#not very original concepts at all except for quidditch

[saintsenara]

Hey, hope you're having a wonderful day. Scylla and Charybdis was how I found you, but I really do love Other Women and of Purer Blood. One, I love love love your portrayal of Severus Snape and just how you depict the whole mess that he got himself wrapped in his late teenage years. I rarely see such good portrayals these days. Second, I love how you wrote Narcissa and the woes of her marriage life and the pure loneliness she feels and how you twisted a line from canon to a whole new side of both Narcissa and Severus. I simply adore how you write the women of the HP world. Especially now with Tiktok and the eruption of new ships like Nobleflower or Quillkiller - I couldn't care less about new ships but most of the works are original and I cannot align them with the characters written in canon. Thank you for your hard work. <3

thank you very much @be-at-peace05, i am having a wonderful day and i really appreciate this lovely comment.

i'm delighted to see scylla and charybdis get a shoutout, not least because i'm dawdling on the next chapter and shall now get off my arse and finish it.

the toxic mess that is severus snape/lord voldemort is my poison of choice, not least because i think it has so much potential to not just be horrific. after all, the canonical voldemort really likes him, the canonical snape clearly has a thing for powerful men, and the material circumstances which led to snape's radicalisation are something which voldemort - to be fair to him - seems to be the only person in britain willing to do anything about. there's so much complexity there, not just for a deep dive into the social and political context of seventies britain (wizarding and muggle) which gives me a chance to indulge my conviction that the whole thing is like the troubles, but also for - despite all the odds - a love story.

it also gives me a chance to indulge my own anti-marauders-fanon agenda and write regulus black as a complete knob.

the conspiracy theory hill i will die on is that narcissa malfoy/severus snape is canon. maybe not that it's a full-blown, lady chatterley's lover-style sexual affair as in other women and of purer blood, but that there is some sort of closeness between them that everyone except lucius has clocked.

this is because i am convinced - convinced - that narcissa is indeed the person voldemort is referring to in the line from which the story gets its name.

he desired her, that was all, but when she had gone, he agreed that there were other women, and of purer blood, worthier of him.

[incidentally, from a scylla and charybdis viewpoint, i love the idea of those two sitting down for a chat about girls.]

this is a much less charitable lucius than i usually write (or, at least, a less charitable lucius in his relationship with narcissa - he's a dick towards most other people regardless of the story), but it ended up being really interesting to think about how he might function as the sort of aloof aristocratic husband found in so much british literature and, in particular, how that coldness might interact with the oppressiveness of narcissa's confinement within what are clearly - even if jkr thinks otherwise - quite oppressive gendered expectations.

i'm always struck by the fact that narcissa's narrative mirror - molly weasley - must be quite lonely. she's the only member of the family not interested in quidditch, she doesn't seem to have a social circle, her self-conception is directed though her children, she must spend her child-free hours - so every day, once ginny's at school - just rattling around the house. and i could easily see how narcissa - at the other end of the social spectrum - might feel the same. she has no real friends, she feels excluded by lucius' parents, she knows she should be pregnant but doesn't seem to be able to get there, and she spends her days drifting around her enormous house. she also feels - and i think this is important to understanding her - extra pressure to conform because neither bellatrix nor andromeda have.

and then snape - who spends canon being remarkably tender to her - turns up and upends her world...

[pyrochordis]

shittiest take ive ever heard: “older people still liking star wars is just like millennials with harry potter”

[vivianweasley]

Let Her Go (F.W. x Reader)

Summary: “Only know you love her when you let her go.” childhood friends to lovers, unrequited love

Prompt: This is for @vogueweasley‘s 1K writing challenge and the prompt is #44 “What am I in your life? Because as of lately I feel as though I’ve been nothing to you.” Congrats again lovely!!

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Fem!Reader

Warnings: angst to a bit of fluff, unrequited love, mention of alcohol (Fred being drunk), language (one curse word), Fred being stupid

Word count: 2.2k

A/N: Did I write another friends to lovers with unrequited love? Yes, but I love this idea and I’m just writing to cope. The inspiration is Let Her Go by Passenger! Hope you guys would like it! (Also, let’s pretend they used telephone)

Special thanks to @valwritesx for the support<3

Disclaimer: all the pictures used in the header are from Pinterest. Credit goes to the original owners.

Please do NOT repost or translate my work on another site without explicit permission! Thank you! Reblogs and comments are always welcome:)

In your memories, you were always following Fred Weasley around.

You followed him around when he and George were throwing dungbombs in their neighbor’s garden. You were six, and he was seven.

You followed him around when it was your first year at Hogwarts. You were an awkward first year, but he has already established quite a reputation.

You followed him everywhere. Whether it was a quidditch game or detention, you were always there with him. Some people called you his sidekick, but you never really minded because you were absolutely head over heels for him.

You knew he knew about your stupid little crush; you weren’t trying to hide your feelings anyway. And you knew that your feelings weren’t reciprocated, but that didn’t matter. Loving him was your own business. Plus, you knew that at least you meant something to him, so you’ve still got a chance.

You loved him with all your heart and without a doubt. It was one-sided and lonely, but you never cared. Well, at least not until now.

~

It was your party to celebrate receiving a brilliant job offer from America. All of your friends were there.

“I’m so happy for you! But I’m also gonna miss you a lot!” George exclaimed for like the twentieth time today.

You chuckled, “I know, Georgie, I’ll miss you too! And I’m not leaving until the end of the next month. I’ve still got a lot to take care of before I go.” Now that you were actually talking about leaving, the whole concept of living in another country so far away finally began to feel more realistic. “There are just so many things and people I’ll miss.”

“By people, you mean Fred, right?” Ginny teased, “Speaking of which, where is he?”

“I don’t know. He promised he would come,” you replied, couldn’t control the blush that was climbing up your cheeks.

Ginny was right. Of course you were going to miss all of your friends dearly, but you were also going to miss Fred just a little more than the others. And that’s why you were a bit disappointed that he was so late to your party. You couldn’t stop yourself from checking the clock and the door every now and then. The butterflies in your stomach started dancing whenever you heard something outside, but they always die down when you realized it wasn’t him.

The clock soon struck 12, and when you were saying goodbye to the last of the guests, you finally accepted the fact that Fred was not going to show up tonight. 

~

You were helping at the joke shop the next day, and it was already noon when you heard Fred walking down the stairs. 

“Morning,” you could still hear the sleepiness in his voice, and you could tell from his messy hair and puffy eyes that it was a hangover. You frowned a little but you tried not to overthink. Surely he had a good reason, right?

“It’s already noon, brother,” George asked the question for you, “where were you last night?”

“I ran into Lee after work, and we went to the pub. Why?”

“Why? It was Y/N’s party last night, you forgot?”

“Wait, it was last night? Ah shit, I forgot. I’m sorry Y/N,” he turned to look at you. You could see the sorry on his face, but you couldn’t hear it in his voice. You knew that expression all too well. It was the same reaction whenever he got caught playing pranks on someone. He was saying that he’s sorry, but you knew he didn’t mean it.

“Fred, you do realize that she’s leaving soon, right?” George was finding this unbelievable too.

“Oh c’mon, last time I checked, we still have something called a portkey. And I’m sure Y/N will be visiting us pretty often, right Y/N?” The carelessness in his voice stung you.

Hurt, mixed with anger, was rushing to your brain. It was the moment that struck you, a moment that should have happened a long time ago. 

You always thought that even though Fred didn’t love you back, at least you were still a very important friend to him. But now you’ve finally realized that maybe this was just another self-comforting lie. It was not the first time he forgot something about you, and it seemed like he never cared anyway. 

“What am I in your life?” You asked quietly, “Because as of lately, I feel as though I’ve been nothing to you.”

“What are you saying? Y/N, you’re not making any sense.”

“I always thought it’s alright that my feelings aren’t reciprocated because it’s just my own business. But I’m not just that stupid girl who has a crush on you; I’m also your friend! And friends shouldn’t treat friends like nothing.” Your voice sounded calm, but tears were streaming down your face, “It was always me who’s looking for you and thinking about you, but friendship takes two, Fred. Maybe you should start trying too.” 

Then you just stormed out of the joke shop, before George could try to talk you round and before Fred could probably tell a joke to laugh it off.

~

One week later, you left for your new job in a hurry. You said goodbye to every one of your friends, except for Fred. 

Fred was feeling guilty but also confused. Why did you snap like that? What he did was surely just a small mistake, right? And he wasn’t too worried. He was sure that you would forgive him and come back to him. You always do. In fact, he was convinced that he could see you again the next holiday. 

Halloween night, George had plans, so Fred was in charge of closing up tonight. Looking at the empty bowl of sweets on the counter, Fred thought about you. You always remembered to fill it up, especially around Halloween.

The autumn wind was getting cold, and he pulled his coat tighter as he walked outside. The kids on the street were all dressed up, going from door to door trick-or-treating. Fred remembered how you two and George would always go trick-or-treating together on Halloween since you were kids. Even after you all grew up, you would still drag him to go with you. But now he was walking alone in his business suit, on his way home. This moment he felt as if the kid inside him has left with you.

When he got home, he turned on the TV and started switching channels absentmindedly. You should be there, suggesting to watch a horror movie, but then deciding on something family-friendly. You would always try to have a Halloween movie marathon but end up falling asleep, lying on his shoulder. He found it adorable, but he never told you that.

Fred sighed as he laid back on the couch. This was the first Halloween without you.

~

Christmas morning, Fred walked downstairs, noticing something was different in the air. The Burrow was quieter. Sure, most of his family were already up and were gathered around the Christmas tree, chatting and laughing. But you weren’t there.

You weren’t there, showing up at the Burrow way too early in the morning. You weren’t there knocking on his door and waking him up using a cheerful, sing-song voice. He would always groan and tell you to give him five more minutes. But this year, when he woke up to the mechanical sound of the alarm clock, he really missed your cheerful voice.

Fred walked downstairs with everyone wishing him a Merry Christmas, but his eyes were searching the crowd for a glimpse of you that was just impossible to be found. This was the first Christmas without you.

~

New Year’s Eve, Fred and George were at the local pub’s New Year countdown party, along with the other boys. Just like usual, the boys had too much drink and passed out in the pub.

When Fred was only half-awake, he heard your voice calling him, “Freddie! C’mon, let’s get you home!” A soft smile appeared on his lips. You were back! He knew you would be back for the new year. He knew you wouldn’t leave him for too long.

You were always there to pick him up and carry him home after New Year’s party. He was always amazed at how you managed to carry him as he was taller than you, but you were always there for him. He just felt so lucky now to have you in his life, and seeing you in front of him made him smile like an idiot.

You were frowning seeing him lying on the floor, but you soon gave in when you saw that smile. You chuckled and whispered, “Happy New Year, Freddie.” 

The soft smile stayed on Fred’s lips. He felt at home.

When Fred woke up again, he found himself lying on the floor of the pub. The pub was already empty. The boys were already gone. Someone must have picked them up, but there was no one for him. He finally began to realize that it was just a dream. You were still in America, and he was still a loser who’s lying alone on the cold floor on the first day of the new year. 

Fred managed to walk out of the pub. The freezing wind was slapping on his face, trying to sober him up. He walked past a coffee shop. That was your favorite. 

You were all he could think of now. Fred knew that you had a crush on him, but he always believed that it was just a stupid little childhood crush and it would fade as soon as you all grow up. He was just too familiar with you, and familiarity wasn’t what he thought he was looking for in romance.

But you were already in every part of his life. No matter where he goes or what he does, you were always there. But now you weren’t.

There was the first time Fred told a joke, and you weren’t the first to laugh. He loved the way you laugh, for it could always brighten up his whole day, but he never admitted it. 

There was the first time he was humming a song, and you weren’t there to sing along. He loved your voice, for it could always calm him down, but he wouldn’t tell you that.

There was the first time when he realized that he needed you in his life.

The first time when he realized that he loved you more than he thought he did.

It was like muscle memory for him to remember everything about you, but he wasn’t even aware of that, and you obviously didn’t know too. Instead of showing you how much he loved and appreciated you, he just took you for granted because he thought you would never leave. 

Fred dialed your number that night. He thought he might go crazy if he couldn’t hear your voice tonight. As he waited for you to pick up, he felt the inside of his stomach were all twisted together, but it was soon replaced by butterflies when he heard your voice.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Y/N, it’s me, Fred,” he didn’t know why he stuttered, “S-so, I was wondering...do you know where is the photo of us at the station? It was your first year of school. Did you take it with you?”

“No, I gave it to George. Why?” He couldn’t tell your emotion through the phone. Were you annoyed? Or were you happy to hear his voice too?

“Oh, umm, nothing, just missing the old days.” 

“Oh, okay...Anything else?”

There were so many things that he wanted to say. He wanted to tell you that he’s sorry and he missed you so much, but you sounded impatient. So all he managed to say was, “Happy New Year, Y/N.”

There was a few seconds of silence; then he heard you reply, “Happy New Year, Fred.”

Hanging up the phone, Fred felt his heart sank. He hated how emotionless you sounded, and he knew he had to do something. Maybe he couldn’t convince you to come back to him, but at least he owed you an apology.

~

Valentine’s Day. Evening, you walked out of the building you worked in. It was on a wizarding street just like Diagon Alley, so it didn’t take you too long to adjust to the new environment. 

The shops on this street were all having Valentine’s specials, and it reminded you of the Valentine’s specials of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. Fred always had the most interesting and romantic ideas-you shook your head. You promised yourself not to think about him anymore.

