#lily literally ignored his whole existence and kinda flirted with James a little

[fresiants]

The Lestrange couple is actually interesting.

Bellatrix does come from an extremely messed up family. Not only do they behead their slaves after they become too old to carry tea and stuff their heads and hang them on the wall, you know, normal stuff. Then, according to the Black family tree, her father was only 13 when she was born. So you know, clearly healthy stuff. Also, if Filch is to be believed, hanging students days on end by the thumbs was common practice not too long ago from the 90s, and torture instruments are manufactured with enough regularity (I don't believe those things would have survived Fred and George, nor the Marauders).

In his forth year, Arthur was punished badly enough so that he has scars he keeps well into adulthood despite the wonders of magical medicine. (Most scars do fade away after a decade or so, which makes me think the whipping was either extreme or their was some Black Magic involved) for being out of his dorm.

We don't know much about Rodolphus, but his father or uncle was one of the first associates of Tom Riddle, and he would also in all likely hood attended school to taste this kind of extreme discipline that left Arthur scared for life. Also, according to Sirius they were part of a gang of bullies.

So is it any surprise that Voldemort was able to recruit followers who if not violent themselves, where quite desensitized to violence. So, even if Voldemort is extremely sadistic and does not treat his followers well to put it mildly, to people like Bellatrix, it must have seemed not that bad and normal. Also, their hatred for Muggleborn might have also mixed with envy. During the second half of the XXth century, corporal punishment was on the decline, and frankly, six of the best cannot in honesty be compared to the strappado. I would imagine members of these pureblood Slytherin gang of bullies viciously mocking muggleborn students and their inability to keep up with what they would perceive as normal things. It would probably like humiliation through babying, escorting them to "safety" while constantly mocking them:

"Twenty and already dizzy ? How adorable ! Let me take pictures of you. See, we don't hate muggles, we find them so wee!" (proceed to wrap them in frilly stuff before taking pictures).

Is this a response to my post about Severus and Lily? If it isn't, please ignore this whole post lol.

I agree that in the wizarding world, these acts were perceived as normal, as evidenced by the prevalence of bullying and violence that went unpunished and ignored everyone, even by the teachers who were responsible for safeguarding them. Regardless of the gravity of the situation, students were only ever subjected to detention as a form of discipline.

But we must consider that Severus hated the Marauders for bullying him and always tried to persuade Lily to stay away from them for this specific reason. It's understandable that, given his character, he might find it difficult to empathize with others. However, it's still a shame that he couldn't see the similarity between the Marauders and Mulciber's group. If you see your housemate bullying other kids, shouldn't it remind you of your own bullies? I think this situation was also heavily influenced by the house rivalries at Hogwarts.

Severus probably harbored a "serve them right" attitude when Mulciber bullied Mary McDonald, as if attacking a Gryffindor student was a form of avenging his own bullying. This is a childish mindset that many victims adopt, seeking to hurt their bullies by wishing harm on those around them. You may have heard people say things like "I hope your child experiences bullying in the future, then you'll know how it feels" or "I hope your daughter gets cheated on, so you'll feel the pain you caused others." It's the same type of mindset where you can't hurt the bully, so you hope someone they care about gets hurt instead. As someone who was once a victim of bullying, i totally understand why some people might think this way, but I refuse to defend this behaviour as it is wrong in my book.

Hence, I truly believe that even if Severus hadn't called Lily 'Mudblood', their friendship wouldn't have lasted long. Severus cherished Lily because she was the first person to ever show him kindness, and he loved her deeply to the point that he thought she was the only friend he needed. He only cared about his and Lily's well-being (as an individual) He couldn't care less about other Muggle-borns and this didn't sit well with Lily.

Things were already looking bad for Severus. But here's where things got worse. Lily Evans... the only person Severus ever care about... failed to comprehend why Severus refused to let her to associate with the Marauders. In fact, she felt offended by it.

Snape’s whole face contorted and he spluttered, “Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too! You’re not going to— I won’t let you— ”

“Let me? Let me?”

Lily’s bright green eyes were slits. Snape backtracked at once.

But we also shouldn't ignore the fact that Severus called everyone(muggleborns) aside from Lily 'Mudblood', which mean she had probably tolerated him a lot, hoping that he would finally get a grip and realised what he was doing was wrong.

