. What actions? MC was a bystander. They were just hanging out with their friends. Badeea is the one who painted the Portrait, and it was painted for Jae. MC didn't do anything. But the rest of this quest will send them on a wild goose chase to appease everyone else.

Here's a question. Why does Badeea all but disappear from the plot when she arguably had the most agency in this problem? Why do Jae and MC get threatened with detention...and not Badeea? She literally painted the offending Portrait. That's not even getting into how silly it is to blame the students for this fiasco in the first place, but as long as you're going to...why hold Jae and MC accountable, but not Badeea? Why does MC have to paint the portrait that will be used to distract Sir Cadogan? Badeea says that it's because her paintings are what started this mess, and she's afraid of causing more trouble. Fair enough, but that doesn't really change the fact that she is the only character who knows how to paint enchanted portraits. She is the only one with any skill in this. That said, I wouldn't change this for the world because the fanged puffskein is adorable. Let me hug him. Let me hug him! He reminds me of my kitty.

The Portraits are to blame for this mess. That much is as clear as day. And yet no one is willing to hold them accountable. No one voices the idea that maybe this is their fault, and that maybe we shouldn't be prioritizing their wishes. This is the Peeves Arc of Year 5 all over again, and people didn't just hate that arc for being filler. Why is the Fat Lady not chastised for leaving her post? Why must we cater to her demands? Why must we go on a scavenger hunt that takes all day, why do we have to play by their rules? Pick up the damn portrait and shake it until the Fat Lady and the others take the hint. Hold the damn thing over a fire if you want to really scare them. (Ruthless? Perhaps, but Gail would do that. She wouldn't actually burn the Portrait but the Fat Lady doesn't know that.) Better yet, McGonagall could solve this pretty easily by invoking teacher authority. Even if that failed, at least she couldn't very well expect two students to solve the problem that she couldn't solve...which uh, why were MC and Jae expected to solve this again?

There are countless Portraits in t his castle. Why did the Fat Lady and others decide out of the blue to leave their posts for Badeea's latest painting? This is far from the first time she's made one. This can't be the first time a painting of the Three Broomsticks has crossed Hogwarts' halls. The Three Broomsticks also isn't that exciting considering that you can paint just about anything. Why is Gryffindor Tower sealed like a Cursed Vault without the Fat Lady? Can't Dumbledore open it with magic? Can't they get another Portrait to stand in? Y'know, like they did in POA when the Fat Lady left her post? There are obvious solutions here, and unlike POA, the Fat Lady isn't exactly fearing for her safety. She's just throwing a tantrum. Couldn't McGonagall dismiss her, or at least threaten to, over something like this? The question that burns in my throat again and again is "Why is this our problem?" The quest tries to create a justification, but mostly it doesn't really care to. The reason we have to help isn't because it's our fault, it's because McGonagall will punish us if we don't.

The Portraits are whiny and entitled in this quest, but that's not even the worst part. Holy uncanny valley, Batman, what in god's name was up with that art style? Violet and the Fat Lady look genuinely disturbing, like they came out of a horror game. And you have to spend extended periods of time talking to them. I won't lie, I got uncomfortable. At least it was a distraction from the madness that was this plot. Once it got to the part where MC had to recite a poem to "Percival the Prat" I just kind of put my tea down and had a moment of reflection on how far this quest had taken us, and all of the stupid nonsense that MC was doing to appease these portraits. And all because they were threatened with detention if they didn't sort all this out, even though it wasn't their problem...deep sigh. There's a theme in this quest about listening to your friends and respecting their wishes...but this is not realized well at all. MC tried to do a nice thing for Jae and had no way of knowing it would all collapse. This situation did not arise because they failed to specifically ask Jae if he wanted their help. (He kind of hinted that he did, in the first place.)

Jae. Oh Jae. You were pretty whiny in this quest, yourself. Moping about at the start and then blaming everything on the person who checked in on you. Look, on one hand, I felt genuinely bad for him. McGonagall threatening him with detention on his damn birthday when he's always in detention and specifically opened up about how this was the one day of the year that he didn't want to be stuck there...and what he do, exactly? Not what did he do that was wrong, what did he do, at all? He was given a present. He didn't ask for it. He was simply given a present, that happened to go extremely wrong. McGonagall, what on earth are you playing at? Jae literally did not do anything, and he's a Gryffindor, so he's just as screwed by the Fat Lady's desertion as the others. I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but wouldn't it have made far more sense for the teacher in this quest to be Snape? Might have taken a bit of tweaking, but it would have been worth it. Speaking of, they had the nerve to reference not only the Dragon Club quest, but the Torvus quest. Trying my patience, game...

But even though I felt bad for Jae at first, my sympathy evaporated when he was passive aggressive, and later directly aggressive toward MC. As if any of this was their fault. Okay, so they had the idea to try and help Jae on his birthday. So? What does that have to do with the Fat Lady abandoning her post, or the other Portraits refusing to play ball? What does that have to do with the obscenely unreasonable terms that McGonagall issued? She didn't just stick this task on Jae's shoulders, MC was roped in as well. They're in this boat together and Jae blaming MC, even in the low-energy way he goes about it...just rubbed me the wrong way. I know this day was important to him...and maybe my personal opinions are shining through, but...it's only a birthday. You can celebrate your traditions tomorrow, or the next day, just as easily.

Wasn't a fan of the ending either. I couldn't believe my eyes when McGonagall asked MC to describe "what they had learned" and that she would listen, and then "decide their fate." I beg your pardon but what?! That was not the deal we made. At all. By this point MC has been running about the castle, working their ass off, just to fix this problem that has nothing to do with them. They did everything McGonagall demanded of them. They actually succeeded at this fool's task. After all of that, McGonagall is still considering detention? I could ramble about how unreasonable that is, but I think that's pretty obvious. So instead I'll just ask...aren't Gryffindors supposed to be honorable? Isn't McGonagall the Head of Gryffindor? She's still claiming the moral high-ground as she breaks her word?

Beyond that, I hate this. I hate being told to kneel and kiss the ring. Might be taking this a bit too seriously, but it's the same nonsense as the Torvus TLSQ. The same final insult, where MC is forced to write up an essay about what they learned, about why they were in the wrong, and the asshole who started all this was in the right. Not only did MC have to put up with this endless nonsense, they have to show that they "learned their lesson" and agree that what they went through was right. Or it's off to detention with them. This is why I couldn't enjoy the final party. I wasn't invested in Jae's happiness, or in saving his birthday traditions. I didn't care. I don't even imagine Luca going, I think they'd just wish Jae happy birthday and head back to their dormitory.

Y'know, I'm not sure what they're trying to do with McGonagall. I've always said that Luca's character involves them eventually growing to distrust and dislike the Hogwarts staff, minus Flitwick. And I've always struggled to justify including McGonagall in that group. Because if you've the read the books, you know she's fucking awesome. But as of recent quests...I don't think it's going to be hard for me to justify it anymore. HPHM has given me plenty of ammo, plenty of reason for Luca to dislike her. After this, and the Dragon Club quest...The Teacher Appreciation TLSQ feels pretty sour.

[snapefiction]

#9. Fever - Snapemas Challenge

A/N: Day 9 of Snapemas! Ihm sorry for the short break but Uni and work kept me busy. Enjoy the new Chapters! :)

Idea from @deepperplexity ´s Writing Challenge ! Check her Writings and the other Snapemas posts out! :)

❤️ Please remember that English isn’t my native language and that my Writings will include Mistakes and maybe weird formed sentences. ❤️ 

Pairing: Severus Snape x Assistant!Reader

Word count: 3022

Y/N - Your Name, Y/L/N - Your last name

#9. Fever

Being an assistant was stressful. But being the Potions Assistant who's constantly trying not to completely disappoint the Professor was nerve wrecking. Every day you tried your best to get on 110% of Concentration. It started with getting up early to get ready, reading a few pages of a new book you got yourself as a early Christmas present, eating breakfast, heading to class and assist at Professor Snape´s Class only to stay in the Dungeons until late in the evening to grade tests or just correct Homework's. Sometimes you even forgot Lunch or Dinner but you really didn't mind. You always sneaked some Christmas cookies or bakery goods in your pocket so you would always have some food in your robe. Professor Snape didn't mind as long as you did your chores and wouldn't annoy him. Sometimes usually on Mondays or Thursdays when Professor Snape was especially busy you made sure to leave some cookies on his desk as well. Knowing he would huff at you for this niceties but would also be thankful for it.

Today was another Thursday , Thursday the 17th to be exact and in one week would be Christmas. Professor Snape told you that he wants to return the recents test back to the students on Monday. Which meant for you to put on a few nightshifts if you would want to stay up to his plan. You didn't mind taking this extra work, actually you enjoyed it. Being an Professor has always been your dream job and also you enjoyed learning from such an smart man as Professor Snape.

Besides, he may be a few years older than you are but he still was a pretty handsome man. You had a thing for him. For the way he speaks, his way to teach, the way he entered a room and took all the attention on him, how he used to dress and also for the way he never even cared a little bit about what people thought about him. On the one side you wanted to be like him and on the other you just wanted to be by his side. That's why you didn't mind stressing yourself out. It's like you almost didn't notice how time passed whenever he was around. The both of you didn't talk much but it was enough to feel like there was good company. Back to the fact that it was 9pm already and you were still correcting homework. A small shiver went down your spine only to set in goosebumps on your arms and legs. It was always cold in the Dungeons but as the night crept around it almost got unbearable for a Frostbite like you were.

As you got up to grab your robes from one of the chairs across of your table you noticed how  a sharp pain grew in your head. Bad timing for a headache you thought. Not thinking about it you just filled your cup with another tea.