A shop at the corner captured your attention. You’ve never seen this shop before. You looked for the name of the shop and the sign above read “WWW’.

Just when you thought you were losing your mind and associating everything with Fred again, the shop owner walked out. 

Fred smiled when he saw you. The same beaming smile that had you head over heels for him for as long as you could remember. “Hi, I'm new here. Would you mind showing me around?”

~

A/N: Sorry if the ending feels a bit rushed! I felt like it made sense to end here so the reader could decide if she wants to forgive him or not. 

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[nothing-at-the-moment]

Rewrite The Stars V

Pairings: James Potter X Hufflepuff!reader

Bold: James’s thoughts

The biggest mystery of Hogwarts is not how the staircases move. Neither is the biggest mystery that why wizards use quills and parchment when they can use simple pen and paper and owls instead of telephones. Neither is the complete illogical concept of interbreeding between a wizard and giant resulting in the conception of a half giant.

The biggest mystery of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is; why is there a random giant squid in the middle of the Black Lake?

Of course there were some theories.

Dumbledore is an animagus who turns into the giant squid whenever he doesn’t want to deal with being the headmaster. Or maybe Godric Gryffindor himself is an animagus and watched over the kids in the form of a squid. Or maybe the Black Lake was a portal to a muggle ocean from where it comes.

The theories were endless. Not even Dumbledore knew.  

Only three people in the whole world did.

Newt Scamander. Rubeus Hagrid. And Y/N L/N.

In the year 1946, Newt Scamander, who had once been expelled from Hogwarts had returned to its grounds with a mission. A mission he had vowed his life to. Protection of magical creatures.

Now he had sneaked into the Hogwarts grounds with a very small-almost as small as a human baby-baby squid in his arms. He had to hurry because these magical squids couldn’t survive out of water for long, not more than two hours.

He knew he had somebody he could trust to take care of his baby squid. Rubeus Hagrid. Hagrid, a mere teenager at that time, had idolized Newt Scamander and they had quickly bonded over their mutual affection and care for all sorts of magical creatures. And he knew he had Hagrid to keep this little secret.

So Hagrid sneaked Newt and the little bundle he was carrying under a cloak into Hogwarts and he knew the best place for this little beast.

The Black Lake.

Newt and Hagrid had sat around the lake shore for a little over an hour as they watched the baby squid slash around and Newt gave all the necessary information that Hagrid would need to take care of her.

“What’s er name, eh?” Hagrid had asked.

“Calypso.” Newt gave a small smile to Hagrid and a longing look to Calypso and sneaked out of Hogwarts with his little baby Squid, now in the care of Hagrid.

Y/N L/N, being a close relative of the Scamanders was not unfamiliar with magical creatures of all sorts. Her uncle, Newt, would take her on numerous adventures around his suitcase. Y/N couldn’t help but grow attached as her curiosity and love for magical creatures grew.

Seeing her passion, Newt had decided to trust her with the secret of Calypso, hidden in the depths of The Black Lake at Hogwarts.

Y/N couldn’t be more ecstatic.

So from her very first night at Hogwarts as an eleven year old, she had become best friends with the now Giant squid residing in the lake.

She would visit her every other with treats for her that Newt had himself cooked up. And tonight was no different.

With being an animagus came consequences. Consequences in the form of impulses and instincts that James had been familiar with for ages.one of the said instincts was the peculiar urge to take a stroll and graze.

So that’s what James Potter was doing in the middle of the night today. Grazing around the edges of the Forbidden Forest.

Sirius would usually accompany him as Padfoot but he was busy tonight with comforting a heart broken Remus. James would’ve stayed too, he wanted to. But Sirius had kicked him out saying that because he sucks with dealing with emotions, he would rather not have James make matters worse

It all made sense now, why Y/N was crying in the courtyard today and why she freaked out when he asked to get Remus. He would be too if that had happened to him.

But what made him really lonely tonight was the lack of thoughts his soulmate had directed to him today. Soulmates could control their thoughts and send only the ones they want to send to their soulmate. Mostly it was involuntary. But if a person tries very hard, they could stop their thoughts from being reflected to their soulmate.

So, James was worried. A lot.

What could be so personal to his soulmate that she couldn’t even have him know it?

He was worried, but also a little hurt, knowing that his soulmate didn’t trust him enough with it even though he has never hid anything from her.

While James was thinking about it, he saw a figure sitting with her legs in the lake water playing with a…something.

He couldn’t make out what he was playing it but he was curious and lonely and way too confident for his own good. So he, of course went closer.

Thinking that he was in his animagus form, no one would recognize him, and he went and sat next to the figure that turned out to be Y/N…playing with a giant tentacle.

The stag that came and sat beside her stared at her with big Bambi eyes (pun intended) and then shifted his eyes to Calypso’s tentacle.

Y/N gave a gentle smile to the stag and James visibly relaxed when he saw that the tentacle of the Giant Squid was not harming anybody.

Why was Y/N playing with The Giant Squid? Is that allowed?

“Hello. I’m Y/N. And who might you be? I didn’t know the forest had stags. Do you have a name?” James just stared at her and at the hand curled around the tentacle.

“I have a little something you might like.” She rummaged inside the satchel around her shoulder and pulled out a few berries and laid them down in front of the deer.

James hungrily gobbled down the berries.

Y/N chuckled and James would’ve smiled at the sound of her laugh if he was in his human form right now.

“How about I name you Rudolf, eh? No? Too long. Not original even. How about Rudy?” James was too busy marveling at the gentleness with which she was dealing with him and the gentleness of her hand that was still caressing the tentacle.

“Rudy, this is Calypso. She’s a giant squid. Calypso, this is Rudy.” The tentacle moved from Y/N arms and tapped Rudy’s on the head between his prongs twice.

James, for a lack of a better word, was taken aback.

The Giant Squid was girl?! Rudy?!

Needless to say, James was mostly confused.

“I come here every other night when I need to think. Also to feed Calli with treats my uncle makes for her. She’s great company. You’re welcome to join.”

James was positively curious. He has never had any encounters with the Giant Squid except that one time Peter felt something brush against his back when they all were swimming gin the lake. To know that Y/N, had almost daily encounters with her, and fed her too, baffled him.

Guess The Giant Squid was not Dumbledore after all.

“I was just about to tell Calypso what a crappy day I had. It was all good till last night. I was having a blast with my soulmate. He was tutoring me and helping me with my homework till late. Now I thought it was Remus who I was talking to last night but when I went for breakfast and I thanked Remus for his help, he told me that he doesn’t take the subject with which my soulmate helped last night.”

James was listening very intently.  Many soulmates help each other with homework till late, right?

“I couldn’t bear to be with Remus after finding out. I have always wanted him to be my soulmate and I was so happy when I thought he was but then…this happened. Merlin, fate’s such a bitch. But that’s not even the worst thing that happened today. Because I found out who my actual fucking soulmate is. And he couldn’t have been worse.”

James’s curiosity was bubbling in his chest. He had a weird feeling in his stomach as he waited for her to reveal her soulmate’s name.

“I was crying in the courtyard after Remus. It was raining. Apparently James Potter thought I was dead so he came to help me and after I sat up, I burst on him. Merlin, that was so embarrassing. He too was so awkward through all of it. I hate him so much.”

James let out a guttural sound from the back of his throat in protest. He was not used to people hating him. Y/N just thought he was hungry and gave him a few more berries. James didn’t mind.

Calypso’s tentacle now rested on her shoulders as if she was trying to comfort her. Y/N felt like Calypso knew where this was going.

“To cheer me up, he was telling me some random octopus fact. The thing was that, I already knew that octopus eat themselves when they get stressed. The idiot forgot that not all octopuses do it. It’s a disease, an infection of sorts that attacks the nervous system sometimes when octopuses get bored or stressed out because of captivity. He knows that but forgot. Moron.”

James was growing more curious and scared and suspicious at this point. The thing about the octopus was not a commonly known fact and his soulmate had told him that she’s sure no one but her knows that at Hogwarts.

A thought occurred in his head but he quickly brushed it out. It couldn’t be. Could it?

“He told me that his soulmate had told him that fact. I was getting really scared because not too long ago, I had told my soulmate that fact. He was going on about his soulmate. About the things she had told him. And I realized that I had told my soulmate all those things. Lobsters, Basilisks, my unicorn and giant dream that I had a week ago. The fact that I want to be a magizoologist. It didn’t help that this morning my wrist was showing some dude riding the latest broomstick model and throwing Quaffles.  James Potter is the Gryffindor captain and a total Quidditch maniac!”

James was not being able to process everything being told to him. He had had that exact dream today. It was too much for him to take in. Unbelievable.

“James Potter is my soulmate.”

As soon as she said it, it sank into James’s mind. But he still couldn’t move.

“When I realized it, I ran away. I have been blocking my thoughts the entire day. I don’t want him to know. He’s been obsessed with Lily Evans for four years. He’s not anymore, she’s with Xander, but I can’t. I have hated him for three years. He has hated me for three years! This has to be a mistake…”

Only one thought ran through James’s head. Y/N looked down at her wrist as it tingled reflecting the one thought. James looked at her wrist to confirm it.

Holy Shit.

As soon as he saw that on her wrist, he did what his soulmate had done the same morning.

He blocked his thoughts and ran.

[midnight-inthe-kitchen]

“Hotel Potter” (Part 3)

Paring: Remus x Reader (Marauders Era)

Warnings: Fluff, James is bad at fixing things, More awkwardness haha, and mentions of eating issues?

Word Count: 1775

A/n: I didn’t proof read this, so enjoy/I’m sorry... (Also, we’re getting close to the part I had in my DrEaM✨)

You watched as Sirius dropped his bag on the floor before immediately breaking into a sprint to fling himself onto the bed. The bed...

You didn’t know exactly why you were expecting there to be two... I mean that would be a bit excessive for a regular house... but not until this very moment did you realize the consequences of your poor decisions.

“Hey, Y/N,” Marlene called out from the hallway after hearing Sirius’ loud running start. “Good luck!” Her laugh echoed throughout the hall.

Lily came from around the corner to let you know you were always welcome in her room if Sirius turned out to be an actual dog. You simply accepted and just smiled while shedding a singular, figurative tear. “Nah, I’ll be fine... Probably ;)”

It didn’t take you very long to choose a side of the room and stick to it. You were just going to leave most of your stuff in your suitcase to avoid any huge messes. This obviously left you with some time to kill so you wandered back into the hallway.

When you got there, however, all you saw was Remus sitting on the floor in front of the first door James had tried so hard to open. When he saw you step into the hallway, he stood up.

“Where’s James?” you asked confused since they were supposed to be ‘bunking’ together.

Remus shifted his weight, “Oh um, he went to get a hammer, I think.” He shoved his hands in his pockets in hopes of looking less awkward.

“Oh,” you laugh. “Wh- why on Earth does James need a hammer?” You laugh at he thought of James actually fixing anything successfully.

He turned and jabbed his finger behind him to the door. “It, uh... locked us out.” He laughed under his breath as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

You laughed as well. “...Did you try Alohamora?” you offered to your ‘genius’ friend.

He straightened up a little, almost offended. “We did, actually,” he smiled, “...Except James kept saying ‘Hola-ha-mora’, so it shouldn’t have worked the first three times anyways.”

You, having the heart of a Hufflepuff but intuition of a Ravenclaw, made your way over to him to see the doorknob yourself. Remus shuffled out of the way after first being stunned by your unexpected approach.

“So what’s actually wrong with it, then?” you question, getting on one knee to peer though the keyhole.

Remus awkwardly leaned over your head to look down on the situation but quickly realized how weird it looked from everyone else’s perspective and simply took a step back. “Um... You know I was actually thinking there might be internal rusting somewhere?”

You tutted your tongue on the top of your mouth, still very concentrated. “I mean sure, but that seems very unlikely due to the appearance of the rest of the house. You would think if someone could take the time to polish the toilet-paper holders, the inside of the room locks should be in perfect condition...” Remus nodded in agreement. “... And James doesn’t have the key?” you asked, confused by the concept of poor safety measures.

Remus just shrugged, “He said the house is so old that with unlocking charms, you know, because they are so common in wizarding communities, his parents figured ‘what would be the point’ of keeping any of the keys I suppose? I don’t know... Anyways, I told him that was dumb and then he went to go get a hammer.”

You stood up, having to steady yourself first from the fast rush of blood to your head. “What does he exspect to do?” you wonder out loud, “It’s not like he can just smash the handle off— though that would solve the problem,” you mutter that last part. “...But come on... I mean Mr and Mrs Potter would kill him and let Sirius bury his bones...”

“What?”

“...Nothing,” you continued. “But by the looks of it, all the handles look like an original artist’s craftsmanship which means not only are they more valuable and rare as a completed set, but they’re also way more expensive.”

Remus marveled silently at your quirky fountain of knowledge. For such a quiet and peaceful-minded soul, he often forgot that in the moments you weren’t tarnished by the boisterous personality of everyone else, you were more than bright enough to light up his world for a moment.

Just then, you and Remus turned to where you could both hear quickened footsteps making they’re way up the staircase. “Not to fear, Moony!... You’ll be reunited with your precious books in no ti-” James stopped mid-sentence before he nearly ran into the two of you.

“Back from your quest, oh key-less one?” You watch as James furrowed his brow before glancing at Remus then back to you.