But of course, that never happened. Doesn't really help that his only friend wasn't very understanding herself and already had feelings for James even when he was bullying Severus, which was confirmed by JK Rowling herself in an interview. (I mean... why would Severus feel the need to remind Lily that James wasn't a good lad if she wasn't interested in him?)

Interviewer: How did they get together? She hated James, from what we’ve seen.

JKR: Did she really? You’re a woman, you know what I’m saying. [Laughter.]

She was referring to the stereotype that women are attracted to 'bad boys' *puke*

[ohscorbus]

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Saturday 17th March, 2018

This was a particularly exciting show for me because it’s only the second time I’ve been able to see Tom Mackley on as Albus. Of course, for those of you who have read any of my recaps before, you’ll know all about the brilliance that is Mackley because I can’t help but gush about him at any and every opportunity. That boy is a whirlwind of talent and energy and seeing him in a lead role only confirms that.

This is a very brief recap because 1) I barely took any notes since, 2) I was really kinda ill at the time. So this is mostly just me rambling. But haven’t you all missed that?!

ACT ONE

[Scene 4] Mackley’s Albus is a lot more interactive with his bullies but I think that’s down to his relationship with his cast mates (he has been around twice as long as Theo), and the fact that his Albus is so much more confident. For example, the line ‘with just a little salamander blood’ was spoken aggressively at (not to) Karl. Then during the first task he did a ‘and what?!’ gesture at them. The difference between Theo’s ‘kicked puppy’ look and Mackley’s confrontational ‘bring it on’ approach to his bullies is fascinating. Especially since they both still end up emotionally in the same place.

[Scene 7] The difference between Mackely’s Albus and Theo’s Albus really hit me in the blanket scene. Albus is sat on his bed but with Mackley’s Albus, when James stuck his head in he chuckled to himself at his brother’s idiocy, then he mouthed a ‘no’ to Lily’s question about her book. I really liked that interaction. Even though he was sat alone in slight darkness, there was some effort to communicate with his family. All was not completely lost. Whereas Theo’s Albus has shut down right from the very beginning and ignores them all. Every time someone steps into his room it seems to pain him more. He so obviously and desperately wants to be alone but his family deny him that. It’s just intrusion after intrusion in what should be his private space. Yet both their reactions to Harry peering in the doorway is the same. It’s instant, the way the shutters come down and he closes off. Everything about Albus screams guarded yet Harry approaches him regardless.

[Scene 10] Albus got down on one knee as he spoke to Scorpius (who was sat on the suitcase) as he tried to convince him this was a good idea. I for one, thought it was a good idea. As were the repeated knee grabs and thigh pats but you know...

ACT TWO

[Scene 4] I don’t even know how to describe this half dance, half wiggle thing Albus did when he was saying wizzo. There was a lot of hip action there and it went on long enough to feel awkward. Which is exactly what Albus flirting with Delphi should feel like. Delphi definitely seemed to think that. I was kinda hoping Samuel would come on and do the same thing since he does re-enact whatever Albus and Delphi do, but no. Shame.

[Scene 5] So sometimes I’ll hear a line differently for no apparent reason and today it was the ‘seen him in the movements of the stars’ line. This is a jumbled mess that makes no sense but welcome to my brain. Feel free to try and make sense of this! Anyway, it made me think about stars. Harry feels like he’s losing his son because he’s all tangled up with Scorpius, a Malfoy. You know what Malfoys are all named after? Constellations. Stars. Then there’s Albus’s name which means light/white/bright, just like a star in the night sky. They’re all stars. Stars which look close but are actually billions of miles away. They’re unreachable. Which is exactly how Harry feels Albus is during the majority of this play. Now I know Bane is talking about actual star movements here but it made me think about Albus associating with Malfoys, moving in their circle, because that’s where he wants to be. With Scorpius Malfoy. Not his dad. Harry can see this and he can’t stop it or join in or whatever he wants to do. Albus won’t let him in. It’s that distance again. So close yet so far. Visually, it reminded me of the very beginning of this scene where Harry is walking through the Forbidden Forest in the dark with only these tiny pinpricks of light coming from the wands around him. You know what they look like? Yup, you’ve guessed it... stars! I just thought the whole thing was super interesting even though I haven’t got it all figured out yet. I just thought visually it was cool because I really like stars so I was distracted by it for the rest of this scene. I couldn’t stop thinking about Harry walking through the darkness surrounded by these tiny stars and still not being able to see his son clearly even though he’s right there in the forest with him. Just... stars!!! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Scene 16] Scorpius was so incredibly angry in the library scene today. The tears were streaming down his face and I was not okay. Samuel Blenkin really is something else.