,,Professor, do you want another Tea as well?" You asked slightly nervously. His head slowly looked up to you. ,,No thank you, Miss YLN." As he didn't look away from you for another few seconds you sat down and dared to ask. ,,Is there anything else I can do for you?" He laid down his quill and shook his head. ,,Miss YLN, are you okay ? You're really pale." Taking a small sip from your cup you thought about your words for a few seconds before answering him. ,,I- um - I'm okay. I'm just having a little Headache. I probably didn't drink enough today." Snape's look of concern didn't fade right away but your words calmed him so much that he continued to write something down. He wasn't as scary as everyone thought he was. Actually he was always making sure that you felt comfortable as his Assistant and that you could always learn the most out of every class. Maybe he just isn't good with forming his emotions and stuff like this into words, you thought before taking the quill back into your hand and began to write down some feedback for the student.

Waking up as the sunlight hit your face you noticed how late it must've been by now. As you jumped on your feet you felt like you just wanted to lay back down again. The headache didn't fade but grew a bit and your throat was sore by now as well. What a pretty way to start your day. Putting on your fresh clothes you ran down to Professor Snapes class. As you walked through the wooden door after knocking it twice you noticed how the class hasn't started yet.

,,Miss YLN, you're pretty late today." Professor Snape stated as he was brewing something on his desk not really paying you much attention at first but then turned to you. Gladly you knew he would never be as mad with you as with the students.

,,I'm sorry, I usually never oversleep. Can I help you?" Scanning your face he wore it again. This small concerned look.

,,Maybe it's for the best of you will take yourself back for today and go back to your chambers before midnight." He advertises and continued brewing something. Feeling like you disappointed him somehow you let yourself fall down on your seat only to take out the Homework you corrected the night before and waited for the students while making some tea.

The whole day long you could follow the concerned Glance from your favourite Professor and colleague. He didn't say anything but the way you felt your energy fade from hour to hour and later minute to minute you knew his Glances weren't just expressing his concern but also an warning to take care of yourself. Sitting on your chair at 11pm you heard how he slid back his chair only to slowly walk over to you like a hunter for it's prey.

,,You know that not taking care of your health needs is not only reckless but also childish. You're obviously not alright and how are you trying to learn something if you won't remember anything anyways." Shaking his head you felt ashamed by getting lectured of him like that.

,,I'm sorry, Professor. Tomorrow I will be better, I promise." You knew that you weren't going to be better by tomorrow but you just didn't want to give in, let him do all the work by himself right before Christmas and miss his classes which really interested you. It was a tie. As a sign that you'd take his words at heart you closed your notebook and sent him a weak smile. ,,Goodnight, Professor Snape." By now he almost sat down again but followed your actions with his eyes. ,,Goodnight, Miss YLN. Get well soon." Closing the door behind you noticed how warm your cheeks have gotten. They always got red whenever he spoke to you but now they felt especially warm. Not thinking anything about it you got back to your Chambers only to continue grading five more tests until you fell asleep on your desk and headed to bed a few minutes later.

The Morning again was awful. You didn't overslept today but didn't sleep at all besides the few minutes you passed out at your desk. You were so tired but still couldn't fall asleep. Your Pain in your Head and throat didn't fade again and by now it was clear to you that there was something big awaiting you. Nevertheless you still decided to grab some of the tests. Gladly you remembered that the weekend had just begun and you haven't have to help the students all day long. You had still so much to do. You wanted to wrap a few presents, grade the last few tests, finish your book, correct homework and help Professor Snape brew a new Potion. As you looked into the Mirror you could see how the lack of sleep has drawn your face darker around the eyes and paler than usual around the cheeks wich still blushed. All together you looked like a mess. Even though whatever was coming to you hasn't fully developed inside of you yet it was clearly to see from the outside. Splashing some water on your face in hope it could fix your visual appearance just a bit and brushing your teeth you got more And more tired. After pulling your pullover over your head and taking your robe with you, you walked down to the Potions Classroom.

The Professor wouldn't approve that you were there today, you simply knew it. But your assistant contract was almost over and you tried to take everything with you. So it had gotten even more important for you to fully concentrate until the classes were over on Tuesday. Also Professor Snape started to trust you by everything you did, it was a great opportunity to test your limits and gain knowledge. So why would your health get things mixed up right before Christmas? Remembering your Professors Words you set yourself a Limit. Until Tuesday I will continue to work. Afterwards, over Christmas I will try to slow down. Nodding to approve your own thoughts you knocked on the door.

,,Come in." The Deep Voice instructed and by his tone you noticed that he was stressed out as well. Doing as you were told you entered the Classroom only to earn an disapproving Glance from your supervisor. ,,You look like a walking dead. You really should try to rest. Why won't you listen to me?" If you wouldn't be so concentrated on hiding your blush you probably would've heard his concern and despair dripping out of his words.

,,I just wanted to grab some papers and help you brew the potions. Afterwards I will head back to my chambers instantly." He eyed you up and down.

,,Well, I'm sorry to inform you that I for must away. The Ministry asked for my help so brewing the potions has to wait. I will be back tomorrow evening and until then I instruct you to rest. Merlin knows you need it." Walking over to your desk to grab everything you needed you saw a small tissue laying there spread open with a few cookies laying on top of it. It was laid down the way used to do it for your Professor. Smiling widely you turned around. ,,Thank you." Without a further Words you surprised him with a hug. He was so stiff but after a few seconds passed by he eventually rubbed your back slightly. ,,Thank you, Professor. It means a lot to me." Slightly letting him go you receive a smile of his in return. ,,You may call me Severus by now. This year we have spent so much time together you don't need to call me by this title unless Students are around." There it was again. The way your cheeks blushed, your stomach tingled and you became lightheaded. ,,Okay. So please call me Y/N then as well." You both looked at each other and sealed your deal with a small nod from each side.

,,Now get back to your chambers. I won't repeat myself again. You need rest, Y/N." Sighing you followed his instructions after gathering all your papers, materials and the cookies.

Seeing his Assistant like that didn't just only concern him but also made him feel sorry. Knowing it was wrong, against multiple Rules, against his own principes he still couldn't help it but slowly start to care about her. Care in form of worrying, thinking about her and after she would leave his classroom wishing she would come back again. That kind of care. Seeing how overworked, stressed out and tired she looked like would almost give him a physical stitch. Was he expecting too much of her ? Well, he had high Standards. He wasn't denying it but if the students were already stressed out and panicked because of his classes how must she feel? Promising to guarantee her a break to cure whatever had overtook her health lately. After not seeing her at Breakfast again he'd even sneak some cookies in a small tissue before sliding it into his robe like she'd always use to do. Even if she wouldn't attend at breakfast she'd always come to class. Her curiosity wouldn't allow her to miss anything. He loved that trait about her. It reflected perfectly how truly interested she was and how pure her instinct of wanting to gain knowledge motivated her from day to day even though she wasn't feeling her best. One time when the both of them talked late at night hovering over some test she admitted how much she loved Christmas. He felt his breath fade away and he was enchanted by her completely. The way she talked about fairy lights, Christmas traditions, the whole feast in general made him weak for her. Y/N's Excitement was so contagious that even an old kid like he was felt the Christmas spirit again. That’s why he felt like he wanted to do something for her so she could feel better even if she would have to stay at Hogwarts over her favourite Holidays.

Leaving the classroom you felt more tired than before. You were happy that you saw Severus, but sad that he had to leave. But actually your Body was grateful for this forced break. You quickly graded the last four test and corrected the last homework before grabbing your book and finally laying down again. Your eyes couldn´t even read the first words before you felt asleep again.  From time to time- it must’ve been hours - you woke up again. Not being able to move or think you just faded back to a dreamless sleep.

The next time you woke up it was completely dark outside. You woke up because you were freezing so much you feared you could freeze any minute if you wouldn’t put on an extra sweater. Pushing yourself back on your feet you could feel every inch of your body hurt. But the worst was this constant noise in your ear. There it was. It finally hit you and probably would knock you off your feet this time. After you reached your sweater, pulled it over your head you directly laid back down again only to sleep until the next afternoon. At least that’s the last time you remembered to wake up. For a short moment you could remember that you probably drink something or even eat, you still had those Cookies Severus gave you, but were so tired. Your eyes couldn’t open up completely from how tired and completely exhausted you were.

Returning earlier from the Ministry than anticipated Severus made his way to his Chambers. Before he went to the Ministry he had stopped at Diagon Alley to get something that had been on his mind lately. Of course he would notice how often you had to deal with shivers and goosebumps because of the freezing air in the dungeons. And when he had seen this one new Robe he couldn’t stop imagine how it would fit on you. So when he came back he instantly bought it and even wrapped it in a Christmas themed wrapping paper. His excitement was rising from every hour to hour. How would you react? Was it too personal? Pushing his Doubts aside he waited until Monday morning.

When Monday morning arrived he couldn’t wait any longer to see you walking through his door. Time passed, the students arrived but you didn’t. Worrying if you overslept again he couldn’t fully concentrate on his Classes. Before Lunch it was enough for him. He had to find you.

Still laying in bed you couldn’t understand what’s real anymore and what’s not. The fever overtook you and you weren’t able to function anymore.

Knocking on your Door Severus stood there impatiently. ,,Miss YLN?“  After a few seconds he tried it again. ,,Miss- Y/N, is everything okay?“ Dropping the formalities his worries grew. ,,I’m starting to worry about you.“  After time passed he couldn’t hesitate but open the door with an spell.

The first time you woke up again you noticed how your head wasn’t hurting as bad as recently anymore. Also you weren’t in your bed. This one was more uncomfortable and the light from above way brighter than in your room. Looking to the side you saw Severus sitting there, holding a book trying not to fall asleep.