”Ah, yes, I almost—”

“Is that a screwdriver?” you bite your lip to prevent yourself from laughing right in his face. James lifted up the “hammer” he got from heaven knows where with pride.

“No. It’s a hammer, Y/n, jeeze, I would have though you’d know, coming from a nice muggle community.... Now will you please move out of the way so I can fix this thing?” He readjusted his glasses sassily.

By this point in the conversation, Remus and you were nearly having a seizure trying not to burst out in laughter at your friend who really was trying his hardest. You eventually caved and shrunk up against the wall in a ball. “You ca- You can’t fix a door know with-”

“James,” Remus chuckled as he tried to pry the screwdriver from his hands. “That’s not going to-”

You both burst into another fit of laughter as James broke free and started whacking the lock with the butt-end of the device.

When the knob finally came loose, the three of you let out a little cheer. It was you, of course, who realized that the door needed to be lifted up a little while opening or closing becuse the real probably was with the hinges, not the lock.

About fifteen minutes later, when everyone had finally “set up camp”... James gave everyone a grand tour of the house. Your favorite bits were probably the drawing room because of the gorgeous window view and the library/study for obvious reasons. The part that you couldn’t quite get over, though, was the fact that there was a fireplace in practically every room. YAAAS WARMTH✨

When dinner finally hit though, you were definitely hungry. (You weren’t exactly starving because, well, eating had always seemed like a chore to you... Just thanks to the many perks of living in a 26% functioning body... But of course, you would push it aside unless you were on mental overload and therefore stress-ate an entire box of Cheerios plus a whole bag of goldfish and chocolate all night during that one OWLS season). But right now, in the midst of friends and good food, you were excited to spend the first evening of the weekend with them :)

The table (the smaller one meant for family not business guests in the main dining hall, was seated with James and Mary on both ends. Lily had somehow slithered her way to James’ left putting her, Marlene, and Sirius between the two. Peter sat on the left of James, smushing you between Remus on your left and Mary on your right.

You watched as the conversation switched from quidditch fowls, to hot quidditch team players, to James, Sirius, Mary and Marlene competing on who had gone out with the hottest Gryffindor member.

You obviously stayed out of this one as the three of you, Remus, and Peter all watched... Lily would throw in some deviously timed mention about her short flings with Slytherin team boys just to throw James off his lead.

“Sorry about not answering earlier...” Remus stated out of nowhere.

“What?” you muffled, trying not to choke on the soup you were currently obsessing over.

Remus was hoping he would t have to repeat himself, but just when he was about to, your brain registered his words.

“Oh! Oh, no no, that’s totally fine. I actually had just told Sirius that I didn’t care where I was- Wha- I’m sorry,” you laugh nervously, stuttering on every new sentence. WhY wAs iT sO HaRd To TaLk RiGhT NoW? “I just didn’t want to put you in that position, you know having to choose who to sleep with- I MEAN not sleep-sleep with just you know...” You could practically feel your face cooking.

“...Sirius(?).” You both finish as you gesture to the boy across the table from you, trying to stick his spoon to his nose using only his breath.

You both sat there, distracted and watching him until he actually succeeded. “Mary, look!” Right as he turned to show her however, it slid off and splashed soup up in his face.

You propped your head off your hand after a long moment of thought.... “Bet I could do it longer...” you start, turning back to Remus.

A confused smile stretched across his face. “...What?” he questioned again as if he hadn’t hear you properly the first time.

Without answering, you picked up the second spoon placed at your table spot (for whatever reason) and you watched as your reflection became more and more cloudy.

“Are you—”

You turned calmly to meet his face with a spoon now hanging from atop your nose.

After a good couple seconds of Remus staring at you, it finally clicked in his head what you were doing. A rare grin stretched up his face as he grabbed his own spoon and tried it himself.

It took a couple of tries for the spoon to really stick, but as soon as it did, Sirius saw from across the room and automatically turned it into a table-wide competition.

By the time pudding came around, you were holding the record of four minutes and twelve seconds versus Peter somehow who was thirteen seconds shy.

When the competition had ended though, Lily finally asked what the heck the plan was for the rest of the weekend...

In the morning, James said, everyone could go up to an abandoned village area where a muggle summer camp once stood and they could spend the night there. He promised the plumbing still worked for whatever reason, so it could be totally doable.

Every fiber of your being was telling you that was a dumb idea, especially a bunch of teenagers in the woods alone, but whatever right? Majority votes are always won by the delinquents.

[ariparri]

Veruca Then vs Now

Hello! Not officially back because I'm still taking my break from here but I wanted to share this. As the title suggests, I will be sharing all the things about Veruca that I've changed throughout the year. I recently started looking back on Veruca's character on when I first made her and realized just how different she is to the Veruca everyone knows today.

Not sure how many facts I'll be going over, but this will be interesting. Let's get started!!

Before officially becoming a Hogwarts Mystery OC, she was made for the Golden Trio Era. She was three years older than the trio and hung around isolated places such as the astronomy tower or the owlery.

Veruca was originally a daughter to deatheaters but was later disowned when she refused to follow in her family's path. She was then forced to become a deatheater when they ambushed her during the attack at the Quidditch World Cup.

Veruca was originally supposed to be shipped with Carson but I ended up liking some characters a lot more than I initially thought. And now I can't view the two as anything BUT siblings.

Veruca's old concept design had her with slightly tanned skin with black hair. And you can't really tell from the image, but she also originally had fiery orange eyes. Clearly different than the Veruca we're all used to today.

Veruca's personality had her much more colder and intimidating due to her being a daughter of death eaters and then eventually disowned by them. She also preferred being alone, even telling Carson she didn't want any rumors about him going around. She was also much more moodier than how she is now, quickly losing her temper at the slightest thing.

She was originally skilled at 'dual wand wielding' after stealing someone else's wand and practicing with both of them. That was later swapped for wandless magic.

She originally hated her brother Coby. Their relationship wasn't exactly great. With Coby being the pride and joy to their mother, was always being neglected by her mother. Veruca's relationship with her mother was very bad. Wilhelmina outright telling her that Coby was the only child she was proud of and that Veruca was merely a child who kept making mistakes. The neglect made Veruca desperate for her mother's affection that when Coby went missing despite being happy about it Veruca didnt hesitate to try to find him hoping that by finding him her mother would love her. Now her relationship with her mother isn't entirely great now, but it's clearly a lot better than before. Wil does love her daughter, but as an Irish woman, they tend to favor their sons more.

After changing Veruca's backstory, she was also going to have an older sister named Cerise. Technically that was a placeholder name but let's roll with it. She was disowned and never mentioned by the family due to her psychotic and sadistic view. Veruca never liked her as she was always physically or verbally abused by Cerise. During the search for Rakepick in the forbidden forest, instead of her showing up Cerise does leaving Veruca frozen in her spot. She tried to fend Cerise off but eventually fell short when Cerise casted a spell towards Rowan to distract her before Cerise casts a spell strong enough to send Veruca flying back badly wounded that she needed to be sent to St. Mungo's for recovery. This was now changed to be more of an au and the original storyline was scrapped.

Veruca runs away from Hogwarts and everyone after she couldn't take any more of the dangers and stress from searching for the vaults, and the fact her friends were slowly turning their backs on her after hearing them talking about how much she just needed them for the vaults or how she didn't really care about their feelingswith the exception of Carson. This was scrapped in favor of the one now, this is now an au idea instead.

Veruca was planned to die within the final vault where she materializes into nothing right in front her friends' eyes. Has now become an au idea. And a drawing idea

The original idea for the final vault was to have Veruca sacrifices herself from her friends' memories so they no longer remember her. She doesn't bring herself to interact with them again, and would rather suffer alone with her own memories of everyone else. Also now has become an au idea in favor of her story now.

Veruca was also supposed to have another sister for her deatheater backstory. Her name was Heidi and she was 8 years younger than Veruca. Their relationship is a little rocky as they used to be close when they were younger but Heidi was always told not to play with Veruca. When Veruca was disowned, Heidi was told Veruca had betrayed the family which angered her.

———————————————

Well, that's all the things I was able to recall for Veruca's past concept. I'm sure there was more hidden in my memories somewhere but these were the ones that I remembered the most

I definitely like how Veruca is now as compared to back then. She has definitely gone through a lot of changes throughout the year. And I'm glad that there are people who actually like her character! I was a little worried about that honestly xD

I'm also working on a new post regarding genderbent Carson and Veruca. And maybe I might also make a Then vs Now post for Carson too!

What are your thoughts on Veruca's character back then? Do you like her now or did you find her past portrayal interesting? Do you have anything to share about your MC from how they were when you made them to how they are now? I'd love to read about them.

I'm just gonna tag this as #MC Then Vs Now for future reference because I know I'll make a similar post for other characters of mine =w=

[mrjprongs]

Character Introduction

Full Name: James Fleamont Potter

Name Origin: JAMES ~ English form of the Late Latin name Iacomus, a variant of the Biblical Latin form Iacobus, from the Hebrew name Ya'aqov. Both Potter parents preferred a name they considered ‘classically and simply English’, having had traditional Indian names and more unusual English alternatives themselves; FLEAMONT   ~ named after his father who was, in turn, named for the otherwise dying out maiden name of his paternal grandmother; POTTER ~ a common surname in both muggle and wizarding Britain. It is believed the name in the wizarding world can be traced back to Linfred of Stinchcombe who was nicknamed ‘the Potterer’. However, there are also ancestors in the Potter family tree with the surname Matkari, which is Marathi for ‘pot maker’.

Nicknames: Prongs (within the Marauders); Jay (His parents call him this, despite all their talk of not wanting to give him an Indian name)

Age: 18

Birthday: 27th March

Sexuality: Tragically Heterosexual (but an enthusiastic ally to the LGBT community)

Relationship Status: Engaged

Positive Traits: Loyal; Intrepid; Resolute

Negative Traits: Callow; Self-sacrificing; Cocky

Patronus: A stag ~ It is the same as his animagus form, down to the markings.

Boggart: Lily wandless and cornered by Death Eaters

Wand Type: Mahogany and Unicorn tail, pliable

Occupation: Intern, International Magical Office of Law

Affiliation: Order of the Phoenix

Biography:

Fleamont and Euphemia Potter never thought they would have a child. Years of difficulties getting pregnant and multiple miscarriages and by the time they surpassed seventy, they had more or less given up. Even for wizards, children were rarely a possibility that late in life. They focused instead on their already flourishing careers, Fleamont in the potions industry and Euphemia as a defence lawyer. As such, the life James Fleamont Potter was born into and the way he was raised was pampered and spoiled and treated like his parents’ little miracle. Fleamont started to direct his company from home, slowly stepping further away until he sold the business completely. Euphemia kept on working, in her job as a defence lawyer, but was more choosy about the cases she took on. Both parents wanted to be home as much as possible with the child they never thought they would have.

The downside, for James, was a lack of friends his own age. The children of friends of his parents were all grown up. James passed his days pranking his dad and playing make-believe as he explored the land out the back of their house. He might not have had much in the way of friends, but when he came home at the end of the day he had dirty knees and a look of fresh-faced glee as he proudly displayed his new ‘broomstick’ to his parents ⁠— another large stick to add to the growing pile in their garden until on his sixth birthday he was given his own. From then, all games of make-believe were halted and flying was the only thing James wanted to do. It didn’t matter to him that his dad’s hip was too bad to fly with him and so there was nobody to pass a Quaffle around with. James flew and flew and he loved the feeling. He would tell anybody who would listen that he was going to be a top Quidditch player when he was older, just because he wanted to fly.

Hogwarts might have been a scary concept to some, leaving his parents for the first time and going to a place where he only knew the professors but James was just excited for the next adventure and the chance to explore a new place. Armed with his newly inherited Invisibility cloak, James boarded the Hogwarts Express, excited and absent of fear and immediately ran into another first year boy, a meeting that he would later consider history in the making. There wasn’t a friendship like that of James Potter and Sirius Black except, perhaps, the friendship of all four dormmates. The Marauders.

Where Remus kept disappearing to was a mystery James didn’t know how to let go but his reaction to finding out the truth was anticlimactic. A shrug and a well it doesn’t change anything, does it? and that was it for James. Except it wasn’t quite it because nothing ever was. He had grown up watching his mother defend the vulnerable in society and while there were things he was missing, young and naïve as he was, he knew he wanted to do whatever he could to change the world for Remus. Their lives had been opposite ends of the scale so far and James could see no justice in that. He made a vow to himself that as soon as they found a safe way to be there, Remus would spend no more Full Moons alone and that when he was old enough he would do everything he could to make life better for werewolves.

It was the start of a turning point, albeit one that would move slowly and gradually. Pranks were still the forefront of his priorities, followed closely by Quidditch, but he kept looking around and seeing injustice and it bothered him because he had no idea why. The look on Sirius’ face every time they boarded the train to go home for the holidays. Remus in the Hospital Wing after a bad Full Moon. The word Mudblood thrown around like a casual taunt. These were all things James couldn’t stand and he wanted to fix them all. He wanted to fix the sneers some of the Slytherins directed towards his friends for no good reason.   (He wanted to fix that Lily ⁠— beautiful, smart Lily ⁠— was friends with one of them and, to James, seemingly oblivious to the way he acted towards others with her parentage.)    He wanted to fix the fact that the summer between his third and fourth years was taken over by his mum going to trial against a Death Eater accusing their house-elf of killing someone. It wasn’t the first he had heard of Death Eaters but it was the first he had paid enough attention to the way his parents talked about them and really taken in what they wanted. It was just a passing comment by his dad, a scornful remark against the Dark Arts, but it stuck with James. For a boy who still tended to view the world in black and white, the Dark Arts became something that fell very much in the wrong.

