#i love writing about the marauders and co. as stupid teenagers

[elysianymph]

to make up for the angst i tormented you all with the other day: regulus having a crisis ft. barty having the time of his life

“She asked me if I wanted to go to the beach with them and I replied ‘I love swimming’,” Regulus says in a quiet, horrified tone. He grabs his pillow and tries to smother himself with it, all while screaming: “Who says that!?”

Regulus doesn't even need to look up to see the smirk Barty is wearing on his face. “Hey, look at the bright side,” Barty begins and Regulus already knows he will make the situation worse with whatever he’ll say next. “At least you didn't grab your crush by the arm while you were drunk and, when you felt how strong his arm was, ask him ‘are you flexing or are you just hard?’”

Regulus lets out another scream of anger, agony, rage, disbelief, betrayal. He can't believe he is still friends with this traitor.

Reluctantly, Regulus raises his head away from the pillow just enough to see the smirk growing on Barty’s face. He pays no attention to the darkening of Regulus’ glare. And then, barely containing his laughter, Barty says: “Oh wait, that was you too.”

“Shut up, Bartemius!” Regulus yells out, throwing his pillow at Barty. He tries and fails to catch the pillow and is hit in the face, the force of the impact sending him toppling onto the floor. None of that stops his cackling laughter as Regulus sulks in his own embarrassment, face probably as red as the Gryffindor uniform.

[seriouslysam8]

Thoughts on Gary Oldman as Sirius?

Look, Gary Oldman is a great actor… but he’s not Sirius material. He was too old (though there wasn’t much they could do since they cast Alan Rickman as Snape who was too damn old and unpopular opinion but I don’t think he should have been cast as Snape for age alone), he didn’t look like Sirius in my mind, and he didn’t play Sirius the way I imagine him in my head. The only thing I liked about Gary Oldman’s Sirius was how soft he was with Harry. It’s a softness that I wanted to see more of in the books and appreciated we got to see those two damaged boys hug in the movies. Although, the movies cheapened their relationship dramatically when Sirius called Harry his father’s name.

But, I mean, we didn’t get any depth from Gary Oldman. I’m not blaming him entirely. The writers are a big part of it too. Sirius’ character was watered down dramatically in the movies. I mean, we got him raising a glass and chuckling during Christmas dinner. Where the fuck was drunk Sirius singing at the top of his lungs?? Where was a socially intelligent Sirius in GOF explaining dynamics in the first war to Harry and practically working out the entire plot with info from some teenagers and scraps of newspapers? Where was the Sirius who wrote Harry every day leading up the final task? The Sirius who was bitter at Grimmauld Place? The Sirius who loved Harry more than anything??

One of the most tragic things in the entire series was how the Marauders era was robbed of their adulthood. They were young, arrogant kids who thought they knew everything but really knew nothing at all. They fought thinking they were more clever and could actually win. They were just kids. I mean, their brains weren’t even fully developed yet. I make a huge effort to point this out in Brumous. Sirius knew they were dumb kids back then. They made a lot of stupid mistakes. They thought they were smarter than they were. That part of the generation who survived was just bitter and cynical when Voldemort came back. Meanwhile, Harry and co are the dumb kids now. They’re diving in head first thinking they know better when they don’t. I think a lot of this nuance was missing from the movies.

You guys now I love to make parallels between characters and situations in my writing. This was done so subtly in the books as well. The parallels between Sirius and Harry, James and Ron, Draco and Regulus, Lily and Narcissa, Harry and Voldemort. It all revolves around the choices these characters made when they’re only kids. Who was raised in a moral environment, who wasn’t able to escape the indoctrination, who escaped the indoctrination. It’s fascinating to read who realized their mistakes in time and who didn’t. I seriously think having the Marauders characters aged up so dramatically (and let’s face it, the actors looked older than their age as well) cheapened these parallels. Because your mind sees how old these characters are and don’t appreciate just how young they truly were. It takes away a lot of the devastation because they were just kids who didn’t know what they were doing or getting into. Instead, you view them as adults who made the right choice and adults who should have known better.

I have never once pictured Gary Oldman when I write Sirius. Never. I’ve never pulled up pictures or videos of him when I write to base looks, facial expressions, or mannerisms off of.