,,Professor.“ Smiling wagely you tried to sit up a bit. Surprised he laid the Book aside and quickly helped you. ,,I told you, you can call me Severus.“ Letting out a small hoarse chuckle you nodded. ,,Okay, Severus. What day is-´´ ,,Christmas.“ He answered not waiting for your answer. ,,Oh, guess I’ve been sleeping for some time then.. I’m so sorry. Did you find my papers? I got everything ready so you could hand them out.“  Chuckling he slowly handed you a cup. ,,It’s Christmas and you just want to work. Not even I want to work.“ As you let the water hit your mouth you followed his Movements. He took a Package from the Ground and set it aside of you. ,,Maybe this can distract you.“  Taking himself a bit back so he wouldn’t appear as intrusive as he felt like he sat back against the chair. Watching your shaking fingers opening the Package and unwrapping the robe he couldn’t hide his smile. Proud of himself but still worried about you he was glad that you still was able to wake up again. He wouldn’t admit it but he checked every potion twice that Madame Pomfrey had given you. Even though he brewed the Potions himself he wanted to make sure it was the best he could brew. Blushing you thanked him multiple times before pulling him in a hug again. Thank you, Prof- Severus. Thank you for taking care.“ Your fever still wasn’t cured yet but you were in best company and knew the best Potions Master who could help you out anytime. ,,Merry Christmas to you too.“

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[startanewdream]

Hey can you write a Jily lives AU about the moment Hagrid comes carrying presumably dead Harry. Please include the views of James, Lily and Ginny. And maybe I am asking too much but also a Harry killing Voldemort.

Hi! Thanks for sending an idea! 

This was like the most angst thing ever to write because it’s a hopeless moment for all of them, but here it is Jily view of the Final Battle (no Ginny, sorry, but she does appear in this and Hinny gets a little of love).

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Summary:  When Harry opens the Snitch and finds the Resurrection Stone, James and Lily don’t show up.

Read on AO3 or below:

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One minute

The Cloak - his father’s gift for his eleventh birthday - allows Harry to walk by unnoticed, protecting him as always from prying eyes. He stops quietly at the Entrance Hall and glimpses inside the Great Hall.

It is full, but it’s easy to find his parents by his father’s messy hair and his mother’s auburn hair; they are talking quietly to each other.

They are grave, but when Harry looks at them, he sees beyond the dirty and the cuts on their faces and the marks of the battle; he even sees beyond the First War heroes that everyone else thinks of them. He sees his parents. 

Mum and Dad.

Somehow, at the end of his journey, it is easy to remember all the good moments. He thinks about his father’s warm grin when he was patiently teaching Harry how to fly, encouraging him to go higher, to never give up, to enjoy some risks now and then; about James’ hazel eyes looking proud and exasperated at him, whenever Harry had been involved in one of his adventures over the years; and about the way James Potter never let him down, always providing comfort and help whenever Harry asked for it.

Looking at a face that is so like his own, Harry just wants his father to mess his hair one more time (‘Dad, come on’, he would complain, even though he always enjoyed how that made his hair look like his father’s), to tell him everything will be okay if he just never gives up, to listen to one of his father’s Marauder tales, because now he thinks of it, he always took him for granted. Even with the death threats and the war, he always thought of his father as invincible, always thought he would have one more moment with him.

He wonders what his father is whispering to his mother right now and knowing he will never hear his father’s calm reasonable words again almost break him.

Even at distance, even amongst chaos and destruction, Harry thinks he can see the way his mother’s eyes seem to shine with a determination that Voldemort could never take away. It’s the eyes Harry inherited and the eyes that made Snape give his life for. He wonders why his mother never talked about being once friends with Snape and he realizes now how many things he never thought of asking her. More about her life at Hogwarts; more about her sister; more about her work, her dreams. There is a world of Lily Potter that he never got to know.

Like with his father, he took his mother for granted too, thinking there would be time later to do all these things he never rushed to. He wishes he had hugged her more, had really shown how much he loves her and how much he is grateful for having her supporting him in every moment of his life.

And he wishes he had one more minute with her, to hear her amused laughter at something his father said, to see that sparkle of mischief in her eyes, to feel her loving arms around him protecting him more effective than any charm could.

But Harry knows he is lying to himself because one minute would not be enough. He could stay there forever watching them and it still would be too short to see his parents together.

Even now, when they are looking tired and worn from the battle, for once looking like their real age, he thinks they still shine together, James and Lily Potter, whose love cast a blood protection and saved Harry so many times before.

But this time, it’s Harry’s love for them that shall save them.

It’s fitting, he thinks, and it’s fair; he already had seventeen wonderful years with them. The only thing that hurts is knowing how much they will suffer when he is gone, how much they won’t understand that Harry did it for them. He is facing Voldemort this one last time because his mother taught him to never stand for bigotry and because his father taught him to always do the right thing.

Harry hopes they will eventually be happy and at peace.

And he knows they will see each other again someday.

They are in each other’s arms, his dad kissing his mum tenderly on the forehead, and Harry records in his mind this last image of his parents, using it as much as a Patronus to walk him through the dementors, to give him the final courage to face Voldemort and to sacrifice himself.

When Harry opens the Snitch and finds the Resurrection Stone, James and Lily don’t show up.

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One minute.

Being at war the first time had taught James that sometimes, even in the middle of the chaos of the battle, you need one minute to stop and breath, one minute to let panic take over you until you are able to think straight again and focus on what needs to be done.

Lily is in his arms and he lets himself enjoy this one minute because when it’s over he knows there is work to be done. People need help - so many of them are hurt and there are so many corpses that need to be laid down. It's war and blood and his hearts burns with sorrow for all that has been lost and knowing there is still more loss to come. They haven't won yet.

But Lily is hugging him - he doesn’t know who is supporting who - and he lets her familiar scent fill him, calm him, take him to a place where he remembers why he is fighting for.

It’s for her - it’s always been for her - and it’s for Harry too. Their son.

He takes a deep breath and then his one minute is up. James places a soft kiss on her forehead, like he has done uncountable times before, and ignores his fear that this will be the last kiss he ever gives her.

Despair never helps. Hope is all he has and he will cling to it. Somehow, he knows, this will be over soon. One way or another.

But he concentrates only on one way now, believing that Harry has a plan. He hasn't seen his son since before Voldemort had called for that cease-fire, but he saw Ron and Hermione and if they are fine, Harry is fine too.

It's not easy to accept that so much lies on his seventeen-year-old son, but he trusts Harry. Whatever else James may have done in his life, his greatest achievement will always be how he and Lily raised their son - how he is a fine young man with his heart in the right place.

And when this is over, Harry will get to finally live at peace.

It's easier to think about the possibilities of the future than to think about how many young lives were lost that day, and how much destruction Voldemort has caused, but he vows they will rebuild everything. Their faith, Hogwarts, the belief in something good. They will make a better world.

James lays down a boy that looks young in death enough to be his son, and he tries not to think about how frail the boy seems and how easily it could be Harry.

No, no despair. Like he always tells Harry, good things can come if you just never give up. And while James is breathing, he will fight. He thinks of that Halloween night many years ago, when he thought he would die and was willing to just to give Harry and Lily more time - he would happily exchange his life for them if it meant they would be safe…

'Mr. Potter?', he hears a soft voice calling him, and when he turns, James sees the distressed face of Ginny Weasley. 'Professor McGonagall told me to call you, she needs assistance with reinforcing the barriers outside'.

James nods.

'I'll be right there. And it's James, Ginny'.

She looks at him, her brown eyes for once without any shadow of her usual joyfulness, and James thinks that, like Harry, she had to grow up too fast.

'I think I'll stick with Mr. Potter for a while longer', she says, and James suddenly understands. Ginny always called him formally, just to tease him. If she starts calling him James now, it would look too much like as if this is their last conversation.

They both need to believe there will be more time later.

'Fine, future Mrs. Potter', he says at least and that almost makes her smile.

When they leave the castle and are about to go separate ways in the grounds, she turns to him with a troubled face.

'Have you seen Harry?', Ginny asks, and he can hear a fear in her voice that makes him shiver.

'No, but he must be fine', he says, because he can't think of any other alternative.

'Hermione told me he had something to see', says Ginny, almost to herself. 'And that she thinks he went upstairs, but I could swear I felt…'

She stops herself, shaking her head, and looks in the direction of the forest.

'But?', James presses, even as his instincts tell him he doesn't want to know her feelings.

'Nothing', Ginny says, her tone making it clear that she also doesn't want to think of the worst. 'I am sure he is just planning the next move. Lily's son is actually very smart, you know?'

James accepts her teasing.

'I'll let you know half that smartness is mine'.

'I thought he took from you the part where he is always in trouble'.

'No, he took from me the part where he always gets out of trouble', James says and for a moment they exchange a soft smile.

Then Ginny blinks.

'Good luck with the charms', she says, and with a final nod, she leaves him.

James watches her go briefly and thinks that, when this is over, he and his son will need a serious conversation about ending very good relationships for stupid noble reasons.

For the next fifteen minutes, he works tirelessly, helping reinforce the castle magical barriers and rebuild the entrance door so they can better control the situation. Death Eaters have the numbers, he knows, but as Remus always says, numbers don't win battles. If they can focus the main battle in the Great Hall, then a limited number of Death Eaters will be able to enter and they will have a better chance against Voldemort himself if he fulfils his promise to come...

And then James can watch the last duel between his son and Voldemort, and the mere thought of it fills him with dread. He can't just watch. He has to be there for Harry, he has to be side by side with his son because he would never let Harry alone -

'Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone'.

He doesn't hear any more of what Voldemort is saying, because his mind is screaming in denial. No, no, no.

Voldemort is lying. Harry would never run away, would never die. Harry would never sacrifice himself so they could all get a chance -

Except his noble brave wonderful son would certainly do it.

One minute, he thinks madly. I will believe in it for one minute then I will see it's a lie.

When he sees Hagrid carrying him, that one minute never ends.

_______________________________

There are minutes that seem longer than others.