Arrogant, bullying toerag. Words that rang through his mind the night before his Transfiguration OWL. The rest of his classmates were studying but James sat and re-evaluated his whole life.  (Not that he particularly needed to study for Transfiguration which was not only his best subject but the one he had spent the best part of three years doing extra studying so as to master the Animagus transformation.)  The Dark Arts were wrong and he had wanted to fix those sneers and fix the guilt inside him at all the hurt Remus had suffered from Snape’s discovery of his secret and somehow that had turned into bullying. James rankled at the word and his instinct was to defend himself but the truth was, Lily was right.   (Lily was always right. It was part of her charm.)   He had gone too far, turned into the one taking action before his victims had done anything.

In one night James’ dreams of playing Quidditch professionally seemed to have disappeared. His parents tried to ask, but James was unable to put into words what had changed. If he hadn’t wanted to, James knew he would never have to work. Family money could comfortably see him through to old age but with that money came privileges, even more than the ones attached to his blood status, as well as the potential for influence. How could he waste that away on pursuing a Quidditch career when there were people he could help? Again, Lily was right ⁠— the arrogance was outstanding.    (She really was the cleverest witch ever, possibly even more so than his mum).

The James Potter who went back to Hogwarts for his sixth year was like a new man. The growth spurt over the summer helped to solidify his newfound maturity. Quidditch had to be somewhat of a priority now that he had the captain’s badge on his chest but it was not the all-consuming obsession the school had grown to expect. He was more focused in classes, suddenly switched onto the idea that a natural intelligence might not help his ignorance about a lot of the world, and he started tutoring a few younger students in Transfiguration. There were still pranks and mischief, but they had adopted an air of being their last chance to be teenagers. Similarly, there were still Full Moons and late night excursions, even a Map to help them sneak around, but these too had changed for James. They were still about helping Remus, as they always would be, but he also kept half an eye on the Map for others potentially up to no good, so that he could stop anybody else getting hurt the way more and more muggleborns had been recently. And, when the Head Boy badge came with his seventh year booklist, less people were surprised than would have been a year earlier.

Nobody had really believed he was serious about dropping Quidditch after school until he turned down the scouts and applied for a job in the Ministry of Magic, within the Department of International Magical Law, where he hoped to one day be able to have an influence on laws governing human rights and equality. He was also amongst the first in line to sign up for the Order of the Phoenix. He might still be privileged and sheltered in comparison to his friends but James was desperate to do anything to help keep them safe.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Hey! I can finally ask you something so yeah! ✨It's my time to shine ahahaaha!✨I must admit that your knowledge of Hogwarts Mystery (the game that we all hate and love) is impressive! When you will get the deserved degree?

Joking aside, I recently found one of your posts about Parkwood and its decline. It made me think.

Skye is a popular character, just see all the amount of fan arts, fan fiction or posts of hers that the fandom produced for confirmation, but it's pretty strange that aside Penny she isn't really shipped with anybody else.

Expect for Mc or Orion.

I can assume why people ships so much Skye and Mc but even if the Orion x Skye had/still has some breath along the fandom (there are some cute fan fictions around them) I always had the sensation that they are a bit underrated. XD

We really cannot say that there aren’t the assumptions for not shipping them: in season I MC literally said to Orion “perhaps you and Skye are more alike than you think” with that mischievous look, later in season II Skye literally confronted MC because she suspected that he/he was training in secret with Orion (complaining his way of training of course but, still, she seemed pretty jealous) and in season III when Madam Hooc was painting to help Orion who was injured on the ground (precisely is when she said “give Mr Amari some room. Hovering won't do him any good) Skye was the only one with the “worried “ animation, then in the Hospital wing not only she pointed out that he was with Erika (“I see you've got company”) but she also said that Orion visited her very often, maybe without MC or Murphy and excluding that time aat the down of the second Quidditch cup (at least in the Italian translation when she says “Ovviamente. É venuto a farmi visita spesso quando ero qui” and can be translated in that way, I saw that in the original version she just says “he visited me when I was there” so yeah, maybe the Italians translators really said “yeah let's make our OTP canon and screw the developers” even if I don't think that they’d do At the end, even Murphy during season I seemed to wink at how ambiguous is their relationship.

They act strangely to each other, that's true. All this evidences could actually work for a friendship for sure, but they always been a little bit ambiguous when they interact and nothing' my shipper's brain basically went “BOOOOOOOO:”. If at some point of the story will eventually come out that one of them had an awfully crush for the counterpart I wouldn’t be that surprised: oh come on we need some other canon relationship without MC involved!

What do you think? Thank you for reading and sorry if it's too long!

Oh my good friend, if anyone should get a degree for keeping up with everything, it is MissNightOwl. Her blog is incredible and goes in depth. I make mistakes and errors all the time. I highly appreciate your kind words though! I'm so glad to hear from you. Please do not apologize for long posts! I love them, I mean goodness knows I ramble on a lot myself!

I think the reason that Skye is shipped with so few characters is because she interacts with so few of them. Her relationship with MC is easily the one that is the most developed, and her obsession with Rath is also something I've seen used for shipping fuel, the same way that Penny's obsession with Skye is what kickstarted Parkwood. I have to say, I've never really seen anyone shipping Skye with Orion and my immediate reaction is that I don't see it at all, but I'm not against it.

It could just be that I tend to interpret the Quidditch cast as being an example of the found family trope and thus I don't really ship any of them together - the occasional exception being ships that involve MC as they were the last person to be introduced to this cast. That said, I agree with you that it would be refreshing to see a relationship develop between two of the characters that are not MC, and Quidditch would be the perfect time and place to do it. After all, apparently these characters will never be romance options, but I suppose anything could change. After the fake-out with Jae and Chiara, I wouldn't mind seeing something confirmed for the background.

Really, I think Quidditch could go a lot further if they fully embraced the concept of being an alternate universe, which I think it's even been said flat out by the writers that it is. I understand why they won't make Penny's crush on Skye explicit, because she's a romance option for MC...but if it's an alternate universe, that's different. Same goes for Murphy and Andre, who were totally eyeing each other up. They were, don't shoot the messenger.

When it comes to Skye and Orion, I can agree that they probably have a relationship that is closer than either of them portrays. I think Skye does care about Orion even if she wouldn't admit to it in the early seasons, and considering that he keeps letting her back on the team even when she's caused problems, she obviously means something to him. I still interpret this as a found family myself, but Skye and Orion have the kind of energy of two people who are opposites but also similar in more low key ways.

[fromtheashesofvalyria]

They were both too young to know how to love.

Of course leave it to Harry Potter to be what drags me back into writing fan fiction. Apologies to people who follow me already since this is pretty different from posts I’ve done in the past, so feel free to ignore. 

I just wanted to try and get some thoughts out about a fanfiction I’m currently writing, specifically the relationship between Harry and Daphne. Or the lack of one right now anyway. ;)

The basic background is that this is a soulmate AU with soulmate marks and empathy/semi-telepathy (I’m not sure what to call it honestly). The three main ships are Dramione, Ransy, and Pottgrass, and it’s a slowburn enemies to lovers starting from Goblet of Fire on. Emphasis on slowburn and enemies considering two of the involved are Draco and Pansy.

Before I started writing again, the only ones of those three I shippped/read fanfiction of were Draco/Hermione and Pansy/Ron. I originally picked Daphne because I’d read fics that had her as a character and liked her in them; after that I read two fanfics that made me really ship them, because the amount of ships I have due to fanart/fanfic is huge. (Previously I was, and actually still am, a Nottgrass shipper because I am a multi-shipper a lot of the time.)

I’m going to put the rest of my rambling under the cut.

So there are a couple different things going on here. The most superficial was that, when I had started writing, I’d been re-watching the Lizzie Bennet Diaries so I was a bit influenced by Pride and Prejudice when writing Daphne at first. Specifically the inspiration was Matthew Macfaden’s Darcy from the 2005 movie and Daniel Vincent Gordh’s William Darcy from LBD. (And as an aside Astoria was slightly based on Georgianna from the 2005 movie and Gigi Darcy from LBD.)

The inspiration became less strong the more I wrote, but her being standoffish/cold/rude to non-Slytherins (except Astoria) and the scene where Daphne tries to make a deal with Harry was inspired by Darcy's first, horrible proposal to Elizabeth. But that’s the shallower reason, let’s get into the meat of it, which is background vs appearance. 

Harry Potter was orphaned at the age of one years old, was raised in an abusive family who didn’t even give him a room for ten years, had no friends until he got to Hogwarts, and was lied to by the Dursleys’ about what his parents were actually like. There were no pictures of his parents, he wasn’t told they were a witch and wizard, and he didn’t even know they were murdered. When he is told about his parents, he is given the romanticized view of James and Lily and their relationship. He thinks they were the perfect picture of soulmates, as he hasn’t been told that James was once a jerk that Lily really disliked. His first real experience of familial love was with the Weasleys and thinks of them as the best family in the world. Daphne knows nothing of this aside from the fact that he was raised by muggles; I don’t think she thought much about Harry at all outside of times parts of his adventures were found out by the school. Like the flying car incident. As she said in the fanfic, Harry just sort of existed to Daphne. 

Harry is only fourteen years old at the start of the fic, and has only had a crush on Cho at this point, but he does know that he wants to have the real love and respect his parents had. He wants to have a family of his own that would actually be loving. He doesn’t want his potential future children to grow up without love. And, most importantly, he doesn’t think Daphne is capable of that. 

What Harry knows about Daphne’s background is that she’s part of an old, wealthy pureblood family a la the Malfoys or the Parkinsons. (He wouldn’t know the term Sacred Twenty-Eight.) That’s pretty much it and would be about the amount of knowledge all the students from the other houses would know (except for Astoria, the Ravenclaw little sister, who is just as uncomfortable as Daphne when asked to talk about their parents). Harry is also generally dismissive of Slytherin house as a whole thanks to Draco and his gang; he thought they looked like a “pale and unpleasant lot'' at the Welcome Feast in first year. 

Here’s how Daphne comes across to the kids outside of Slytherin: standoffish; doesn’t seem to talk much outside of class participation, and is often sarcastic when she does; doesn’t seem to have friends outside of Slytherin and the only non-Slytherin she is consistently genuinely affection towards is her little sister, and not everyone sees that; while not a member of Pansy’s gang is still known to be a good friend of Pansy’s, and is also close to Blaise who is seen as equally snobby. 

(Speaking of Blaise, Daphne still wants to know why she’s the only one to get an insulting nickname like Ice Queen when Blaise and Theo are often just as anti-social towards the other houses as she is. In Theo’s case, more so. XD) 

Of course, it’s easy to sympathize with Daphne when you know what her background is really like. Her parents, despite being soulmates, have an absolutely toxic relationship that their daughters had to witness: “Daphne Greengrass hadn’t been a fan of the soulmate concept for years now. She could even pinpoint the exact moment her disillusionment started: the night before her sixth birthday when her father finally told her mother that, soulmates or not, he had never loved her and had only married her out of both obligation to the bond and to the alliance with her family. This had then turned into a screaming match in her father’s study accompanied by the sound of glass being thrown at a wall.” This is just one incident. 

Daphne was so used to her parents arguing (and to be really clear, I’m not talking about normal arguments couples have; I’m talking about full-blown trying to verbally/emotionally hurt the other as possible or just arguing to try and win against the other person) that she was already making it her job to comfort Astoria, who “was still a baby, and upset by it”. Daphne has grown up with a very dim view of romance and romantic love. 

Now, Daphne does know that people can be genuinely in love. For all their many, many faults, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy are devoted to each other. Pansy’s parents aren’t on the same level, but are loving/affectionate enough with each other. However, she doesn’t think love and happiness are guaranteed so it’s better to have something more solid like respect or trust. However, that is hard to get across to Harry because she’s grown up to think being emotional is bad/a weakness and it’s hard for her to open up to people she doesn’t know well. (Pansy was her first friend at five years old and is still her best friend up until this point; it’s also the reason her other friends are the Slytherins she’s known for years at this point. People she’s used to.)

She could have approached Harry differently, flirted, or suggested dating, or tried to be romantic but she would have thought of that as dishonest/manipulative. Because Daphne knows love isn’t guaranteed for soulmates. Because Daphne knows she’s not the most likeable person. Because Daphne isn’t sure she could love Harry and doesn’t want to lie about it. Yes, Slytherins are all about cunning and clever ways to get what they want, but this is one of the areas Daphne would not even consider something like that. For all her issues, Daphne does have some standards. 

Self-control and (just control in general) is something Daphne clings to because her parents were often unpredictable and she had to create a sense of being in control of her life. Her father is not a warm or empathetic person and he looks down on people being too emotional. (Yes, this is supposed to be hypocritical considering he’d get into screaming matches with his wife.) He would be out of the house a lot for both work and to get away from his wife. Her mother was emotionally and mentally in a bad place for a long time and withdrew from her children a bit. She improved by the time Daphne was at school, but her favorite is clearly Astoria for reasons that will be expanded on later. Daphne tells herself she gets it because Astoria is her favorite family member too. (Also I just want to make this clear, Daphne and Astoria are close siblings who genuinely love and care about each other. Daphne is also Astoria’s favorite family member. Their relationship, as I like to see/write it could be another post though so moving on.) 