Thank you for attending my Ted talk. 🤣🤣🤣

[moonyinchaos]

no problem and i would really love to see what you wrote about snape so if its not a problem share

Alright, I’ll put the Keep reading thingy, because I think this will be a long one. If you’re not interested in my opinion on Snape, please, keep scrolling. We can have a constructive argument about Snape as a character, but I won’t ever tolerate character bashing (with the exception of Dolores Umbridge, Peter Pettigrew and Fenrir Greyback). If anyone disagrees with me, I respect that, and I would really like to know why :) 

It’s so funny to write my opinion when someone actually asks for it! So here it is my opinion on Severus Snape... 

I think that Severus Snape is one of the strongest characters; both mentally and magically. Possibly even the strongest one right next to Harry. He is really determined, devoted, self-controlled, but most importantly he is emotional. Of course, he doesn’t show it, but he is really driven by his emotions. The main thing which made him change was his love for Lily. Love is the purest emotion, and I don’t think it was an obsession. His patronus was the same as her, she was something what made him happy, something that protected him. It was just unrequited love, and that happens in real life. But you can’t just push an off button, and stop feeling something for someone. We can see him showing exactly how he feels in some occasions. For instance, when he was mad that Sirius got away at the end of the PoA. Or when he refused to teach Harry occlumency after Harry saw his worst memory. But let’s go back in time for a bit... 

Judging someone according to something they did while they were teenagers, or really young adults is not really fair. But let’s start from his hostility towards the Marauders. It’s completely understandable since they were mocking him all the time, and without any real, valid reason. Even if they did have a reason, bullying is never justified. What James did to Snape in his worst memory is something that can make a serious trauma on a person. He, again, acted on emotions. He was humiliated, frustrated, angry, and he let it out by calling Lily a Mudblood. Was that right? Of course not. Did he regret? I think he did, until the day he died. But, teenagers say a lot of dumb stuff, and should never be judged by that. I would most gladly slap 16 years old self because of some things I said when angry and emotional. And with what he said, he lost the most important person he had in his life. I think that was the worst punishment ever for saying one dumb word. People often mention his invention of Sectumsempra. He invented the powerful spell to keep himself safe. Is it brutal? Yes. Could he kill someone with it? Yes. Did he ever? No by what we find out from the canon. Sirius, who is one of the most loved characters, endangered Snape’ life because of his teenage rashness, and lack of sense for consequences. The fact he literally sent Snape to transformed Remus was more dangerous than any spell Severus invented. Why? Because transformed Remus can’t be controlled, and what he can do cannot be undone. As we saw clearly, Sectumsempra has a counter curse, since Malfoy survived Harry’s experiment. If you’re judging Snape for inventing Sectumsempra, and using it against the Death Eaters to save Remus and George, then Harry is way worse than Snape because Harry used the spell purposely to hurt Malfoy. He could easily kill Malfoy, and then what? All the characters in the whole HP universe did at least one stupid thing, and we can’t judge them just because of that. Because if we do, write out Remus, Sirius, James, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and many, many others as good characters :)

As we all know, Snape joined the Death Eaters. Kind of expected because, let’s be serious, most of the then Slytherin house did. Peer pressure is a nasty thing + Snape wanted control/power. He was naive to think he’ll get it from Voldemort, but look at all the people that followed Voldemort. Snape was among the smartest there, if not even the smartest one. Was that a mistake? Yes. And again, he did it when he was what 18? As I said before, people do stupid shit when young, and that’s a fact. Alright, he did really, really stupid shit, but it was a moment of naivety. If someone is judging him plainly on that, remember what Sirius said about the world, people and the Death Eaters :) From the moment he realised what he did when he told Voldemort about the prophecy, Snape did everything in his power to make up for that. He risked his life in various occasions, he lied to one of the most powerful wizards ever, who can read minds, torture, and kill people just for fun. But he did that for years. Snape always did exactly what Dumbledore told him to do, and even killed him, knowing that the deed will make him an enemy number one in the eyes of the Order. But he did that with a higher purpose, and on Dumbledore’s order. If Order wasn’t so judgy towards Snape, maybe they would know about this plan, and they would handle it better. Snape was a Death Eater for what, a couple of years, but he spent seventeen years trying to redeem himself for what he’s done. You can at least respect that. As my best Skyrim friend Paarthurnax wisely said “What is better? To be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?” :)

The only thing I can’t justify is his teaching methods towards a particular group of students. We never see Snape teaching a bunch of Hufflepuffs or Ravenclaws, so we don’t really know what was he like in those classes. He is a mastermind with potions, and has a potential to be a great teacher. I don’t justify his behaviour towards Harry & co., and never will. His teaching methods were questionable at best, but lets take a look on who he “bullied” as a teacher. 