Sometimes this is good. Lily can remember a minute of pure laughter with Dorcas and Marlene in the girl's dormitory many years ago; the reason for the laughter is long forgotten, gone as her friends, but the memory of that happy silly moment stayed.

Or the first time she woke up next to James, with his arms still around her, his breath slow and soft, and she had seen his sleeping face and thought she really loved him - they had said that to each other the night before, but in that one minute of silence and peace (before James had woken and tickled her and made her giggle and kissed her), she had just basked in that feeling of loving.

Or that one minute she had stayed longer in the bathroom, looking at the pregnancy test that said that despite being unplanned, despite the horrible timing, she and James had created a life together - their love had made him, their son. She had looked at the test, her hand in her still flat belly, and for one minute it was her and her baby only before she left to share the news with James.

There are other bad minutes, but Lily tries not to think of them. She is optimistic, as much as she is realistic. Life is made of good and bad moments; she just chooses to focus more on the good ones than let herself despair with the bad ones.

So she focuses on her task ahead, handling potions as people ask for them, her mind always thinking what ingredients work better for the problems people are facing - cuts and burns and acromantula venom…

When there is a moment of tranquillity (that doesn't fool her - it's just the calm before the storm), Lily lets herself look around. James must be out in the grounds - he always felt better at open spaces -, but she still can't find Harry. He must be busy, her poor hard-working son. He will not rest until -

A shiver runs through her body, inexplicable and cold, and she thinks of that expression her mother used - like if someone walked in her grave.

It's silly, of course, it is probably only that fear and adrenaline before a battle, the one that James always tells her to use in her favour to sharpen her senses.

Except she is not fearing for herself. She thinks of Harry, her little happy baby whose eyes always seems to shine with pure amusement to the fact that he is alive. She thinks of seeing him growing up, coming of age as a beautiful brave man, and just like she used to do when he was a baby in his crib, she thinks she could watch him forever and it would not be enough.

He is her precious son. The one she would die for without hesitation because all she wants is for him to be safe. Harry must be fine.

And still that feeling lingers, threatening to crush her, as if a dementor - the thing she always feared the most - is right next to her, sucking all happiness and hope, and Lily thinks madly that she needs James right now, needs his arms evolving her to make her feel at home. His presence always has a soothing effect on her, with the way he kisses her forehead and he is so warm.

With James, she always feels everything will be ok. Not just for her, but for their family.

But she is alone now and she is cold and Lily swallows a cry that seems to come from her chest. There is no apparent reason for that unfathomable fear, there is nothing different. People are still waking around her, helping where they can or comforting the hurt ones or the people who lost someone or else just finding their loved ones -

Love.

And then, just as suddenly at it came, that feeling is gone as if taken by a light breeze. There is only a shadow of it on her heart, like a scar of a long-healed injury, but that uneasiness is gone, and Lily raises her eyes to the enchanted ceiling almost expecting the dawn to break.

It is still dark outside, but dawn cannot be too far. A new day brings new hope, her mother always said.

But then Lord Voldemort’s voice is ringing through the room and she hears his words, understands them, but she doesn’t believe him.

Harry can’t be dead. Voldemort didn’t kill him sixteen years ago, he won’t kill Harry now. Her love - her and James’ - protected him.

Except the protection ended when he came of age.

Lily walks outside feeling like she is gliding more like a ghost than walking like a human being, and there are people around her but she doesn’t notice them - maybe Molly is gripping her arms, maybe Neville (that amazing young man who would have made Frank and Alice so proud) is calling her name. She doesn’t know, she can’t do anything but oblige to that urge to go outside and see for herself that Voldemort is lying.

‘No!’, someone screams and she thinks it’s Professor McGonagall, who once wrote for her and James to tell them their son had been made the youngest seeker in the century, and they could read the pleasure and pride in her letter.

McGonagall had always favoured James and Lily, and Lily always thought that favouritism had also been extended to Harry, no matter how McGonagall would deny it.

That was a cry of despair. She never thought McGonagall could make such a sound, but Minerva must be mistaken, there is no other -

And then Ron and Hermione are crying too, and Lily thinks of how they are Harry’s family as much as she and James; she thinks how Harry always had loyal friends just as Sirius and Remus were always there for James. She trusts Ron and Hermione - trusts their love - to guide and protect Harry and to be by his side no matter what; Ron was always the heart and Hermione was always the mind and together she knows Harry had the best friends in the world that he could have.

No, not that he had. He has. Still has.

But Ginny is crying for Harry and he is not answering, and somehow that breaks into Lily, because Harry is so in love with that girl that of course he would answer her back. Lily thinks of how Harry’s eyes always shine when Ginny is around, how happy he seemed in those weeks they’ve been together, how worried he was for her while he was away (‘Promise me you will look after her, Mum’, Harry had asked the day before vanishing at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, ‘I can’t - if anything happens to her - please’).

And she knows her son and she knows that what Harry always saw with Ginny was the promise of a normal life - a life where he isn’t the Chosen One, but just a regular boy falling in love with a regular redhead, just as his father once did.

Except Hagrid is carrying him and Harry is limp and still and she thinks of holding that little baby in her arms for the first time, of how he was moving and crying but when he looked at her - with those bright green eyes that she had passed on to him - he seemed to calm.

He will awake, she thinks unreasonably, and she waits for him to jump and laugh, but Harry stays still in the one minute that takes for Voldemort to come closer, and that is the worst minute of her life.

___________________________

Spells and curses are flying around them, but James and Lily don’t take their eyes off Voldemort’s red ones.

It feels a lot like a deja vu, because they had already been there, facing him, standing up for him. Four times. They survived four times and in the fourth one, they managed to protect their son.

Maybe it’s too late for Harry now, but they both know Harry would never want them to give up. And if all they can do is get this final piece of justice, they will.

From the corner of his eyes, James sees Bellatrix Lestrange falling - and that gives him a sinister pleasure -, but then Voldemort is blasting he and Lily of the way, turning his attention to Molly Weasley instead.

‘Protego’, someone yells, casting a shielding charm between Molly and Voldemort, and Lily’s heart beats faster even before her mind registers to whom that voice belongs.

And then Harry is pulling off his Invisibility Cloak and James remembers Harry’s amazement when he gave him the cloak for his eleventh birthday, promising solemnly he would take care of the family’s inheritance. Harry’s eyes had sparkled with all the possibilities; as much responsible his son was, there was a Marauder inside Harry too.

They are circling each other, Voldemort and Harry, and though Lily wants to rush to her son’s side, somehow she knows this is not the moment. For the first time, she truly accepts this is Harry’s fate, this is Harry’s moment. She and James made everything they could - they raised Harry and they loved him and they taught all the things that really matter. Their son is a survivor.

Harry is talking about love (Snape, really?, James thinks) and wand lore and remorse and then Harry is casting the spell he likes most, the one that he defended when James told him he should be more aggressive (he just wants Harry to be safe, no matter what, but Harry refused to blast people out of the way). And then it’s over. Finally.

Dawn is breaking and somehow the first coherent thought in Lily’s mind is that her mother was right, a new day always brings new hope. Then she is screaming - or James is, she doesn’t know - and their arms are wrapping Harry, feeling his heart beating and he is alive. Their son is alive and all will be well. They stay in each other’s arms, the Potter family, for what seems forever - but it’s only a minute because Harry has other people to embrace and to celebrate and to love.

That minute begins a lifetime.

[burberryfaerie]

If Tonks had a younger sibling Pt 4 :

Pairings : Cedric diggory x gryffindor!reader

Warnings : Angst, fluff, character death, torture, crying, swearing, a war basically, possible spelling mistakes

A/N : In case if you're asking, yes i was crying during writing this.

Tags: @loveitsonlyforthebrave ❤️

Hermione apparates you to a place called Tottenham Court Road.

“The heck is a cappuccino? Is it better than butterbeer?”

Your ring suddenly rings violently and you can't understand why?

Dolohov and Rowle rudely interrupt your thoughts.

Going to Grimmauld place knowing damn well you're being followed.

Arthur Weasley's patronus reassuring that everyone is okay.

Remus's unlikely visit.

Muggle-borns are targeted by the ministry.

Your father and best friend are targeted.

Dora's pregnant.

You'll have your own niece / nephew.

But he wants to leave her.

“Me and my family went through shit Remus, and I won't let you break my sister's heart.”

Hating Remus with every inch of you.

Because how dare he breaks Dora's heart.

Kreacher's tale.

Regulus died as a good person who lived beneath the shadows of his prejudiced family.

The locket is with umbridge.

well, fuck

You know what's fucker?

Snape is headmaster

“WHAT ABOUT MINNIE?”

“who the heck are the carrows?”

Going to the ministry after drinking polyjuice potion and morphing in your case.

"Magic is might"

Seeing 'Umbitch'

Harry stupefying umbitch.

Escaping the ministry before Yaxley gets hold of you.

Apparating to a mysterious place.

A forest apparently.

Ron's splinched.

Hermione's protection spells.

“How do you have time to learn all this stuff? Last time I checked we go to the same school,”

“Last time I checked you don't study a word.”

Taking turns in wearing the locket since you can't destroy it.

Feeling so cruel once it rests around your neck.

It's a part of voldemort's soul afterall.

Ron leaving three months later.

Crying your eyes out every night because you miss your best friend so much it hurts.

Same thing with Hermione.

“Why haven't you told him Mione?”

“Tell him what?”

“That you love him”

You give her a knowing look, she returns it with the faintest of smiles.

Going to Godric's Hollow.

Looking at the statue of Lily, James amd baby Harry with sadness and awe.

They were too young to die.

Too innocent to die.

You visit their grave.

You smiled because you suddenly felt their presence, two warm souls watching over you.

Bathilda Bagshot.

Fuck that's a snake.

Voldy is here and he was about to murder the three of you right before you apparated.