This need for self-control also was because of the stutter she had growing up. She was already self-conscious about it and she was very aware that her parents (her father in particular) saw it as a problem, which stressed her out more and made her stutter worse. The more emotional she’d get, the more likely she’d stutter. Whereas the more comfortable she was, the less often it happened. Pansy already mentioned in one of her POV’s that she barely heard Daphne stutter around her after a while; not a huge spoiler or surprise, but it was the same with Astoria. One of Daphne’s pre-Hogwarts tutors was essentially a wizard speech therapist, so she had it under control by first year but it was still recent enough at the time that she was pretty afraid of slipping up at school. Also consider the fact that some students (not just Slytherins either, but from all houses) made fun of Quirrell's stutter, and he was a teacher. (Yes he was evil, and only pretending to have one, but they didn’t know that then.) How much worse would the teasing be for a first year student? So as her father told her, sometimes it’s better not to talk at all. 

Harry doesn’t know any of this. 

Before things really started in the fanfic, Harry’s one interaction with Daphne that really stood out to him was that time she was sarcastic to him in first year after his first Quidditch game: “You know my family made the snitches used at Hogwarts. Please try not to choke on another of them next time.” When fourth year started, she ignored him completely in the Great Hall, and didn’t help her friend in a way he didn’t recognize/understand. 

The next day, Daphne sends him a note ordering him to meet her during lunch, after not acknowledging him in public. (As Harry says, she didn’t even write please. It also didn’t ask him for a date and time to talk, just told him to meet her in a specific location.) When he asked if she was proposing to date him, she “made a truly exasperated sounding noise” which definitely hurt his pride a little. She also tried to approach a relationship (not necessarily even a romantic relationship, just in general) with him, someone she has barely spoken to,  like a business deal, which he thinks is a cold way to look at it and he loses his temper. However, it should be noted that she asked him why when he rejected her out of hand and well, don’t ask a question you wouldn’t want an answer to. 

Later on he sees her picking on a second year for seemingly no reason. In reality, this is a girl who did something to her sister and Daphne doesn’t let things like that slide when it comes to people she cares about. 

Now afterwards things get murkier because Daphne is wanting to freeze him out/ignore him, but he is the one to poke at her. The soulmate bond is like an outside force that pushes down on two people to try and force them together, which can be downright unbearable if you really don’t like the other person. Harry finds the pressure it puts on them very hard and is stunned when she acts like she’s not affected at all. (He’d feel better if he knew she was feeling it just as much as him. Sort of like how Hermione and Ron both take comfort in the fact that Draco and Pansy are having as bad a time with the bond as they are.) He’s already under stress from the situation with his scar hurting and Sirius leaving his hideout to come back to England because of it, now add on to that the stress of an outside magical force trying to bond him to a girl he doesn't like and who doesn’t like him. No, he’s not handling it in a great way, but he’s young. 

And Daphne could always try and talk to him about things good (sending him a song through the bond to help him sleep when worry for Sirius was keeping him up) and bad (the incident with the second year), but she doesn’t try. Partly it’s out of pride, but largely it’s because she’s developed unhealthy coping skills that she doesn’t realize are unhealthy.

[dramionediscussion]

The issue whether the HP series has adequate POC representation has been brought up quite often at this blog. The basic assumption usually is that the Wizarding World's POC population should represent that of United Kingdom's. Also, it's sometimes followed by a claim that HP fails at this, and the series is whiter than the real life UK is or has been in the past. I got curious about this, as to me it seemed like something that might be true, but also that might not be (I am interested about population history in general, and the UK and its history, and to me the claim didn't strike as something that was intuitively absolutely wrong, but not something that was absolutely right either. So, I decided to sate my curiosity and see how the matter is, to best of my abilities. I thought other people might be interested as well, and once I did the research for myself, I might as well share it). One of the moderators (Elle) made an excellent and informative dig about the subject sometime ago, but it mostly concentrated on the 2010s data, and not that of 1990s, which is when the original HP series primarily takes place in. I thought I could perhaps try to expand that to the period and also weight how the HP series fares. This strictly just a quantitative analysis. It's simply beyond my capabilities to try to answer, whether the representation is good or authentic, or anything like that. Or trying to judge it in any other dimensions, like their importance or impact (as in, are they in relevantly presented in the world and narrative or just relegated background set-pieces). This is only about the original book series, which is primary set between 1991-98, so this is not relevant for CC or Fantastic Beasts or Marauder or any other era beyond 1990s. This is because the POC population in the UK is not some static number, which is constant through the history. Like any other population it changes between decades and centuries both in absolute and relative terms (as in their total number and what is their proportion of the overall population), and the situation would be quite different between 2020s, 1990s and 1970s or 1930s. For the sake of readability, in this posting I am only showing final results and conclusions. In case anybody is interested in the process, like how and where I got the stats and I how I interpret them, about terminology and all the rest, I've added separate links at the bottom. First, if we are to determinate whether HP series reflects the UK's POC population accurately or not, we have to know what the UK's POC population was during that era. Precisely at 1991-98, but for a sake of convenience I am using data from only years 1991 and 2001. Not doing year by year, and then comparing to each individual book. Rather I establish one score for the entire book series (91-98), and then compare it against the real life score, for which I use the mean between 1991 and 2001. However, because the Irish magical population is eligible to attend Hogwarts, and it's heavily implied that the magical Ireland is tied into rest of British Isles in some way (e.g. at Quidditch World Cup we don't see separate political delegation or presence for the Irish nation, but we see one for Bulgaria. So, apparently there's no taoiseach of magic and it's said that Wales, England and Scotland all have their own separate national Quidditch teams, despite being one polity otherwise). Also, because of the HP series being so tied into Hogwarts specifically, so I am going to offer two numbers here, one for the UK proper and another for the UK, which includes the entire Ireland. The UK had the total population of 57 813 821, and 61 339 821 including Ireland at 1991. Of this, the white population of UK was 54 682 062 (94,58%), and UK+I was 58 162 880 (94,82%). The POC population of the UK was 3 131 760 (5,42%), and UK+I was 3 176 942 (5,18%). For the sake of simplicity I am going to use 94,5 % for the white population and 5,5 % for the POC population. During 2001 the total population of the UK was 58 789 187, and UK+I 62 636 187. Of this, the white population of UK was 54 152 188 (92,11%), and UK+I was 57 861 664 (92,38%). The POC population of the UK was 4 637 006 (7,89%), and UK+I was 4 725 271 (7,54%). For the sake of simplicity I am going to use 92% for the white population and 8% for the POC population. The mean and median for the white population between 1991-2001 was 93.25 %, and for the POC population 6.75 %. Let's round those up and down, so we get 93 % for the white pop. and 7% for the POC pop.. So, now the question is that does the Harry Potter series fulfill this 7% POC representation or not, which would authentic for the time period of 1990s. Overall, the POC population is statistically slightly younger, thus we would expect to have more POC representation among younger people, and less with the old, though the total averages for the entire population are as stated. I've used 3 different sets for the HP series. The only exhaustive and complete cohort of people we have is Hogwarts starting class of 1991, from which we have at least names for everyone, and descriptions for most of them. Then second set is all people at Hogwarts during the time (including both the staff and students). Then the rest of the world, including Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Differing sources are bit problematic, but I compiled one set from the book descriptions, then one which adds book descriptions to other canonical material, such as JKR's notes and interviews, Pottermore portraits, book illustrations, and so on. Then finally the movies.  Also, I didn't include people who were only mentioned or seen in visions, memories, dreams. Only those who were corporeally present at 1990s, and seen at the events books depict (except that starting class of 91, from which 11 are mentioned in JKR's notes, but never make an appearance at books nor movies). First, the 43 people who start their education at Hogwarts 1991. Books (32 persons in total) When ethnicity is known: -White: 9 (69,23%) -POC: 4 (30,77%) Of all characters: -White 9 (28,13%) -POC: 4 (12,50%) -Ambiguous: 19 (59,38%) -If White normativity (assumption that all ambiguous characters are white): 28 (87,50%) Books + Additional Canon Material (43) When ethnicity is known: -White 14 (73,68%) -POC 5 (26,32%) Of all characters: -White:14 (32,56%) -POC: 5 (11,63%) -Ambiguous: 24 (55,81%) -White normativity 38 (88,37%) Movies (26) -White: 20 (76,92%) -POC: 6 (23,08%) -Ambiguous: 0 All Hogwarts residents, min. 157 max. 214 Books (157 persons in total) When ethnicity is known: -White: 34 (82,93%) -POC: 7 (17,07%) Of all characters: -White 34 (21,66%) -POC: 7 (4,46%) -Ambiguous: 116 (73,89%) -White normativity: 150 (95,54 %%) Books + Additional Canon Material (168) When ethnicity is known: -White: 56  (84,85%) -POC: 10  (15,15%) Of all characters: White: 56 (33,33%) POC: 10 (5,95%) -Ambiguous: 102 (60,71%) -White normativity: 158 (94,05%) Movies (214) -White: 180  (84,11%) -POC: 34  (15,89%) Every character min. 302 max. 323. Books (312 persons in total) When ethnicity is known -White: 74 (90,24%) -POC: 8 (9,76%) Of all characters: -White: 74 (23,72%) -POC: 8 (2,56%) -Ambiguous: 230 (73,72%) -White normativity: 304 (97,44%) Books + Additional Canon Material (323) When ethnicity is known: -White: 110  (90,16%) -POC: 12  (9,84%) Of all characters: -White: 110 (34,06%) -POC: 12  (3,72%) -Ambiguous: 201 (62,23%) -White normativity: 311 (96,28%) Movies (302) -White: 267 (88,41%) -POC: 35 (11,59%) As a conclusion, it's a quite weird situation overall. As in it's not factual to say that HP whitewashes the period, or that POC are underrepresented for the proportion of their population (I mean, technically they are, but so are whites, because the majority of characters cannot be categorized clearly to either groups in books). Yet, there should've been numerically more clear and visible POC characters in the series. What we have is not enough for that period, despite not exactly being underrepresented. This is because ambiguity isn't a neutral position or descriptor in a society with so clear and overwhelming super-majority. The ambiguity works against POC minorities in a way that it doesn't with the white majority in that time and place (there's nothing inherent to either groups in this regard. If HP was based in let's say 1990s Japan, then the situation would be reversed. The dynamic is due majority / minority relations, not essential characteristics of any group). This is simply, because people will fall down to popular heuristics and rational statistical assumptions, when there's no exhaustive evidence to either direction. In the UK of 90s, that means white normativity pretty much. So, if you have ten visible POC characters and ten visible white characters, and 280 ambiguous ones, in the UK at 1990s for most readers with even a cursory knowledge of that place and time, that often equals 290 white characters and 10 POCs. Because individually, without any identifiers, it's more rational to assume each individual is part of the reigning supermajority. Sure, if you do so, you would make the wrong judgement for 11 individuals, but you would right 269 times. People will do this unconsciously, unless they are very conscious that statistically every fourteenth non-descripted person should be part of the minority.    Ofc, this relies heavily on what assumptions people have about the UK in 1990s, and if someone has no prior knowledge about it, then this could be different. But who writes a book about the UK of all places, and would rely that readers have no apriori conceptions or images about the place. If someone wants to establish a truthful and accurate minority presence, it should be totally clear and unambiguous. Otherwise it might well not even be there, because in this matter basic assumptions and pattern recognition about normality work against minorities by just the definition of them being a minority. It's an asymmetrical imbalance between minorities and majorities.This teetering and noncommittal eye of the beholder diversity "they can be POC, or whatever you want them to be, if you personally want to read them as such, but they also might not be, if you so decide"-approach is not doing any favors to anybody. It totally trivializes the entire issue to basically something totally meaningless, and doesn't even deliver what it intends to accomplish. With movies there isn't similar ambiguity problems, and purely by the numbers they are overrepresented by 4,5% (movies would closer to current demographics of the UK and Ireland). However, problems are more of qualitative than quantitative nature. Movies are quite odd in this regard, because quite often they don't interpret these +200 named and canonical book characters, which are ethnically ambiguous as POCs (except for couple characters like Alicia Spinnet and Romilda Vane). Instead of using the richness of more established book canon characters, they added new POC characters, which are not found in books (like Bem, Kellah and Gwendoline Hedgeflower). I had no idea those even existed before researching this, little alone their names or what they did. Ofc, if we are modeling it after reality, 7% is not going be a huge group regardless (little over 20 people out of 300. Even 10% would be 30), but they could've done it better. Although, in this analysis I didn't take any account or weight in their relevance or screen-time or lines or anything like that, but intuitively while looking at these numbers they probably are not far off from that 5,5-8% what it is was back then. I'd say pretty good overall, but they should've added POCs by casting people like Trelawney or Alastor Moody as ones, and not via new non-book characters with very little relevance. Here are links to sources and detailed explanations of how I gathered and used them. UK data https://justpaste.me/OoVX Harry Potter data https://justpaste.me/OogL

[nevillel]