[Scene 16] “…but never fell in love - never got married - never had Rose” - The last few times I’ve seen this play the ‘never had Rose’ part has got a laugh from the audience and I can’t figure out why??? Scorpius is frustrated and crying and yet people keep laughing whenever he mentions Rose. I mean, this probably sounds weird coming from someone who blatantly ships Scorbus but Scorpius is distraught about this entire situation. Whether he’s in love with her or not, she’s disappeared from existence and it’s his fault. The poor boy is crying and please please please someone explain to me why this is funny. I don’t get it. (Or maybe I’m just too emotionally attached to this boy. My heart breaks every time his does.)

[Scene 16] So during the Hogwarts through the trees scene, the boys do their special handshake thing. It’s basically a fist bump with a thumbs up and they make their thumbs touch. It’s sweet. (I’ve seen them even turn it into a mini thumb war before. Such nerds.) Today they did it after their argument in the library too and I haven’t seen them do it there before! I loved it. You could tell they had properly made up once they did that. Everything was right with them again because even though the world had changed, this hadn’t. They still had each other and their silly handshake and knowing that now definitely gave them the confidence to go on. They’re together, they can fix this.

[Scene 16] The hug in library after their argument was the best. Albus hugged Scorpius so hard, and despite being shorter, managed to completely lift him off the floor. Imagine it though, a tiny Albus so happy at having his best friend back that he literally picks him up off the floor.

[Scene 20] Scorpius does this thing where he looks down at his hands in horror when Albus says his dad is investigating the rumours, and he does it again while Umbridge is speaking to him when he gets out of the lake. I really love this gesture. It’s like he’s thinking maybe the rumours are true because look at what he’s done. These hands held and used the Time Tuner that re-wrote time and killed people. Harry Potter, Albus, Rose… they’re all gone and the people who are left are suffering and it’s his fault. You can see it on his face. The initial, ‘I did this with my bare hands’, to the ‘who am I? To have done all of this?’ : (

ACT THREE

[Scene 3] After Draco had pushed Scorpius off his desk and away, he saw his son’s tears still on the desk and he wiped them away before continuing. Let me just repeat that. Samuel cried so much he left tears all over the paperwork on Draco’s desk and James H had to brush them away. You see, this is why Samuel and James are the perfect Scorpius and Draco to me. Samuel putting his all into every performance, and James using that find new ways of destroying us. (It doesn’t beat the time he wiped them directly off his cheek with his thumb though. That one still hurts.)

[Scene 7] “You’re constantly surprised by it” - I’ve not seen Samuel have to wait that long for the laughter to die down before he could say this particular line before. You always know when it’s a good audience when something like this happens. Bless Samuel. He radiates happiness whenever he gets that big of a positive reaction. I hope he knows he deserves it. That boy is spectacular ♥︎

ACT FOUR

[Scene 1] This might sound a bit weird but I’m mesmerised by Draco’s hands at the moment. They’re so rarely still. It reminds me of Anthony’s Scorpius a bit, but less obvious. Like he’s grown up and refined his fidgeting, you know? As if he’s condensed it all down into his fingers. But anyway, Draco is always rubbing his thumb and forefinger together. It looks like an anxiety or a nervous thing. I couldn’t figure out why at first but then it kinda made sense and now I adore it because it makes him human. He looks so much like his dad, he’s exactly what you’d imagine a Malfoy to be. But he isn’t any Malfoy, he’s Draco. He’s just lost his wife, his son is suffering, he’s been thrown back into the madness that is Harry Potter’s life after years of being hidden away. It’s enough to make anyone crack. Yet he stands there with his fancy ponytail and stiff robes and he doesn’t. To me, the hand thing is a tiny insight into Draco and how not okay he’s really feeling inside. It’s also interesting because he doesn’t break, he can’t. Not while there’s still hope. He’s got Scorpius to worry about and he always comes first. It’s like when after he hugs him in Godric’s Hollow, he always zips his son’s jacket up higher even though Scorpius already has it zipped up to the top almost. (Sometimes it isn’t and he tells him off or gives him this look and Scorpius does it instantly. It’s so incredibly sweet. It’s clearly a battle Draco has been fighting since Scorpius was a child and first figured out how to undo a zip.) He’s focusing on Scorpius’s safety and comfort while everyone else around him talks about Delphi. He struggles to let go and barely looks away. Even once they’re not hugging anymore he still looks for a reason to reach out for him. Scorpius is Draco’s world. But anyway, I really love the hand thing and the point I was trying to make by mentioning all that was the fact that during the second Extraordinary General Meeting, when Harry says most people in this room won’t exist anymore if Delphi succeeds, Draco stills. His hand freezes because he knows he’s not one of them. He’ll still be around and in a much better position. Well, job wise. He still won’t have his wife and worst of all, he’ll lose his Scorpius. The boy who loves sweets and does extra homework for fun. Instead the Scorpion King will exist. That’s what the world will think his son is. He can’t let that happen…