Fast forward when Ron returns.

You're so. bloody mad at him but can't help it and pull him into a hug.

“You're such an idiot, Ronald Billius Weasley.”

Hermione's so mad too but you know damn well she still loves him.

Ron and Harry telling the events of last night, first horcrux is destroyed, wohoo.

Visiting Xenophilious Lovegood.

The deathly hallows and the tale of the three brothers.

Luna's painting of you, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and her.

“She's so precious.” you think.

Xenophilious's betrayal.

Hermione wiping the fuck outta his memories.

fast forward a couple of days later.

listening to potterwatch. the norm.

lee jordan's voice

“Let's take a moment to report those deaths that the Wizarding Wireless Network  and Daily Prophet don't think important enough to mention. It is with great regret that we inform our listeners of the murders of Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell.”

Feeling the worst heartache you've ever felt.

feeling as if every muscle, every cell in your body stopped functioning.

“No”

he can't die.

he was always okay. he can't just die.

he's expecting a grandchild. he can't just go.

The trio rushing to hug you.

Harry not able to meet your eyes.

“I'm so sorry” Hermione sobs into your neck.

You don't cry.

You can't cry.

You just sit there, feeling emptiness.

You suddenly get up, shoving everything in your way.

Ron holding you back.

"it's okay, I'm here” he reassures you.

You letting out a heart-wrenching scream that came out from god knows where.

Thank god Hermione has protection spells.

The trio tuck you into bed, making sure you were asleep.

You slept almost instantly, dreaming of your father who speaks to you.

“I'm always here, watching over you. Don't give up sweetheart, fight for your mom, dora, Remus and Cedric.”

“How'd you know about Cedric? ”

“I knew all along” he smiled

Waking up feeling slightly better the next day.

Fast forward when the snatches caught you.

Taken to Malfoy Manor

Bellatrix torturing you and craving "traitor" on your arm.

She also tries to slit your throat.

“You know? I want to murder you so badly, so you'd end up like your mudblood father, but I'll torture you, unril you beg for mercy.”

Literally screaming throughout the whole process.

“I know about Diggory, he's quite of a traitor, but his blood is pure, he won't want a filthy half-blood traitor like you with him.”

“SHUT UP, YOU DON'T KNOW HIM, SHUT U—”

being cut of with her dagger cutting your skin.

she moves on to Hermione next while you watch helplessly.

Dobby, Harry and Ron save you two.

Apparating to shell cottage.

You spot a small, weak figure in the distance.

You try reaching out for it, but you're too weak.

You loose consciousness in Ron's arms.

Next thing you knew you were in a room, Fleur watching over you.

Learning that Dobby's lost his life.

Feeling so weak.

Remus visits.

Little Teddy is born!!!

Can't help but feel so happy and hugging Remus, forgetting about all the drama.

Harry's Teddy's godfather.

yay

Gringotts

You hide under Harry's cloak.

You get caught.

Robbing Bellatrix's vault.

Getting the horcrux and giving griphook the sword.

Aaaaaand Griphook betrays you.

Escaping on a dragon.

Basically having to head to hogwarts.

To get the horcrux.

Hogsmeade at Abeforth Dumbledore.

Ariana Dumbledore's portrait.

NEVILLLEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Him looking terrible yet dashing at the same time.

From your conversation, you concluded that the carrows and Snape are absolute assholes.

Reuniting with all your friends!

Harry goes to Ravenclaw tower with Luna.

The order is here .

Cedric spots you.

He literally just picks you up and kisses you.

infront of everyone basically.

including the adults.

feeling sorta awkward but you don't care.

“YOU ESCAPED GRINGOTTS ON A DRAGON?!! DAMN IT LOVE HOW CRAZY CAN YOU GET?!!! ”

Harry interrupts your adorable moment.

Voldemort wants Harry.

“Potter's right here! someone grab him”

yeah of course, pugface parkinson.

literally everyone jumping in to defend Harry.

The battle has started.

You seeing Dora and running to hug her.

“MY BRAVE SISTER!” she shouts.

“Once we're outta here, we're spoiling Teddy with every inch of me.”

“I kinda approve though”

Duelling multiple death eaters.

Including Dolohov, Rookwood, Rabstan Lestrange.

Saving Malfoy's arse from the flames in the room of requirement.

Going to the shrieking shack to face Voldemort.

Snape's dead.

He's acting weird all of a sudden.

Voldemort wants Harry to meet him in the forbidden forest.

The chaos has calmed down.

You enter the great hall.

Your eyes roam around the room to find the redheads huddled together, the Diggorys, somewhat crying?

You take a closer look, seeing what they're all mourning.

You shake your head in disbelief.

Remus and Dora?

Your sister?

Your soulmate?

They just had a baby.

You felt Fred and George hug you, Hermione and Ginny hugging eachother.

You kneel down.

Your world is crushing.

They're dead but they look so peaceful.

You hugged Dora.

Ever so tightly.

The last time you'll ever hug her.

You wished you can turn the clock back, to listen to to weird sisters together, to giggle behind the Malfoys back together, to annoy your mother together.

Perhaps you could've been able to save her.

You rest your head on her chest.

Muffled voices of everyone else speaking were in the background.

But you didn't care.

You let out a cry, a small one.

You let out a slightly louder one.

You felt your chest tighten, your stomach churn, you felt your eyes twitch underneath your lids.

You heard Cedric's comforting voice.

“Shhhhhh.. I got you love”

But his words are not comforting you.

You just lay there on Dora's chest.

By that, you knew your hair will never turn pink again.

You don't know how many minutes or hours had passed by.

You heard the familiar snake-like vouce of Lord Voldemort.

“Harry Potter is dead He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone. The battle is won. You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman or child, will be slaughtered, as will every member of their family. Come out of the castle, now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live, and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together.”

You slightly lift your head.

The great hall was deadly silent.

You were sure he was lying.

You slowly walked up, holding hands with Ron and Hermione, exiting the great hall.

Voldemort and his army stood and your eyes spotted Hagrid.

He was carrying someone.

It was Harry.

Your body can't lift you anymore.

Mconagall let out a terrible scream followed by yours , Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Cedric's then everyone else.

Neville standing up to Voldemort.

He- he killed the snAKE??!!!

You just watchung Neville like a proud mom.

Cahos erupts once more.

Harry's gone?

No like seriously, he's just vanished.

poof

Spotting Cedric taking over three death eaters all at once.

Just being so proud of him.

You duelling Rodolphus Lestrange.

Took over him (as you should)

Moving to Bellatrix Lestrange.

Duelling her with Hermione, Luna and Ginny.

Bitch just aimed a killing curse at Ginny??!

About to make your move but-

“Not my daughter you bitch”

literally internally screaming because MOLLY WEASLEY DID NOT JUST CUSS???

Bellatrix's downfall.

Just felt a bit relaxed.

Voldemort is about to kill Molly but—

FUCK??

HARRY??

DID THIS MOTHERFUCKER TURN INTO A GHOST TO KILL VOLDEMORT?!!

Voldemort's downfall.

The man who everyone feared sayimg his name, just, fell down.

dead

Post-battle

You hug your mom so tight , she knew about everything.

You raising Teddy along with your mother and Harry.

You still have nightmares and trauma from the war.

But, Cedric was always there for you.

Not like he was any better, but you two comfort eachother.

Him placing soft, small kisses around your "traitor" scar after telling him about the Malfoy Manor events.

You, Harry, Ron amd Hermione gather at the burrow, just sitting there in comfortable silence, holding eachother.

Three years pass by and Cedric's on one knee, asking you to be his forever.

You frantically saying “Yes” before hugging him.

You were now an auror, just like Dora.

The wedding was so simple.

You had Hermione, Ginny and Luna as your bridesmaids.

Looking at the empty seats made especially for your father, Remus, Dora and Sirius.

Saying "I do" before leaning in and kissing him.

And for the first time in three years, your hair turned pink again.

[marvelettesassemble]

Bruises on our Skin (Sirius x Reader)

Summary: Soulmate AU -  Bruises and scars appear on your skin when your soulmate gets them. So why are you always covered in bruises in the summer holiday?

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: hints of abuse

You were glad that at least you didn’t share the pain of the bruises and scars that started to show on your collar bone. You didn’t know what problems your soulmate had but it seemed like it was a lot of them. When your soulmate gets a bruise or even a wound which will lead to a scar it will show on your skin also. Your Soulmate prevents yourself from showing a lot of skin, especially when it was too hot outside for the long sleeves you wore then.

In the first years it didn’t matter so much until everybody started pointing out the obvious and were asking you questions you didn’t have an answer for. Each summer the bruises became more and more. You weren’t sure if it worked this way but before you started your first year in Hogwarts you wrote on your forearm ‘are you okay?’, but you never got an answer. Maybe the ink had to be under your skin to show on your other half.

But when you were eleven you had other things to worry about: Finally starting your first year at Hogwarts! You couldn’t wait for all the cool things you could do with your wand and be able to spent so much time with other kids your age.  You didn’t mind being an only child but you imagine it would be great to share some things with other kids.

When you were asked which house you wanted to be put in, by your parents or other family members, you just shrugged and told them it wouldn’t matter. You were sure you’d have a blast. When you were about to enter the Hogwarts Express you noticed a girl standing by herself so you decided to start making friends right this moment and asked her if she wanted to share the train ride with you.

She was almost as excited as you and told you that she was the only one of her family who showed signs of magic. She told you that she was befriended with Severus Snape and it didn’t took long for him to join you in the compartment. He was sure he’s be placed in Slytherin while you and the girl in front of you, Lily, were unsure.

You were glad you were placed in the same house as Lily. Gryffindor would be your new home.

“Weren’t you supposed to be in Slytherin?” you heard someone asking another new boy at the table.

“Got a problem?” the young boy replied not showing any fear.