⧼ chella man, trans man, he/him / ask by the smiths + the scent of sun-hot grass under your trainers as you tromp off for an afternoon of exploration, the darkness of the night before only in the back of your mind, not following you into the light; the cable-knit sweater flecked with old housepaint and frayed at the wrists that substitutes for the embrace for which you can’t voice your need; collapsing to your knees on the blood-stained cobblestones because it’s over, it’s over, but then why does it still follow you?⧽ ━━ hey, isn’t that NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM? i read a daily prophet article on them, once ; the TWENTY-FOUR year old pureblood WIZARD is a GRYFFINDOR alumnus who has gone on to be a HERBOLOGIST WITH A SMALL SHOP IN DIAGON ALLEY. i’ve heard they can be quite COURAGEOUS & COMPASSIONATE, but i don’t know… they came off very BASHFUL & RETICENT in that interview. it really is hard to know what to believe these days though, isn’t it? 

pinterest || playlist 

quick stats

name: neville longbottom age: 24 gender: male. he is not married to any particular concept of masculinity, but he only uses he/him pronouns and the terms wizard, son, boyfriend, etc. sexuality: he doesn’t use a label for his sexuality, but he often prefers emotional connections first. he could fall for people of any gender.  blood status: pureblood and most assuredly a blood traitor. despite this, however, he lives in a very wix-y way without a mobile phone or a television. he’s not opposed to technology, just not very good with it. hogwarts house: gryffindor. he thought he was sorted wrong for a while, but he was always proud of his house. and then he pulled out the sword of godric gryffindor and killed a snake, so that’s that. patronus: incorporeal, though it can still be powerful and effective when he casts it with enough determination. wand: purchased before ollivander’s disappearance. 13 inches, solid yet a bit yielding. cherry wood with a unicorn hair core profession: herbologist. has learned hands-on, not professionally certified. small business owner. researcher residence: a small studio flat above his shop pets: none. hasn’t gotten another toad since trevor ran away from him at the lake. tends to feed the stray cats of diagon, kind of wants a dog likes: tea, hugs, springtime, the outdoors, sturdy boots and flannel, writing and receiving letters, soup and sandwich deals, spending quiet time with friends, emotional openness, cooperation and solidarity, hand-made gifts dislikes: fancy clothes, dishonesty, cruelty, superiority, severus snape and bellatrix lestrange, getting too drunk or using drugs, quidditch statistics talk, flying on brooms, having to transfigure anything, being the center of attention for too long, uneven spots on the cobblestone

biography 

[Triggering subjects in backstory include dysphoria, trauma, bullying, body image issues, child abuse, drowning, torture mentions, mental health.]

The Longbottom family is an ancient one with origins in China, their surname once Liang. However, a branch has been established in England for centuries, and they are a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight with a complicated sense of pride about it.  Their historical alignment has not been as consistent as some families; they didn’t always Sort to one House, they married into families on both sides of many divides, they were both agricultural and urban in turns. 

One consistency was that for several consecutive generations, Longbottoms married other purebloods of East Asian descent. Alice, whose family is Jewish, was an obvious deviation from the pattern, but Frank had fallen for her so emphatically and they were such an ideal match that no one really stood in their way. And they were so happy together, for the time they had together as two independent people taking on the world as a pair. 

A baby was born to Frank and Alice Longbottom on July 30, 1996, as the seventh month died. Brave Aurors who were focused on the war, Frank and Alice were nevertheless doting and attentive parents. They had always been prepared for the possibility of war leaving their child behind, and their wills named the fearsome Augusta Longbottom, matriarch of the ancient Sacred Twenty-Eight family, as alternate guardian. When tragedy struck, Augusta took her grandchild to the Longbottom lands in Lancashire.

Growing up, the Longbottoms’ living heir very quickly realized that he was a boy. While a traditional pureblood in many ways, Augusta was also fiercely progressive, and she aimed to smooth his journey as much as possible. Great care was taken to scrub mentions of his assignation at birth and his deadname from all records, and a Hogwarts letter came for Neville, which would have been his parents’ first choice of name for the boy they didn’t know they would have. 

While the family was supportive of Neville’s trans identity, they were less understanding about his struggles with magic. For a long time, it was thought that Neville was a Squib. His uncle Algernon “Algie” Longbottom threw him off of a pier in Blackpool in an effort to get him to manifest his magic. The impact ruptured his eardrums, and while there was an easy magical fix to the injury, Neville was too scared to tell anyone for a long time, and he experienced partial hearing loss. While Healed, Neville still likes to use signs and body language to communicate sometimes. He’s curious about the use of signing for spell-casting without vocalization or wands and has wondered before whether that would help him with some magic with which he still has difficulty.

During his time at Hogwarts, Neville’s physical transition followed a schedule similar to puberty with Poppy Pomfrey helping administer the Attisgali Corrective Draught in the appropriate doses. There were stretches during his seventh year when the supply chain for Potions ingredients was disrupted. Because of this, on top of everything else, that year was when he felt the worst dysphoria he has experienced before or since. 

Because of the nature of his transition, it is not necessarily public knowledge that Neville is trans. It can be assumed that family members, close friends, and romantic connections are aware. Additionally, people who are old enough to remember him being born may be aware. As a result, while Neville was bullied throughout his school career for his awkwardness and ineptness, he did not face specifically transphobic harassment. The fear was always in the back of his mind, however, forming a complex interaction with his insecurities and trauma. He’s always been sure that he was male. He was just never sure whether he was man enough.

He helped defeat Voldemort by slicing the head off of Nagini and then killing him at last along with his friends and comrades of Dumbledore’s Army. Theirs was a bittersweet triumph, but at last, Neville knew in his heart that he was a man that would have made his parents proud. Nevertheless, he still struggles with self-worth, including body image issues on occasion. He’s trying to do the positive self-talk in the mirror thing, but sometimes he’d rather just exist.

The hope of green growing things means everything to Neville. Pomona Sprout was a mentor for him at Hogwarts, and he still conducts research with her. However, he has chosen to be based out of London instead. He opened his shop in Diagon Alley shortly after graduating from Hogwarts, and despite Augusta Longbottom’s disapproval of his relatively soft career compared to his parents’, he decided that he wanted to honor them by naming his shop Frank & Alice’s Fine Flora. 

His shop is a small establishment with a magically Extended greenhouse-like backroom for growing both commercial plants and plants of other use, such as Dittany. At the front of the shop, he sells both domestic and exotic plants, magical and ordinary, including flowers,  herbs, and vegetables, both magical and non-magical in nature. He also lives in a flat above his shop. On the side, he provides consultancy and input on everything from illegal seed possession on the Ministry’s behalf to ailing trees on the trees’ behalf. He sometimes journeys around London and the United Kingdom for field research on native plants and to collect seeds. He is also interested in venturing further afield, but recent events have made him stick more closely to London.

His parents also tie him down to London. He goes to St. Mungo’s and spends time with them as often as he can bear. They do know him and they do love him. He’s convinced of that. But he hasn’t given up hope, not entirely, that they might be healed one day, and he might know them as they were before their torture by Bellatrix Lestrange.

He is one-third leader of Dumbledore’s Army in its third reincarnation, and he takes his duties extremely seriously.  Neville has more confidence in himself now, and he certainly believes in the power of their collective action against the forces of darkness rising again in their world. He does not, however, put a lot of faith in institutions, including but not limited to the Ministry of Magic and the Daily Prophet. This mistrust does also sometimes extend to people older or in greater positions of authority than himself. 

In his mind, he and his peers have been let down and failed one too many times by them. Neville would rather they take matters into their own hands as they did before.

Neville remains in contact with many friends from Hogwarts and has made many new ones. He’s still a bit awkward and frequently forgetful, terminally clumsy, and not the world’s most skilled wizard apart from his reflexes when dueling and his exceptional aptitude for Herbology. While he hasn’t been able to bring himself to attend support group meetings, he’s always slowly processing and healing from everything that has happened and continues to happen. He’s more forgiving of past transgressions than others, and he feels that he can occasionally reach out across the aisle. He has no tolerance for bullies, however, and although he is gentle-natured, that is a vehement position for him. Largely a pacifist, he’s also not afraid to fight for what is right, yet again.

plotted/played connections 

(alphabetical by first name)

alicia spinnet - close friend. appreciates her warmth and looks up to her. is letting her teach him to fly draco malfoy - diagon alley neighbor, since they work in the apothecary. considers a colleague, still a bit uncertain about where they stand, but they’ve had some oddly illuminating conversations dudley dursley - slightly suspicious around him but trying to be open-minded ginny weasley -  his best friend. has a matching cactus tattoo with her that they can use to communicate emotion.  merry lestrange - doesn’t know it, but she’s his cousin. unexpectedly saved his life. very curious to know who she is oliver wood - they were never quite in the same circles in school, but they have mutual respect for each other. susan bones - likes her personally, wary because of her senior position in the ministry for someone their age. they fought over her not rejoining the da. sybill trelawney - former professor. thinks she’s a bit strange, respects that. does not know that she made a prophecy that once potentially pointed to him--unbeknownst to everyone, it turned out that neville was also a boy born in july with the power to defeat the dark lord.  viktor krum - secret pen pals. the two most awkward men on the planet. 

wanted connections 

augusta longbottom! if you bring her, i’ll love you forever, and we can renegotiate anything above. family - longbottom cousin! should be at least part-chinese. see wcs! professional connections - herbologists, people who work with magical creatures, other diagon alley shopkeepers, potential collaborators friends - i love a good friendship thread! feel free to assume friendship but i’ll also happily plot. enemies?? -  death eaters and their allies. people who used to bully him and haven’t turned that around. also, people on the ‘same side’ as neville but who believe in different methods and approaches to the point where they butt heads. past partner -  neville chooses not to label his sexuality, but this could be someone of any gender. if not someone who was a friend, it was likely something with an emotional level to it, possibly long-term, as neville isn’t really one for casual. if a friend, it could have been one awkward kiss or date.

any - i’m always open to other ideas!

(header img credit @ ofmccnlight)

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

@sundayswiththeilluminati replied to your photoset 

“Accidentally came up with two separate Good Omens fanfic concepts...”

Here's the real question though: does anyone ever try to sell/buy magical books at Aziraphale's bookshop, and what does he do with them if they do? Are magical books Not Allowed as per heaven, or does he end up running a sideline in magical texts since all of them are hilariously basic to him and he can part with them without guilt?

Your answer is provided in the form of a fanfic in which only the latter half relates to the question, but all of which I had far, far too much fun writing.

--

There is a disagreement between Heaven and Hell, as there are wont to be, about which side is responsible for unleashing magic among humanity. The suggestion that it was part of God’s design from the start - that it was in fact of neither angelic nor demonic origins - has been made exactly once, by Aziraphale, who only made this suggestion as a counter to Crowley’s suggestion that magic came about in humans for a reason to do with that flaming sword which Adam and Eve spent so much time about. Crowley then mockingly dismissed Aziraphale’s suggestion by hissing “ineffable” a few dozen times, as they were both a few bottles deep at that point and actually more concerned with heckling each other (and, more simply, with each other) than they were with unlocking the great secrets of Godly intent and Her design. 

This is not to say that Heaven and Hell, and of course more specifically Aziraphale and Crowley, have not meddled prolifically in the affairs of wizardry. It would be easy to blame Crowley for the existence of the Chamber of Secrets, for instance; and he may have taken credit for it but it pressed might confess that a basilisk is quite a bit too nasty for his tastes, that castle is full of children, and he just thought it would be nice for one of the Founders to appreciate snakes - they get such a bad rap, snakes, so undeservedly, and wouldn’t it be nice if they got to be the mascot of one of these Houses too? A bit of appreciation for snakes, really, is all he swayed Salazar Slytherin toward. How was he to know that the bastard would take it so far? And it ended with snakes getting a worse rap because of Slytherin himself, too. This last matter is how you are assured that Crowley had any hand in it at all, because the undercutting of his own intent is a typical Crowley design feature. 

(Crowley would also like to make the assurance that he had nothing in any way to do with Gilderoy Lockhart, even though Gilderoy Lockhart’s habit of claiming credit for things he did not do is also typical Crowley. Gilderoy Lockhart did not have Hell breathing down his neck demanding temptations be done, and frankly it is Hell itself who ascribes credit to Crowley for human inventions and he who simply nods and agrees and then goes to see what humanity has done to itself this time. Gilderoy Lockhart is no demon; he is, by Crowley’s standard of demonic, which is a very mild standard of demonic, much worse.)

Hogwarts’ moving staircases are to Crowley’s actual credit, however. That the sweets shop Honeydukes is built atop a direct secret passage to Hogwarts, allowing discerning students to eat their fill any time, is to Aziraphale’s.

-

To back up for a moment to the broadest scale - setting aside, for a moment, a particular angel and demon - neither Heaven nor Hell sees magic as an affront to themselves. Both know what they do is miracles, not magic, a subtle distinction in that magic has many more limitations than miracles. And even then, Heaven and Hell often conflate the two terms anyway. No one ever accused either of them of holding to strict logical consistency. 

Heaven is unsure whether magic was meant to end up in human hands, given the difficulty they often have over wielding it and the way it spills out of magical children like their bodies cannot contain the power they hold, but God’s intelligent design also includes both wisdom teeth and the intricate and delicate bones of the shoulder, so by that reasoning magic cannot be refuted as something that was part of Her original drafts. Hell does not care, because humans are easily tempted in their most basic forms, and the ones who carry small wooden sticks that assist them in thinking they can channel the full power of magic can even more easily be swayed to catastrophic choices, by virtue of how they are almost never found without those sticks upon them, ready and willing to attempt something that will likely go wrong. Demons are very fond of wizardry. 