Harry - son of a man who bullied him, and a woman he loved. The Chosen One. The Boy Who Lived. It occurred to me that maybe Snape didn’t want Harry to forget what was important in life, and since Snape grew stronger from being treated poorly, maybe he wanted to do the same effect with Harry. I think he didn’t like Harry in particular, but I don’t see him as having bad intentions in long term. Nothing comes served in life, and I guess that was Snape’s point. Teen James was pretty spoiled, and vain, so maybe Snape didn’t want Harry to turn into teen James. 

Ron - Ron was to Harry what Sirius was to James. In Snape’s eyes, the same thing, and he deserves to be treated the same. Still, can’t be justified. 

Hermione - I guess she really did remind him of Lily. The fact that Snape didn’t want to hear anyone call Hermione a Mudblood tells us all. Emotions got the best out of Snape in this one, since he obviously couldn’t really control them. 

Neville - a soft kid who needed some strengthening for real. Well, not really in that way. Snape’s treatment was just too much. Was the fact that Neville was terrified of him good? No. But Neville got stronger, and learned to stand up for himself. And don’t forget, the prophecy could easily be about Neville, and if it was, then Lily wouldn’t be dead. 

As I said before, I don’t support his teaching methods, and can’t justify them because it was his choice to act like that, when he could easily be someone better than that. And that is the only thing I don’t understand about him. Maybe Dumbledore told him to be nasty :’D And of course he was biased to Slytherin. I think that doesn’t need any arguments. I would love to see what Snape was like when teaching young Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs because I’m sure he wasn’t that bad. Strict? Sure. Snarky? Always. But I highly doubt he treated Cedric, or Padma Patil, like he treated the students I mentioned. 

To conclude this, I think the anti-Snape fandom need to at least respect what he did because the man did some great things, and he was one of the main links in a chain that led to Voldemort’s downfall. Voldemort who was deceived by Snape. And as far as we know, Severus Snape is the only person in this world who did that long term (kudos to Narcissa Malfoy for lying to Voldemort’s face)! You don’t have to love, or like him, but he doesn’t deserve the bashing he gets. He deserves respect. I made him close to Gwen, my OC, to show the softer side of Snape. The emotions he hides, and how he is surely capable of them. I made him mentoring Gwen to show how he has a potential to be a great teacher. And I have a great plans for Snape in my fic because he, as a character, really gives an opportunity to make an interesting story :) 

[musicblogwales]

Track By Track: Quiet Marauder - ‘Tiny Men Parts’ EP

Today Quiet Marauder release their brand new ‘Tiny Men Parts’ EP via Bubblewrap Collective. We caught up with Simon Read from the band to give us a track by track insight into the wild and wacky world of the mighty QM.  THE BUSINESS DEAL: When we first started Quiet Marauder as an active live band, there were three of us involved and this was one of our first co-writing efforts. The song channels the darkness of characters in American Psycho and Wall Street, how their overconfident facades could easily slip into derangement. A lot of the tracks on our debut MEN were focused on these types of characters: menacing, brooding and celebrating their own outrageous behaviour with cocktails of drugs.

I WANT A MOUSTACHE, DAMMIT: I met a chap called Solomon in a bar in Cardiff who told me about his plans to write a musical about Gummo - a really strange cult film starring Chloe Sevigny. There’s a scene in it where a kid keeps saying that they ‘want a moustache, dammit, like Burt Reynolds’ so this became the central core of the song we ultimately came up with. Playing it live, we often give audience members their own Burt Reynolds face masks, ask them to chew through his eyes, and then put their tongues through the holes that are left. It still amazes me that we have such a high conversion rate of people doing this, but there is no better sight in the world than a room full of Burts all with tongues for eyes.