“No,” the other one said and put a roll on his plate, took another and placed it on the plate of the boy he asked the question. You’d learn later that the two of them would start to annoy you and your classmates. They’d befriend the other boys next to them and would never back down from a fight.

When all the excitement about entering Hogwarts had ended, you confined in Lily about the marks of your soulmate. She was astonished as it wasn’t always the case to see the soulmate marks so soon. She herself hadn’t seen anything on her body and was eager to see yours.

While her friendship with Severus fell more and more apart yours grew stronger. You invited her over in the summer holidays when her sister became meaner and ignored her. You were happy to share your room with her and have pyjama parties for two weeks. So of course she saw the bruises that started to show as every summer. But this time there appeared also scars – nasty scars.

You came up with many theories how your Soulmate had gotten them. You even started a game of who came up with the most ridiculous story. You even joked if he was a werewolf when the bruises started to show every new moon. When you didn’t want to go swimming because of the many colours your skin showed Lily pointed to your watercolours and told you to paint them over.  

“They are called watercolours for a reason. They would come up the second I’d enter the water,” you pointed out.

“So what? Are we witches or not? I think I have this powder with me. I use to throw it on my ink so it’ll stay on my paper when Potter decides to stroll into the room as if he owned it and didn’t notice that he throw that juice on my essay again.”

You giggled. “He does that sometimes,” you admitted. “But he and his friends aren’t so bad. Remus is pretty decent and he helps me studying sometimes. Maybe we should be nicer to them we could actually study together.” Lily just scoffed while you started to brush some yellow paint on your skin.

You were sitting by the black lake, your head in Lily’s lap while you were trying to study.  

“Oh can you just shut it?” you suddenly exploded and the boys who were discussing something vividly next to you stopped and stared at you.  

“What’s your problem?” Sirius asked and came nearer to sit down next to you while accidently kicking your leg. His friends followed him but didn’t sit down.

“Excuse me for being stressed because of the exams. I just want to study and you’re loud as hell. I can’t concentrate.”

“I think you need to lose up a bit,” Sirius said. “Even Remus is taking a break. How about we get together tonight and relax? We’ll get some stuff to eat and drink.” He offered.

You put your book away and rubbed your eyes. “Okay,” you said and surprised everyone including Lily. You were pretty stressed and you needed a night without studying.

“Okay, common room, 8 o’clock,” he said and jumped to his feet.  

You were in the common room before eight, playing a round of chess (the muggle version as neither Lily or you had the wizard edition). When it was almost time to meet the boys, Remus appeared by their side. “We decided to meet in our dorm if that’s okay for you. It’s a bit crowded and we didn’t really want to explain where we got the things,” he explained. You nodded and followed him. Sirius, Peter and James were sitting on the floor. Pillows were on the floor for makeshift seats and many sweets and drinks were also shattered on the floor. You even spotted half a bottle of fire whiskey.

“Oi, would you just shut it? Just wait for your soulmate,” Lily exclaimed after a rather nice evening. You really had fun – bot of you.

“So, what if I think you are my soulmate, Evans?” he said and while Lily didn’t pick up on it you noticed that he’d turned serious.

“Then I’d tell you, that you’re delusional. Here, I’ll proof you wrong and hopefully you’ll let me alone.” She got on her knees and bent forward, grabbed James arm and pinched him forcefully.  

“Are you mad, woman? Why didn’t you pinch yourself?” Potter exclaimed and rubbed the hurting spot.

“Why should I suffer, just because your wishful thinking?”

“Have you spotted marks yet?” Peter asked her curiously.

“No.” Lily admitted.  

“See, so it wouldn’t proof anything,” James exclaimed.

“What about you, have you seen some?” Remus asked you.

“Yeah, I see them since I’m ten. But I don’t want to talk about it,” you answered quietly.

Lily who’s just took a long sip of the whiskey laughed suddenly. “Oh, we’re joking that he’s a werewolf,” she laughed and both of you didn’t notice that the colour drained from the boys faces. “We’re coming up with the most ridiculous answers to explain the bruising covering her whole body.”

“Lily, stop,” you said and grabbed her arm. You didn’t really want to discuss anything of your soulmate in front of others. It wasn’t their problem and you bet he didn’t want everybody to know about it.

“You’re making fun of it?” James asked quietly, but serious. You felt like there was a spotlight shining on you.

“Well, excuse me for trying to make sense out of it or trying to make fun of it. I didn’t know that I was only supposed to think about what an awful life my soulmate seems to have and how I can’t do anything to help. Thanks for the night, it was nice so far.” You stood up, taking your best friend with you and left the dorm. You didn’t notice that nobody wished you a good night.

“I’m sorry,” Lily said, but you told her she had nothing to be sorry for.

When you woke up the next morning and greeted Lily she didn’t answer. She sat on her bed and didn’t move. You sat down next to her and before you could ask she pointed to a little bruise on her arm – the position where she had pinched James to proof that he isn’t her soulmate.

“It’s seems chilly outside, it won’t be weird for us to wear the sweaters,” you pointed out and for that day you didn’t talk about it until she climbed into the bed with you when you were supposed to sleep.

After the night in the boys dorm it became kind of awkward, especially with Remus. You didn’t study together anymore. You were surprised that Sirius were the only one still freely talking with you and so the two of you were walking on the grounds when you had a free period while your friends all had class.

“Hey, can we slow down?” you asked and put a hand on his arm.

“Of course, are you okay?” he asked.

“I don’t feel,” you stopped the sentence. And then you stopped everything because you fainted. It wasn’t long, because when you opened your eyes again you saw Sirius face in front of you.

“There you are. How are you feeling?”

“Not so good?”

“Can you walk to the infirmary?” You told him you would try and together you made you way inside the castle – your arms linked and just taking a break once.

Madam Pomfrey told you to sit on the bed. “Do you faint often?” she asked. You told her that this had been the first time, but you feel rather dizzy once a month. Just when you thought it couldn’t get more awkward, she asked if you’re sexually active. When you looked mortified at Sirius Madam Pomfrey paused.

“Mister Black, what are you still doing here?” she asked surprised. “Go outside, wait there if you must. But give the poor girl some privacy.”

He winked at you and walked outside. She examined you and gave you something to take when you were on your period so you wouldn’t feel dizzy anymore. She reminded you to drink more water in this time and you were excused. You were surprised to see Sirius still waiting in the hall, but he accompanied you to lunch without asking anything. But you noticed that there was a cup of water in front of you when you sat down.

Since you were thirteen you had a rather ugly scar just above your heart. It was a nasty scar and you didn’t want to think about how awful it had to be for your soulmate and why you both had that scar. Since the summer you often covered your skin in your paint. And today you had a feeling you needed to do this with this particular scar.  

You were alone in your room so you took place in front of your mirror and while you looked over to the colours you felt the need to use just ink. You were aiming for the head of a wolf (maybe because the werewolf theory was stuck in your head?) but the more you painted it seemed more like the head of a dog. Never the less you were pleased with the outcome. You smiled when you took a last glance in the mirror before you got dressed to start your day. Somehow you felt lighter than before.  

That day you didn’t see much of Sirus who was in the library searching for something. Remus joined him, but it was still strange. The tension had left your little group over the last month and you were sitting together for dinner. You noticed how Sirius always seemed to refill your cup with water until you told him to stop it. Lily seemed to warm up to James and he was almost walking on clouds because of it.  

The topic of soulmates wasn’t mentioned anymore by any of you.

“What are you doing tonight?” James asked.

“We’ll meet up with the Hufflepuff girls, what about you?” you answered as Lilys mouth was still full of carrots.

“I need to go to the library again,” Sirius said, but it didn’t matter to him that you all could see that he was munching potatoes.  

“What are you doing there? Planning a new prank? Should we be worried?” Lily asked when she had finally finished her vegetables.

“It’s personal,” he just answered, but that didn’t really ease your worry about getting pranked.

When you woke up the next day you didn’t feel any different other than feeling refreshed as it was Sunday and you could sleep in. You went to the bathroom and when you started to scrub the ink off your body, you haltered. Did you use Lilys powder? No, you were alone when you inked yourself. So why didn’t the paint fade away. Well the water turned black but the picture of the dog stayed on your skin. You scrubbed and scrubbed, but it still stayed there.  

You were confused but as you couldn’t do a thing you decided to end your shower. After getting dressed in a sweatshirt you made your way to the great hall where Lily was sitting with the boy gang and they were talking loudly.

“Oh come on and show it, if you’re so proud of yourself,” you heard Lilys voice.

“You know if you want to see a shirtless guy, you can always ask me. You know I won’t hesitate.” James eyebrows rose suggestively.

“What’s going on?” you asked when you sat down next to Peter and grabbed a piece of toast.

“Well Sirius here got a tattoo yesterday and although he tells us how awesome it is he won’t show it,” Lily explained.

“How did you get a tattoo?” you asked confused and looked over to see Sirius smirking. While he started to tell something about how he got it you spotted black ink under his white dress shirt. Black Ink right above his heart. Black Ink that looked familiar. You leant over the table and knocked something over. While you heard Peter complain about his pants which were soaked now, you started to undo Sirius button.

“You could at least ask,” he started but you didn’t react. You opened another button and lifted the white fabric. You were looking at a black dog.

“Neat,” you heard someone say.

“I know this painting style,” the voice of a girl was heard. Probably Lily, but it was as if you stood in a fog. You couldn’t hear or see anything other than that black dog in front of you.

“This isn’t.... This...” you started, but you didn’t know how you should finish that sentence.

You heard Sirius saying your name. His grin has left his face as he saw your shocked one. “It's just a tattoo,” his voice came through to the fog. You turned around, almost falling over the bench and walked away. You heard the voices of your friends behind you asking if you’re okay.

“Sirius, how did you choose this motive?” Lily asked while Peter was still busy to dry his pants.