Most of the wizarding side of British society is thus of demonic (read: Crowley’s) influence. This includes the rates of magical currency (29 knuts to a sickle, 17 sickles to a galleon) while Hogwarts does not teach any kind of maths courses (Arithmancy is absolutely not maths); rats becoming a popular pet in a society that to function is required to be full of owls; the practice of storing sole copies of prophecies in glass orbs on unstable shelves (Agnes Nutter was an innovator simply by writing hers down on paper); the given name of Harry Potter’s middle child; the entire sport of Quidditch; and some pervasive erroneous beliefs about unicorns.

(Crowley very much likes unicorns, ever since he watched one, survival and God’s plan be damned, book it as far from Noah’s boat as it could. He was thrilled to find that more than the one left on the boat had survived the flood, because they are beautiful and stupid and that is a combination that Crowley holds certain affection for. They are also quite soft and drool a little less than horses and have the added capacity to gore someone with a headbutt. The value of their hair, horns, and blood - though not drool, which is a shame, because Crowley could do a bustling business trading in unicorn drool - means that wizards seek them out, and that means that Crowley seeks to vex them. It is very wily and evil of him to keep the humans from those powerful magic healing properties, of course.) 

(One of his methods of diverting the casual unicorn-seeker was through the creation and spread of falsehoods about the kind of people whose presence unicorns tolerate. A few stray remarks, some influence applied to make sure it is believed, about “purity” being required to approach unicorns, and the wizards did the rest, deciding it seemed like girls were more able to approach unicorns. Thus already roughly half of the populace is discouraged from attempting, and the rest given weird hang-ups about it. Of course, this is all ridiculous, because Crowley, as a demon, ascribes to gender only when he wants to, and would be described by no one as “pure” in any way. Crowley did once attempt to describe himself as “pure evil, and unicorns only sense purity, so that counts” but he was promptly called a bitch by Newt Scamander and banned from the Leaky Cauldron again. He did not care, because drinking is only really fun with Aziraphale, and the fact of the matter remained that he still gets to cuddle unicorns when no one else does.)

-

There is a mild, subtle war fought between Heaven and Hell over most instructive books on magic. That is if “mild” and “subtle” could be taken to mean that there is one generally book-loving angel who very much disdains these particular books, and one generally book-agnostic demon who very much loves them. 

Wizarding Britain does not have a robust publishing industry. Wizarding Britain does not have robust anything, excepting their robustly ineffectual and expansive bureaucracy, but Aziraphale finds their literature particularly shameful. Surely some of this is owing to the limits of the courses offered at Hogwarts, where language and spelling is whatever of the form of your homework essays, as opposed to the much more valued content of said essays, that a professor chooses to comment on. (In a certain era, much of the spelling tutelage for a generation of Hogwarts students came from their Potions essays, because Severus Snape took a certain glee in marking up as much as he possibly could and watching the faces of students as they found their parchment returned to them covered in red ink even though the substance of their essays was sound.) 

This may also be a consequence of the way British wizarding society has a certain cultural stagnancy. The way things are done is the way things are done. (In this manner it reminds of Heaven and Hell and their inability to keep with the times on Earth. This is also another reason that demons like wizards, because they don’t have to keep up with new technology like “personal phones” and “computers”.) Hogwarts curriculum does not update with any regularity and looks much the same as it did 400 years ago, variation arriving mostly with the competency of the professors. 

And magic is what is valued, so magic is what books are written on. And while wizarding Britain has its innovators - it has humans, so inevitably it has innovators creating new spells, potions, and devices - they are not so encouraged and valued. And often they do not bother to write books. 

As a result, the bulk of the book movement through wizarding Britain is Hogwarts textbooks, which are rarely updated. The edition numbers occasionally change, as do a sentence or two of the interior, but Aziraphale lacks interest in any of it. He lacks an interest in all of this sort of magic. He cannot perform it - as a celestial being he can do far more anyway - and it cannot be learned - unlike coin tricks and sleights-of-hand and rabbits - and there is nothing exceptional in the writing or rarity of any of it. The wizarding books that Aziraphale has interest in are settled firmly in the great library of Hogwarts, and not for sale, though Aziraphale has made offers. He had then considered theft but decided that theft from a school was a certain step too far. 

(The one wizarding book that Aziraphale both cares about and possesses is a first-edition The Tales of Beedle the Bard, who is not Aziraphale’s favorite bard. However, Aziraphale does find “The Tale of the Three Brothers” to be an interesting look at the wizarding perspective on death. It is an inaccurate one, of course; Death does not grant boons, not even ones that will become curses to sooner send their holders into his hands. That is the parlance of demonic temptations, and Crowley will freely admit, though he has gotten numerous commendations for the Elder Wand over the centuries, that like Slytherin’s basilisk, the humans took the whole thing a bit too far.)

At any rate, Aziraphale’s bookshop was prominently placed on the map of wizarding London when he offered to purchase some certain unique volumes from Hogwarts, and this has been a curse of his own making, as more usually happens to Crowley. The wizarding population of London had, since the opening of A.Z. Fell and Co., admittedly always considered it one of theirs, in the same way that the Muggle population eventually came to consider it a front for the mafia, but the uptick of attempts to sell wizarding books back to the shop, or wizarding books just being left amidst the stacks, definitely corresponded with the one time Aziraphale made official contact with wizarding Britain. These magical books are a blight upon his bookshop and he would have miracled himself into being forgotten by Britain’s wizardry some time in 1847 were it not for the Arrangement.

That being, Crowley likes the books dropped at Aziraphale’s shop, often books on Hogwarts’ reading list, which are the most often sold, because it is very easy to accomplish simultaneously temptations and miracles with them.

Since the mid 1800s, it is known, amongst the poorer population of wizarding Britain, that there is a particular drop point in Diagon Alley where, if you are in need enough, you can find almost any relatively-common book that you were not able to afford but was necessary for your education. “In need enough” and “necessary” are miracles with much wiggle room. For instance, in 1992, the Weasley twins did not strictly need NEWT-level Charms and Transfiguration textbooks for their courses at Hogwarts, but they needed them to properly innovate on their pranks. 

Providing magical knowledge for free is, of course, very demonic, given the capacity for destruction by the untrained wizard, especially if that knowledge is far above their years. It is in fact incredibly necessary that it be for free, else parents or guardians would stop them. 

Truly, another genius ploy from the wily serpent. 

Almost as good as the bit with the unicorns.

[0poole]

Harry Potter!

Finished rewatching all of the movies. I must confess, I am a movie plebian. I haven’t read any of the books yet. Call me when the solar flare that destroys and erases all electronics and data finally comes. I’ll probably be reading it then. Probably.

Anyways, I love what I’ve experienced of the franchise so far regardless. The whole story is so fantastical and fun, interspersed with pretty real dangers that come about through magic. That, I think, is the one thing all kinds of fiction should adhere to: If your world has weird logic, the conflict should be somehow based in that weird logic, instead of being somehow parallel to something more normal/real. That’s probably why people hate the Star Wars prequels; too much politics, not enough lightsabers. 

Seriously, though. Practically all things derived from Harry Potter are great. The movies, the music, ESPECIALLY the video games (or the first three, to be exact.) Also, the one perk of living in Florida is being able to go to the theme park. It’s nice and all seeing a made up setting presented to you on a screen, but to actually be there, walking around the world? It’s nuts. Even the Fantastic Beast series isn’t perfect, but still very alright at worst. I’m really just going to have to piece together my thoughts to organize them all.

The Movies:

They say dumbing down an experience and presenting it to an audience in a neat little package is a bad thing, but really... The movies are extremely good. I do prefer the style of the first two, where everything seemed more light and charming. Of course, it was about the third movie when Harry realized that the world wasn’t as bright and shiny as the first two years led him to believe, so it’s fair his take on things would be altered. I just wish it wasn’t so consistently, you know... dark blue and cloudy. I mean, I get that it’s England and all, but it’s fantasy.

Either way, I guess I’ll have to put all of the emotions that I probably would’ve experienced anyway if I read the books first here. The absolute best part about the series is the characters. I’ve already gushed about how Hagrid is the absolute most wholesome character in all of fiction. Another seriously good one is Mrs. McGonagall, who comes off as the serious, “do your homework!” type at the beginning, but by the end becomes a super charming and genuine person. In the last movie, her line “I’ve always wanted to use that spell!” Is so cute. I mean, you really can’t name a non-charming character in the whole series. The entire Wealsey family is insanely lovable. The Malfoys are supreme assholes at the beginning, but seem to slowly turn for the better as things get super dark. 

Obviously the major deaths are so major because of how much you loved the characters. Dumbledore was definitely the type to realize when he must die, but seeing the serious amount of respect people had for him it just makes you choke up. Dobby’s death destroys anyone with a heart, because he died swinging. Snape as a whole is such an amazing and fun character to just watch exist, despite being so dark and brooding all the time. I’m sure his death the first time around was sort of confusing, until we got to see his memories, at whichpoint you’d be dried up in your seat due to dehydration. I wasn’t exactly emotionally mature when I first saw it so I have no major memory of how I felt, although I definitely feel it now. Considering how pure the Weasley family was, Fred’s death was also super heartbreaking, mainly because the twins were nothing but joy even in the worst of times. Even the brief cut-away to Lupin’s body got you. And, that’s only in the Deathly Hallows movies... What about Sirius? Hell, even seeing Hagrid caring so much for Aragog makes you feel bad. It’s a serious testament to how good these characters are. 

The music has become so impossibly iconic too. That’s what you get when you get John Williams. I’ll tell ya, I couldn’t sing you any non-soundtrack song from the past few years of movies I watched. Sure, the music did them good I guess, but they never felt like actual songs you wanted to listen to. If you played anyone the soundtracks to the first two movies, they could identify what they’re from in the first two notes minimum. It’s so great. I’d kill to have movies do this again. I mean, you can always go for more good music. 

The Games:

The year is, I dunno... any year before like 2010. A kid’s movie comes out, and BANG there’s a game for it. “Oh, I like the movie. Maybe I’ll like the game?” No. No you won’t. That’s not how it works. If you’re lucky you’ll have some nostalgic memories from it, and hell maybe that’s the reason why I think the Harry Potter games are so damn GOOD. 

Seriously, how did this happen? The games (or, as I said, mainly the first three and that Quidditch one) are so fun on their own, regardless of the movies. I have fond memories of the first, but the Chamber of Secrets on PC is where most of my love lies. God, I’ve been listening to the music the whole time while writing this and it’s so perfectly ingrained into my mind. Like the movie, the themes are so wild and singable. Even the fucking GBA game planted its seed into my memory, despite me only getting like 10% of the way through it. It had its own soundtrack apart from the PC games too, and didn’t even try to recreate the music from them. They literally wrote new music for their shitty cashgrab game. It’s so good.

Plus, the games seem to include stuff that wasn’t even hinted at in the movies. Remember when Harry used Spongify to bounce up to different parts of the castle in the movies? Or used Skurge to remove some stray ghostly ectoplasm? No. That’s only in the games. More importantly, can we talk about Quidditch? The game, but also as a whole?

Harry Potter really made me realize that I LOVE fictional sports. Like what I said with the conflict of a fictional story, having a sport built upon the weird logic of a world is just as, if not more, interesting. Even though the rules of Quidditch are absolute BS (seems like nothing but the Snitch matters) just watching it is so fun and interesting. You’d think that brooms would exclusively be transport, but OF COURSE they’d use them for sport at some point. Toss in a few magical balls, and boom--- you’ve got something some wizards would love to watch. The verticality of the field is easily what makes it so much cooler, since it would obviously require so much more space, and to any unaware observer, just seeing the field would show that nothing normal is played there. If they ever release a movie that’s just another generic sports movie with all the expected twists and turns, except the sport in question is Quidditch, I’d watch the shit out of that.

In the meantime, we have a Qudditch video game. Again, another original soundtrack, and apparently an anthem for each world team? God, really? You did all that? Anyway, from what I remember, the game isn’t too hard, but I’ll have to find it again and try to shoot for the big leagues to see if they step it up. About the world teams, though: they’re the absolute best part. You play basically college-level Qudditch against the houses for a while, but then you see how big the game actually is around the world, not only being able to play as a worldly team, but in a worldly stadium as well. Someone had to design a stadium, style, animations... for each team. That’s nuts. 

So much effort was put into the first few Harry Potter games, it’s shocking. Sucks that, as far as I remember, they basically slowly turned into wizard FPSs after that. I kind of remember liking the fourth one a bit, but I’ll need to find it again. I lost that stupid little disc holder thing with all the nostalgia-filled games I loved on it. The day I find it is going to be one hell of a day.

The Wizarding World:

The curse of being so damn amazing is people swarming to it and ruining the experience just by overcrowding. Either way, the place was actually amazing. I’m a sucker for any real-life place that tries to mimic a very fantastical setting. That’s really the reason why I prefer Universal as a whole to Disney, since it feels much more like you’re stepping into a different world. Kind of helps to distract you from the BS prices and tourist pandering. 

I mean, There’s not much to say apart from it looking cool. The rides are good, I guess. It’s weird, when we got there my mom was like “We HAVE to try Butterbeer” and, to be honest, I’m struggling to think of an actual drink more disgusting sounding than “Butterbeer” that isn’t just insect guts or something. I’ve never had the slightest inclination to try normal beer at any point, and I can sure as hell say that suggesting that someone putting butter in it makes it so much worse. I don’t know why, butter and beer just feel like they shouldn’t go together. Hell, maybe they don’t even use butter. I know at Universal, at least, it’s not actual beer, since kids would surely want to try it, but the concept just feels really disgusting.