RODA & THE BUNKER: This was part of a collaboration with a young adult fiction writer called Lucy Christopher. She asked me to write some songs to accompany a book she had written called The Killing Woods about teenagers playing dangerous, dark games in a forest. I guess this track is about how those hormones can overspill into damaging, frightening and intimidating behaviours.

IT WASN’T ME, IT WAS THE MOON: For me, this track epitomises some of the core issues of our MEN album and subsequently Tiny Men Parts. This was intended as a critique of the duplicity embedded into our interactions, our attempts to manipulate or coerce others into doing things. Also, though, it’s about our willingness to blame situations and events on almost everything but ourselves and how, if you take that to the extreme, it grows increasingly mad and ridiculous.

THE INTERNAL MONOLOGUE DATE: My internal conversations are, at once, horrifying and bewildering. I’ve gotten accustomed to them being that way over time and, I hope, learned how to stop my mouth from talking before my brain has fully considered what is about to happen next. This wasn’t always the case, though, and back when I was single and dating I would commonly find myself saying something completely inappropriate by accident. This track takes this idea to extremes that I’ve thankfully never reached in real life. Dirty talk really doesn’t suit me somehow, I think I might sound too sarcastic for it to be effective.

LUCKY TONIGHT: The classic lad banter of ‘I’m feeling lucky tonight’ has always baffled me. I remember someone saying before a night out ages ago that they were looking to get lucky with a lady before dawn. While everyone else laughed, I started thinking to what extent this chap may try to influence his own ‘luck’ by doing some bad, bad things. So this is the extremity of the ‘lucky tonight’ position laid bare; the protagonist in the song will do literally anything to ensure their luck comes through.

THE ANIMALS ARE SPYING ON ME: I love animals. Pretty much every animal is outrageously cool. But the thought of all animals organising themselves collectively is also an incredibly daunting one for me. I was confronted by issues of these nature when I was looking at a cat from out of my window. He or she was sat in my garden, preening him or herself, when a large pigeon flew down and sat next to him. I’d heard stories about putting cats amidst pigeons and was expecting carnage, but the pigeon and the cat just looked at each other and then turned their heads towards me and started walking towards the window. I freaked out and closed the blinds and then wrote this song.

EGGS!: The full Cardiff band really did a number on this one. It has morphed from its original incarnation as a one-man, lo-fi acoustic oddity into a pop-punk tour de force which I absolutely adore. This was written on the way back from a stag do in Devon. Me and my travelling partner were listening to Radio 4 and there was a documentary about eggs on, which seemed to go on for about two hours. I couldn’t believe there was so much to say about eggs but it just kept going. Most of the eggs listed in the song were genuine phrases lifted from that documentary. But then I made quite a lot up too.

I WANT A MOUSTACHE, DAMMIT (DANCE REMIX): Myself and Reginald Foxwell from My Name Is Ian often do duo shows together where, without the full regalia of the six-piece band, we are more reliant on keyboards and acoustic type instruments. On our 2019 tour we introduced this version of I Want A Moustache, Dammit to some unsuspecting parts of the UK - predominantly through Reginald’s clever fingers - and we all fell in love with its stupidity. Casio keyboard backing tracks are the cornerstone of modern indie-pop.

Released by Bubblewrap Collective, Tiny Men Parts was be preceded by digital single ‘The Animals Are Spying on Me’, lyrically about human capability for irrational and yet somehow intractable paranoia. Following that the full EP, arriving in limited edition heavyweight white ‘fried egg’ vinyl with accompanying ‘real man’ temporary tattoos is out today.

Quiet Marauder are: Simon M. Read: Vocals, acoustic guitar Ian Williams: Vocals, electric guitar Rowan Liggett: Vocals, bass guitar John Whittles: Drums Francesca Dimech: Vocals, trumpet, melodica Kadesha Drija: Vocals, percussion

Buy it here: https://album.link/gb/i/1535505155

https://quietmarauder.co.uk

https://bubblewrapcollective.co.uk

[hoefflepuff]

I was tagged by @omg-imagines-for-days tenks ur blog is bae

What is your name? George

How old are you? 20

What houses are you in?
Hufflepuff bitches and wampus

What kind of blog do you run?
I guess like hp, marvel and other shit I like with humour and aesthetics mixed in as well along with very occasional writing

Your ul?
Am I stupid I don’t know what this is?