“Well, you know...,” Sirius blushed a little. “It just appeared yesterday morning. And I liked it so much I searched for a way how it could stay there.”

“Did that happen often?” the red head asked further.

“One summer,” James started.

“you were covers in sunflowers?” finished Lily.

“How do you know that? Did you tell her?” Sirius was glowering at his best friend. James threw his hands up in defence.

“And was there a scar before that ink?” Lily questioned again.

“Yeah, how do you know all about this?” Sirius asked confused while Remus had put the puzzle pieces together.

“Because your soulmate has just left the room,” Lily concluded.

“What?” were heard from three different mouths.

Lily said they should all search for you, but Sirius said he had a feeling he’s know where you’d be and James gave him a blank piece of paper. Sirius took it and walked away.

“There you are,” you heard Sirius voice behind you. There weren’t many people outside as it was the end of autumn so you had decided to go for a walk.

You had almost reached the Whomping Willow when you decided it was far enough. As you hadn’t planned to walk outside you didn’t have a jacket with you and the wind was blowing. You shivered but you didn’t want to go back inside to talk about what you had just found out.

“I grabbed you a blanket,” you heard Sirius voice again.

“I’m actually quiet shocked that we’re soulmates. We all thought that Moony was yours.” The boy sat down next to you, facing the trees and the castle like you.

“Why Remus?” you asked and he just shrugged.

There wasn’t anything said for a few minutes. “I don’t know what to say. I never knew what I should say when I imagined meeting my soulmate. I can’t even imagine.. It must have been horrible... Merlin, what have you gone through,” you finally said and put your fingers above his hand.

“I don’t really want to talk about it, if that’s okay for you. At least for now,” he said.

“Of course. How about we start as friends and if you want to talk about it, I’m here?” He smiled at you and nodded.

“So, you like to paint?” he asked and so you started to learn more about each other with your fingers still touching his.  

Masterlist

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

Why do you think Tomarry would work? I see a lot of people hating on it and the only response I ever see is that they come from similar backgrounds or people just like enemies to lovers. Also which horcrux do you think Harry would go best with (including Voldemort)

So, this is probably a more complicated question than you intended, but that’s because I live in bizarre head canon lands that few ever dare venture towards.

With that, let’s get started.

But What Do You Really Ship, Muffin?

First, it probably bears saying that I’m not really a Tomarry shipper. I know, I’ve written more than one Tomarry story, so if that’s not Tomarry what is? Well, remember that those Tomarry pairing tags are a filthy lie. October I committed the grievous sin of breaking up the Tomarry and throwing Tom at Harry’s mother. Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus is barely a Harry Potter fic in any capacity, and while the ship is the driving force of the fic, it’s also this nebulous, distant, thing that really shows up only in strange side stories where I try to make people laugh. When Harry Met Tom is probably the closest that I take seriously, but I also intentionally subvert all your typical Tomarry tropes for my own enjoyment. 

The only Tomarry story I’d say I’ve ever actually written is “The Burning Taste of Fire Whisky”. It’s a very popular story, sadly perhaps my most popular on Ao3, but I actually loathe it entirely. 

A lot of the time I feel like I just happen to have a Tomarry shirt on and then I suddenly became a subject matter expert. If you want the Tomarry opinions from real Tomarry people, I’m probably not the best person to ask. In fact, if you want really any standard answer about Harry Potter anything, I’m not the best person to ask.

Now, I’m not just saying this to be a hipster but to sort of give some background for why I’m going to give the answer I’m going to give and why it’s going to be 100% different from everyone else’s and yes, sometimes, I do think I came from Mars.

Will the Real Tomarry Please Stand Up?

So with that, the bottom line is: taking canon as JKR intended, completely at face value, Tomarry doesn’t work at all. This is because JKR fully intends a very flat, one-dimensional, and frankly quite boring Tom Riddle. Tom Riddle’s evil, Tom Riddle was born evil, Tom Riddle was evil in the womb because of rape. He is completely and utterly irredeemable and understands nothing of love.

Well, that sort of sinks the ship right out of the harbor, doesn’t it? A Tom Riddle incapable of love is one incapable of growth, especially in a romantic focused story. If you try to write it you just get weird sociopathic whump porn where Tom probably whips Harry in a closet somewhere.

Added onto this we get that, despite what she put down on paper, Harry is supposed to be a straight man. That aside, he’s also a righteous man whose understanding of things like love and friendship mean he’d never sully himself with gross Tom Riddle. Ew, what are you people thinking?

Well, what if we take canon just mostly as JKR intended? What if we just look at the characters the way she actually wrote them versus what she was trying to do? Still no dice.

Tom might now be capable of love, be a far more engaging character who can go somewhere, and be pulled out of a pit of rage and despair by someone but that someone ain’t Harry.

First, while I firmly believe Harry is gay (gay, not bisexual, compare his descriptions of Cho/Ginny to Tom Riddle/Sirius Balck/Cedric Diggory/Charlie Weasley, that boy pants after Tom Riddle and Cho’s kiss is “wet”) he’s also a much worse person and much dumber character than JKR intended. It’s really the first that damns the pairing.

I have a whole giant post on how Harry’s a little yikes but the long and short of it is that while Harry thinks he understands friendship and love he’s also someone who will cut out his friends at a moment’s notice if he feels remotely slighted, uses and sacrifices them for his own ends, gleefully uses unforgiveable curses when given the opportunity, and is the kind of guy who would cut someone up in the bathroom, leave them to bleed to death, and only really feel bad about it when it seems he might get in trouble for it.

This Harry ending up even with a Tom who could potentially be redeemed would more likely lead to, well, weird psychopathic whump porn where Harry tortures Tom in his basement to make him pay for all the horrible things he’s done while Harry claims he’s the most moral person ever because his mother loved him.

So, yeah, no Tomarry for you.

But Wait, Didn’t You Say You Believed in Tomarry?

What I believe in are archetypes.

Remove what Harry’s supposed to be, remove what I think he actually is (one maladjusted, violent, dude with a whole lot of anger issues), let’s make Harry what perhaps JKR didn’t even know she wanted: one of those rare fundamentally good heroes who warps an entire story with the strength of their inner nobility.

Harry Potter is meant to be a story about love and friendship. Now, it’s not actually, and we sort of end with Harry being Jesus and none of us are sure why. Except that he apparently forgives Dumbledore and Snape for brainwashing him to be a kamikaze agent. They’re the bravest men he knows. But let’s pretend it actually is a story about love and friendship.

To me, the strongest story of love we could possibly have had in this world is the redemption of Tom Riddle. Here is a man who was supposed to have been irredeemable since birth, he has done many horrific and unforgiveable things, grew up in extreme hardship in a society that spits on everything he ever was, and is mired in bitterness, despair, and rage. Beneath all that, Tom Riddle has given up hope in the world and is now content to burn it down himself.

Harry, through the nobility of his spirit and integrity of his character, somehow managing to redeem Tom Riddle is not only a fascinating story but a very good one at its core. The fact that they are tied together by destiny as well as tragedy, that Harry houses a shard of Tom’s soul (and I do so love horcruxes), only makes it more so.

This is the kind of story that carries epics, and that is why I gravitate towards it.

Now, do I change Harry up to do so? Good god, yes. I wouldn’t say any Harry Potter I have written is anything close to the Harry we know from canon. Some are closer than others, but they always in some way deviate. That said, from what I’ve seen almost nobody writes the actual Harry we remember from canon, so this is a very standard practice I can get away with, without too many people calling foul.

Ultimately ending in tragedy or in the full redemption of Tom: either works with these base characterizations and the world is your oyster.

What About All Those Other Arguments?

I’m not going to get into this too much except that I wouldn’t argue Tomarry works for the reasons you list. At all.

On the similar backgrounds, the fact is Harry and Tom don’t have similar backgrounds, JKR just says they do because she likes that trope (and so do many of the readers).

Harry and Tom have dark hair, they both came from abusive homes, but that’s where the similarities start and end. Upon entering the wizarding world Harry is treated very very very differently from Tom Riddle.

Harry, grows up in this weird sort of pseudo poverty where he dresses in rags because the Dursley’s hate him but he never actually has to worry about money. When he gets to the wizarding world he can afford everything he wants. He can buy a new wand, he can buy new supplies, he can buy all the candy off the trolly cart. Money’s not an object to Harry, is barely even a concept.

Tom Riddle is presumably on scholarship and money is everything to him. He buys a new wand but likely all his clothes and books are second hand. He can’t buy whatever candy he wants, probably can’t afford gifts for his peers, Tom is very aware of the haves and have nots.

Harry similarly never has to worry about a career. He never gets that far, fearing for his life so much, but the fact is that Harry has enough money that he doesn’t actually need to work. More, who would turn down the great Harry Potter? He wants to be an auror, is afraid he might not qualify, but it’s not really desperate.

Tom Riddle is to the world an impoverished muggle born. He tries for the Defense position and is turned down mostly because Dumbledore threw shade. Dumbledore tries to make it seem like Tom desperately wanted to work in this weird shop in London’s magical back alley, but probably that was the only position Tom could get (everything Dumbledore ever says, especially in those pensieve lessons, must be taken with a large grain of salt). Everything else goes to friends, family, and purebloods.

Adding to this, Harry has this glowing reputation. Now, Harry might not like it, he might want to be just Harry but the fact is that everyone has heard of him and most people worship the ground he walks on. Doors are open to him everywhere. His first introduction to the wizarding world is from a man who loves him and gushes about Harry as a baby.

Tom Riddle is someone with a muggle last name, who comes from a muggle orphanage, in other words he is nobody from nowhere. (For reasons I won’t get into here I find it very doubtful Tom ever revealed he was the heir of Slytherin until he became Voldemort and let Tom Riddle fade into obscurity). His first introduction to the wizarding world is some asshole lighting all his stuff on fire because the matron talked shit about him.