[Scene 3] Albus ran up to Bathilda Bagshot’s door and started worshipping it like the absolute geek that he is. These two history fanboys bring me so much joy. Why can’t we be friends?!

[Scene 5] Godric’s Hollow was a mixture of excitable running, synchronised jumping, and exaggerated finger guns. Real talk, if that’s what they’re like trapped in time with no help, shelter, food, or proper clothing for a snowy October night, then I’m amazed that Hogwarts is still standing after those two go on a sugar binge. Poor McGonagall. Oh and for the ‘get potioning’ line they pretended they had a cauldron under their arm and motioned stirring it. Seriously, nerds.

[Scene 11] It’s really interesting to be able to sit in different seats at different angles and on different levels when you watch this show. It’s amazing what a change in perspective will make you notice. Today I was sat towards the end of the row in the stalls so I ended up directly behind Albus when he says, “but she’s a murderer - I’ve seen her murder”, to his dad. I couldn’t see his face, just his back. It was interesting because without his facial expression I had to rely on his body language and boy, did that scream just as loudly as he did. His wand was in his pocket and he ripped it out and started towards Delphi as he shouted. There was so much aggression and anger exploding out of him at that point. I don’t know if grabbing his wand is something Mackley regularly does (Theo already has it in his hand so it never comes across as threatening quite like that), but it really made me stop and think and feel for this boy. He couldn’t realistically take on Delphi (he hesitated before and then Harry kept him hidden behind his back during the rest of the duel) but the frustration drives him to want to do something.

[Scene 12] After Voldemort has killed Lily, everyone stills and falls silent. On stage and in the audience. It’s a really powerful scene. So usually, Harry drops to the floor once that last Avada Kedavra rings out across the theatre. He just breaks, completely and utterly, in his families arms. Albus never leaves his side and he (quite literally) supports his dad in what little way he can. He knows he can’t reach Harry in that moment. He’s lost in his pain. The loss of his parents, him standing there and letting it happen. But he tries. He lets Harry grip onto him (almost painfully sometimes) and Albus holds him back equally as fierce. It’s so different from the last few hours where we’ve seen him purposefully dodge every single one of his dad’s attempts at physical contact. But today, Harry dropped to the floor and Albus lost his grip on him. He looked horrified as he watched his dad scream out in pain from the floor. It was like it hit him, like he finally understood what his dad went through. What being Harry Potter meant. It wasn’t all gratitude and attention. It was this. The suffering and the countless deaths. The feeling of absolute uselessness as they stood there unable to stop it. Now Albus has experienced that I think he understands it more. (That’s not to say he didn’t before, but he’s fourteen and that’s a lot to process. But I think seeing someone die in front of you and believing it’s your fault, and watching your best friend grieve the loss of his mother, will change his perspective on things.) The look on Albus’s face as he looked down at the crumpled mess of his dad will stay with me for quite some time. Just like seeing his dad like that will stay with Albus too. I’m sure it plays a significant part in the healing process of their relationship.

[Scene 14] Albus booped Scorpius on the top of his head while he was stood on the step above him. I love the idea of Albus revelling in being taller than Scorpius for once. Even if it is just for a moment. It also makes me wonder if Scorpius does it to Albus on a regular basis and this was all part of his revenge. Scorbus banter at its finest, clearly :’)

[Scene 14] “And she said noooo” - Albus tipped his head back and held out his arms and sang the word no. I loved it. It’s such a Scorpius thing to do and yet here Albus is, teasing him with it instead. This scene is definitely one of my favourites. You get a lovely insight into what an average day at Hogwarts is like for these two. It’s all playful silliness. I’m glad the last scene we get of these two if just them being happy together.