Your Pottermore House results?
Hufflepuff and Wampus

Which book is your favourite?
Order of Phoenix cos I’m a whore for teenage rebellion and sadness

Which book is your least favourite?
Probs chamber of secrets. Like no particular reason just cos I just didn’t enjoy is as much as I did the others

Which movie is your favourite?
Weirdly in complete opposition chamber of secrets is my fave because it’s the one that I feel stuck to the feeling of the book the most. The others just kinda tried as hard as possible but just fell flat at the important moments

Which is your least favourite movie?
Hmmm see I have issues with a lot of them but I think probably half blood prince. It’s just fell at every hurdle really. It cut out dudleys change in attitude, removed any of Harry’s guilt over Sirius, diminished the friendships of Neville and Luna, kinda meh-ed the Draco story line and made Harry and ginny the weirdest couple ever. The only thing I think they did well was felix felicis and the cave. Everything else was just that little bit so-so

What is your favourite quote?
“You don’t have to call me sir, professor"

Favourite Potter?
Harry for the sass

Favourite Weasley?
Charlie. I for no reason imagined him to be ridiculously attractive. But overall probably Arthur

Favourite Malfoy?
Narcissa. She’s selfish and I kinda love her for it

Favourite Black?
Sirius Black. Duh.

Favourite Marauder?
Remus Lupin. Cos I dunno why but I imagine him as either always wearing jumpers and being sleepy all the time or I imagine him as a punk rock badass or both.

Favourite Golden Trio?
Hermione Granger. She’s perf. And the other two would be dead if she wasn’t there.

Favourite Silver Trio?
Luna. Just utterly hilarious and perfect writing by jk Rowling

Favourite Female Character?
Probably Mcgonagal like she’s just the best and subtly a badass at all times

Favourite Male Character?
I’m gonna go with Remus. He’s just great.

Favourite Professor?
I think Trelawny cos like she’s just funny as all hell like and her reaction to umbridge was the best

Favourite House?
Hufflepuff. Puff pride y'all

Which Character do you dislike the most?
Umbridge is evil. Like so evil that Voldemort was like damn that’s evil. But I’m also gonna put in there that people are waaaaaay too nice about snape. He is a complete shit.

What ships are your favourite?
Okay I kinda love weird ones so: Remus/James, Harry/Cedric, Hermione/Fred, Wolfstar and the weirdest til last Terry Boot/Theodore Nott (I just kinda accidentally shipped them one day and then created this elaborate backstory which makes me kinda love them)

Is there a movie you liked more than its book?
If defo say chamber of secrets. Everything was just there rly and gilderoy Lockhart brought to life was magnificently rife with ineptitude. Just perfect.

If you could make up your own house what would be the traits?
Loyalty, imagination, uniqueness, humour but they’d also be prone to being argumentative, spacing out, crying and bottling up emotions and it’d called “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh” based off the noise the hat made upon coming in contact with my dainty brow😘

What would your Amortentia smell like?
I have like no sense of smell. But like bacon, chocolate and probably cooked salmon and scrambled eggs cos nostalgia

Which do you prefer: owls, cats or dogs?
Cats for life fight me and I’ll fight back but my hand will be cats and they’ll kill u

Which is your favourite Harry Potter Era?
Like I feel like it’s kinda redundant tbh cos like we didn’t see enough of any of the eras yet so the 90s. Plus I kinda die when I imagine the characters in 90s clothes plus: headcanon Hermione was secretly a massive TLC fan and no one mentioned it cos Ron and Harry didn’t know who they were cos Ron- wizard Harry-abused child who lived in the suburbs so yea

This was fun. Anyways I’ll tag: @mudformyblood, @siriuslyhufflepuff, @i-put-the-star-in-bastard, @im-a-fudging-unicorn, @melodypython-veria, @the-remuslupin, @rubeushagrid-stole-my-hart and @proudneville