Harry wants to stay at Hogwarts because the Dursleys are abusive. Yes, this is terrible, but Tom wants to stay because Nazis are bombing London and Dippet says, “So sorry, Tom, no exceptions. Enjoy those luffas!” Harry’s concerns are never treated with the same disdain.

To make a long story short, they do not have similar backgrounds, at all. To say they do is utterly laughable and not much better than saying “they both have dark hair, they have so much in common!”

They both came from abusive homes, yes, but even the nature of those homes were very different and when they went to Hogwarts they were worlds apart.

... So much for not getting into it, eh?

As for Enemies to Lovers, well, it’s a trope and people enjoy it but it’s not my jam. I could go into why, but I think I’ve said enough.

Which Horcrux Do You Think Harry Would Go Best With?

We see so little of the individual horcruxes I’m not sure I can really take a stab at this. I sort of just make up their personalities as it suits me every time I write them.

With that I suppose I’m partial to the one in Harry’s head? Given that he has a front row seat to Harry, has seen Voldemort’s tragic demise, I think he’s in the best position to end up with Harry in a meaningful manner.

Especially as, if you think about it, he could represent the very last of Tom Riddle’s humanity. The single shard of humanity that remained in him until the bitter end.

[galesh]

Wish fulfillment au of Severus who was born in Albus' Dumbledore's time. I just wanted to post it as a reply on a discord server but then it got out of hand. So

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- Two clever swots duking it out... in academics!

- Debating each other of old spells and whether or not they're dark and the librarian jinxing them out of the library with hexes for being too loud

- Albus and Sev rubbing their stung bums and arguing about the hexes the librarian used

- Albus and Sev both discovering they're poor halfbloods and railing against the arswholes in charge who think they can sting their bums and get away with it

- Them stinging each other's bums because it's a fascinating body part and maybe rubbing them with a different set of hands because maybe it'll help, and they're experimental

-Albus viewing the fascinating kid with so much dark potential with new eyes.

-Sev keeping an eye out for the twinkly eyed twit because it's unnerving, really, and because he always found the goodness in others fascinating. He doesn't believe he can emulate it, but maybe some would seep through him in osmosis. That's what that muggle book said anyway

- His ma always said he had a thing for redheads. He's starting to suspect her of practicing black magic

- Albus and Sev working on potions and transfig together because none of them can tell the other they're bloody brilliant and that they're fascinated, and could we just get to stinging bums and rubbing out the soreness please

- Sev visiting the Dumbledore's on summer break because his father is dead and his mother as good as, meeting the creepy girl creature because he's nosy and of course he'd look at the one room Kendra told him not to

- Abe running to Ariana's room because she screams bloody murder. It's only when he gets there that he realises that that bloody snake they let into their house is being accosted by a happily shrieking Arianna who wants to meet this strange new black haired scarecrow her brother likes

- The older one

- Sometimes, Arianna suspects

- Sev being horrified by Ariana's sad tale, and not wanting her to waste away, working with Albus to make sure she can get out

- Abe (begging to) help them because he really wants to, and because he doesn't trust the snake

- Sev learns Abe can't bloody spell after the third time.he has to squint if the bottle has fluxweed or filchweed (Dyslexia is not recognised yet, but it will be, in the muggle world) amd tries to help. It's more insulting than helpful, but he tries!

- Albus feverishly searching for a way to fix what those muggle boys and their mother's imprisonment and his neglect have wrought. Searching in the darkest grimoires, because really, what is honor and goodness if it can't even help his sister?

- Ariana getting her father's silver signet, carved with the runes of protection, family, forgiveness and renewal. They can't fix her magic, but the magic she once loved has caused her loved ones only harm, and really, it's time to stop listening to the voice inside her, who wants to rip her mother to shreds and burn the whole world down

- In the end it's abe, who comforted her when her mum looked at her with hate and Albus ashamed who puts her ring on as she says the words the runes describe. It's hard to forgive her mother and those muggle boys, but Arianna thinks they've suffered enough (it'll be years later that she realises that she left one person, but as she watches her daughter's delightful coo as she Dan's her nose with a glowing goden finger, she is only thankful that her lack of forgiveness didn't take all her magic away).

- She kisses her brother-in-law to be on the cheek, as is only proper for a member of family.

(Ariana has a very feeble grasp on social niceties. She tries, okay! You try learning everything from books while trapped in a cottage like a demented princess, with a brother who even she knows has an unhealthy fascination with goats who'd talk to her normally)

(Arianna's husband and her daughter, who she names Severus --because every universe must have a second child with a severusly controversial name -- would really come to fear her social skills, or lack thereof. Severus blames her godfather and her uncle with a the raging hate of a 10 year old who's been denied Uncle Sev's sweets)

- Sev and Albus competing for the top spot in the classes with professors and the bottom in the classes without

- Albus meeting Gellert in the evening he's supposed to leave for France and noticing the same dark charm. Severus noticing, but wanting to taint it than emulate it

- A black owl pooping on Gellert's golden hair because he Does Not Share!

- Albus sharing his plans to Change The World which would kill a girl with beautiful, uncontrolled magic and put a vengeful father in a prison of his own despair

- Sev agreeing to them and adding some rather inventive and cruel revenges he'd have on the Wankers who disowned his mother for following her heart

- Albus crossing out those points with eyes that twinkle in gentle admonishment, because really Severus, where would you even get a fully grown basilisk, and ignoring the calculating glitter he gets in return

- Abe following the idiots because Ari orders him to help the idiots and he can deny her nothing

- Gellert becoming a Light wizard after being at the wand end of a particularly dark spell (they teach *that* at Hogwarts, the light school!?!?!?!?) By a vengeful gargoyle after he drunkenly kisses*Bruder* Dumbledore

(years later, Headmaster Dippet can't figure out why his newest Dada teacher is so militant about students knowing everything about Dark magic and why some magics should never be studied, or why flinches everytime he sees a mistletoe. He has enough experience at 300 Not To Ask)

- Albus learning the most beautiful healing spell at the hands of a scowling-dark-phoenix with moist, angry black eyes after the 12th use of a dragon's claw soon after he discovered the 12th use of their blood

(Fawkes could never forgive Severus Snape for stealing it's thunder. Also he smells owl. They're the worst!)

-Severus stealing the Flamels' thunder by creating a philosophers stone after being at their home for a month.

(Perenelle suspects it's because Nicholas, who can be really old fashioned about these things, forbade their apprentice and that brilliant boy with no thoughts from rooming together)

- Severus lacing Albus' lemon drops with the elixir of life because clearly, that imbecilic martyr thinks dragon claw wounds are amusing

- Albus lacing Severus' tea with it because it would be such a horrible thing to live alone

(or without the one person who matters, no offence to his family. Oh, alright Abe, you're definitely not it!)

(the elixir of life prepared yearly mysteriously dissappears into tea and lemon drops. Albus stops worrying over Severus getting killed by vampires while he gets their teeth in exchange of galleons like a demented tooth fairy, and Severus stops worrying about Albus getting nicked by antsy Dragons or Phoenixes or Nifflers, or whoever Albus scraps with in his spare time)

- Albus putting his demented convoluted plans in motion by destroying wizarding currency through inflation. It somehow leads to a goblin revolution, equal rights for magical creatures, and the adoption of muggle currency. Don't ask

(Rumour has it that Gellert, Wizarding Britain's champion one look at the the scowling face of a Severus Snape and proposes negotiations.

Muggle currency was great, really. Made mathematical sense, easier to handle, and twinkly eyed not quite evil overlords can't dependably reproduce all the identifiers. They hope

Quite coincidentally, as Severus will assure you, all the pureblood families --including the Princes, coincidentally-- lose all their accumulated money in the resulting changeover.)

- Albus rules everything from behind the iron curtain with gentle fists and an open smile. Everyone learns to agree with him because behind him stands the spectre of DEATHOMgWatdidyoudo that you want to always keep happy)

- An excited Tom Riddle learns about magic from a charming Professor who's really interested in how he speaks, and who agrees that muggles are awful but keep it down will you?

- Tom Riddle learns to confide in and trust the person who introduced him to the magical world; and tells him when he accidentally discovers the chamber of secrets while hissing open at one of the taps in the girls loo that just wouldn't dispense water (he was under a lot of pressure okay! No, he's not a creep!)

- Tom Riddle grows up to be a politician with a particularly hard view on those muggles. Being backed by the Headmaster of Hogwarts helps. The society has made great strides in the concept of equality and democracy however, and most creatures really don't like him for some insane reason. Albus Dumbledore wins the elections by a landslide again. Tom is tenacious, and plots for when he'd get the position after the old man dies

(On his deathbed, Professor Emeritus of Hogwarts, Professor Tom, curses todgy old men with unnaturally long lifespans)

-Harry Potter, who grew up loved and a headmaster who didn't want to train him in any way, shape, or form (Harry was glad. Headmaster Grindenwald was nice and all, but he really didn't want to know all about the Dark arts and why not to use them kplzthnx). He went on to work at the ministry because his mother instilled in him values of fairness, kindness, and Get Out The House And Go To Work You Bum!

(He named

- Ariana's first kid is named after Abe. Her second is called Severus. Severus being a girl, never forgives her, and years later, when her son is born, names him Ariana with a vindictive gleam in her eyes.

(Ariana never really learned a the social niceties. They're horribly ineffective, and Abe tells her she's always charming in any case)

(Severus Smith is comforted by the fact that her godfather is a immortal wizard who gives her the best sweets)

- Severus and Albus never really fall out of love, even though they fall out of bed many times. They are a different breed of men, really. Eternal devotion means eternal devotion, as they find out. The Flamels' are happy they finally get to go on what the muggles call double dates.

- They also never stop stinging each other on the bum, but that is a rather more mature tale.