That rant aside, here’s the valuable knowledge: I’d have to say that I’d be a Hufflepuff. In my more Incel-ular days I thought I’d be a Ravenclaw, since they smart and all, but really I feel more of a Hufflepuff. That’s not even decided by a web quiz. I just think that I’d chose to be a background character above all else. I pretty much am, anyway. Not that that’s bad, I’m just, you know... in the background. Plus, I’m assuming they’re the more artsy of the four houses. Really, I don’t know exactly what it stands for. “Talent?” What the hell is that supposed to mean? 

[harry-potter-und-der-ganzer-film]

Stream.Cloud |~ Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen” Film (Online) Anschauen

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22. November 2001 / 2 Std. 32 Min. / Fantasy, Abenteuer, Familie Von Chris Columbus Mit Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson Produktionsländer USA, Großbritannien

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INHALTSANGABE & DETAILS Harry Potters (Daniel Radcliffe) Leben verändert sich schlagartig, als er an seinem 11. Geburtstag erfährt, dass er kein gewöhnlicher Junge ist, sondern ein Zauberer. Gut so, denn jetzt kann er endlich das Haus von Tante und Onkel verlassen, bei denen er von klein auf ungeliebt gelebt hat. Er besucht von nun an die Hogwarts-Schule für Hexerei und Zauberei, wo er aufgrund von Geschehnissen nach seiner Geburt berühmt ist. Schnell freundet er sich mit Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) und Hermine Granger (Emma Watson) an und lernt außerdem den riesenhaften Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) kennen. Es wartet ein spannendes erstes Schuljahr voller Magie und mit Harrys ersten Versuchen im Quidditch, einem Ballspiel auf fliegenden Besen. Außerdem ist da noch die Frage zu klären, was es mit dem Stein der Weisen auf sich hat...

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Definition and definition of Film / film While the players who play a role in the film are referred to as actors (men) or actresses (women). There is also the term extras that are used as minor characters with few roles in the film. This differs from the main actors, who have larger and more roles. As an actor and actress, good acting talent must be required that corresponds to the subject of the film in which he plays the leading role. In certain scenes, the role of the actor can be replaced by a stunt man or a stunt man. The existence of a stuntman is important to replace the actors who play difficult and extreme scenes that are usually found in action-action films. Movies can also be used to deliver certain messages from the filmmaker. Some industries also use film to convey and represent their symbols and culture. Filmmaking is also a form of expression, thoughts, ideas, concepts, feelings and moods of a person that are visualized in the film. The film itself is mostly fictional, though some are based on actual stories or on a true story. There are also documentaries with original and real images or biographical films that tell the story of a character. There are many other popular genre films, from action films, horror films, comedy films, romantic films, fantasy films, thriller films, drama films, science fiction films, crime films, documentaries and others. This is some information about the definition of film or film. The information has been cited from various sources and references. Hope it can be useful.

❍❍❍ TV FILM ❍❍❍ The first television shows were experimental, sporadic programs that from the 1930s could only be seen at a very short distance from the mast. TV events such as the 1936 Summer Olympics in Germany, the crowning of King George VI. In Britain in 19340 and the famous launch of David Sarnoff at the 1939 New York World’s Fair in the United States, the medium grew, but World War II brought development to a halt after the war. The 19440 World MOVIE inspired many Americans to buy their first television, and in 1948 the popular Texaco Star Theater radio moved to become the first weekly television variety show that hosted Milton Berle and earned the name “Mr Television” demonstrated The medium was a stable, modern form of entertainment that could attract advertisers. The first national live television broadcast in the United States took place on September 4, 1951, when President Harry Truman’s speech at the Japanese Peace Treaty Conference in San Francisco on AT & T’s transcontinental cable and microwave relay system was broadcasting to broadcasters in local markets has been. The first national color show (the 1954 Rose Parade tournament) in the United States took place on January 1, 1954. For the next ten years, most network broadcasts and almost all local broadcasts continued to be broadcast in black and white. A color transition was announced for autumn 1965, in which more than half of all network prime time programs were broadcast in color. The first all-color peak season came just a year later. In 19402, the last holdout of daytime network shows was converted to the first full color network season.

❍❍❍ formats and genres ❍❍❍ See also: List of genres § Film and television formats and genres TV shows are more diverse than most other media due to the variety of formats and genres that can be presented. A show can be fictional (as in comedies and dramas) or non-fictional (as in documentary, news, and reality television). It can be current (as in the case of a local news program and some television films) or historical (as in the case of many documentaries and fictional films). They can be educational or educational in the first place, or entertaining, as is the case with situation comedies and game shows. [Citation required] A drama program usually consists of a series of actors who play characters in a historical or contemporary setting. The program follows their lives and adventures. Before the 1980s, shows (with the exception of soap opera series) generally remained static without storylines, and the main characters and premise barely changed. [Citation required] If the characters’ lives changed a bit during the episode, it was usually reversed in the end. For this reason, the episodes can be broadcast in any order. [Citation required] Since the 1980s, many FILMS have had a progressive change in the plot, characters, or both. For example, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere were two of the first American prime time drama television films to have this kind of dramatic structure [4] [better source required], while the later MOVIE Babylon 5 further illustrated such a structure had a predetermined story about the planned five season run. [Citation required] InAfter Truth, it was reported that television became a larger part of the revenue of large media companies than the film. Some also noticed the quality improvement of some television programs. InAfter Truth, Oscar-winning film director Steven Soderbergh declared the ambiguity and complexity of character and narrative: “I think these qualities are now being seen on television and people who want to see stories with such qualities are watching TV.

❍❍❍ Thanks for everything and have fun watching❍❍❍ Here you will find all the films that you can stream online, including the films that were shown this week. If you’re wondering what to see on this website, you should know that it covers genres that include crime, science, fi-fi, action, romance, thriller, comedy, drama, and anime film. Thanks a lot. We inform everyone who is happy to receive news or information about this year’s film program and how to watch your favorite films. Hopefully we can be the best partner for you to find recommendations for your favorite films. That’s all from us, greetings! Thank you for watching The Video Today. I hope you like the videos I share. Give a thumbs up, like or share if you like what we shared so we are more excited. Scatter a happy smile so that the world returns in a variety of colors.

[bentchcreates]

Beyond Light and Darkness, A Kathbute Anthology (Part 2)

Let me begin 2018 with an awesome review of our awesome book! I’m very proud of this – I was part of the new writer judging, the editing, and I wrote the preface! – and if you want to know this book’s journey from conception to publishing I wrote a lengthy blog on that last year.

In this second part of the #BLaD blog posts, I’ll be reviewing it as a reader and I’ll try to review it as objectively as I can. ;) Here’s what I think of the 11 stories by the Kathbute Authors, because while a general review of the book is appreciated, it always feels great for anthology authors to read about their works individually.

I. Love Bits

1. The Watch Repairman’s Son – H. Bentham Prompts: A broken wristwatch, peppermints, and a hug that goes too far.

LOL at reviewing this objectively! XD This is my work and for me it’s the best! Hahaha!

Anyway, a trivia about this story: This is actually my first Sancho de Guerra story. I finished writing this almost a full year before “Guide for A Day” appeared in Summer Feels but this took a while to see the light of day. The town I envisioned here is a wee bit different from the one I imagined for the later story, but you wouldn’t really notice. All the bits that got published can go together, and as of this writing, I declare it as canon. ;)

2. Can I Stay? – Nigel Libranages Prompts: Tarot Cards, the coming winter, a pair of old leather boots

This is more of a romantic fiction than romance but the feels, especially the melancholy, is on point. The tone seems levelheaded, but there’s something subtle in how it’s presented that tugs at the heartstrings just right. I must commend both the clever interpretation of the given prompts and the vivid visualization of the settings. Sandra’s characterization is also well fleshed out, justifying her decisions through the end of this short story.

II. Spell Crafts

3. Potion Lunacy – Irina Jean Prompts: The first day of school, a love note, a recipe with a significant mistake

The YA Fantasy theme in this one is cute and reminds me so much of quirky 2000’s anime. Feisty Portia is stubborn but also a bit insecure and her love interest, Gelen, is just the right amount of clumsy and torpe to be endearing. The fun and fast-paced banter depicts the youthfulness of the characters accurately. And the magic parts, though light, are solid and well thought of.

4. Etienne and Amelie – Johanna Lee Prompts: A supporting fairytale character, a lake, pretenses

This retelling of your favorite fairytales retains the fantastical magic of our childhood reads. I’m not going to say which tales get beautifully mashed-up because I think the figuring out is part of the story’s charm. The visualization and choice of words are commendable, as well as the surprising twist at the very end. You have to read this carefully. Blink, and you’ll miss it.

5. Man in Between – Trix Luna Prompts: old train, jewels, an inconvenient truth

This story wasn’t in the original manuscript I got to read in the editing phase so reading it for the first time in the book is quite an experience. It is told in the second person POV, something I rarely get to read and the spec fic theme is also somewhat fresh to me. I don’t know how best to describe it without spoilers except that I thought it felt transcendental. The choice of words really got to me and it was…unsettling, in the way good fiction affects readers even after the story ends.

III. Distortions

6. The Time Banker – Raine Rillera Prompts: A name, a prison cell, music

The sci-fi/spec fic concept for this one has been wonderfully executed, and the interpretation of the prompts, though subtle and downplayed, were key elements in the advancement plot. This is one of the stories chosen after our writing contest and I remembered that even the rough draft of this one was solid so the edited version in the print made for an awesome reread.

7. The Trial of the Tainted – Trix Luna Prompts: A heroic villain, an old parchment, an unforgivable sin

Space and time-travelling were the themes of this interesting short story. I loved the world-building in this one and the twist and turns it took to get to that ‘heroic villain’ bit. There is also an underlying subtheme of a familiar story that everyone knows by now so the marriage of sci-fi elements to that story kind of updated the mysterious plot.

8. Word Wisp – AlaraChan IDA Prompts: aerobics, a secret diary, something unpleasant under the bed

With prompts like those, familiar stories immediately come to mind about monsters and inner demons, yada, yada…but this interpretation of the boogeyman trope is fresh and brilliant. The monster here isn’t a thing, more of a concept, and it doesn’t kill, but rather consumes something everyone often takes for granted. I especially loved the world apocalypse scenes and the people’s reactions to it in this story’s universe.

IV. Penumbra

9. Allegro – RK Sanchez Prompts: A name, a prison cell, music

Our cover artist also contributed a story here, and it is one on the darker themes. This time the mystery is more psychological and less fantastical but is just as interesting as all the other stories.  The author takes a different turn with the interpretation of the prompts and offers a sweet twist toward the end.

10. Thirty-Seven – Yelle Felicenny Prompts: A stolen ring, fear of spiders, a sinister stranger

This was one of my anticipated reads in this book because I only got to read the first part during the editing phase. There’s a bit of action, adventure and mystery here but what really got me was the dark turn of events at about the final quarter of the story.

11. Darker Than Night- AlaraChan IDA Prompts: a campfire, a scream, a small lie that gets bigger and bigger

This is uniquely written in epistolary style/journal entries, and is a dark but captivating read. I don’t read a lot of horror stories (everyone knows I’m a coward, lol) but I couldn’t put this down! I wanted to know what happens to the aswang and the military party that’s pursuing it!

5 of 5 Stars. Because I’m super proud of our work, and it is an honor to have worked on this with awesome writers and awesome people!

Blurb: The 11 stories in this anthology showcase the interpretations of the Kathbute writers to the theme of light and darkness in the genres of Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Mystery.

Buy Links:

Right now it’s only available in print here: bit.ly/BLADBatch2

I’ll update this when the Kindle version is released. J

For the meantime, put it in your GoodReads TBR shelf? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36995364-beyond-light-and-darkness-a-kathbute-anthology

About the authors:

Nigel Libranages Nigel Libranages is a licensed chemist but dreams of becoming a marine biologist and take care of sea turtles. Born as a genuine sinker, the closest that he can do about his dream is own an aquarium. He has pitcher plants for pets, and he loves reading about myths and folklore. He writes before he forgets. Dedication: To those who are strong enough to hold on, and brave enough to let go.

Wattpad: @libranages

Raine Rillera Born and raised in Baguio City, Raine has a natural affinity to cold weather and “vintage” clothing (i.e. ukay). Her first paying job was as a puppeteer, when at 8 years old she staged her own puppet show at a birthday party. Since then, she has been telling stories through whatever medium was available.

Wattpad: @purple_porpoise

H. Bentham H. Bentham was born and raised in the Philippines but now resides 1,481 miles away from home. He battles homesickness with his various hobbies and (mostly) procrastinating on the internet. When he's done being bored, he writes stories; and when he's feeling particularly profound, poems. He adores turtles and bettas, enjoying the slow, quiet companionship they provide.

Wattpad: @bentchbites|Facebook: H Bentham Writes | Twitter: @bentchbites| Instagram: @bentchbites

Irina Jean Irina Jean is an elusive mushroom who indulges in anime, manga, video games, and most of all, art. She believes that writing is a unique form of art too, for she can express herself with words as her paint and her laptop as her canvas. When she's not writing, she's usually binge-gaming with friends. She dreams of being a webcomic artist and, if possible, a space witch. (Actually, any kind of witch would do.)

Wattpad: @Cygneux|Facebook: Irina Jean

Trix Luna Trix is the self-proclaimed duchess of the East of the Sun and West of the Moon, a place where there is always light when you need it. She’s still waiting for her Hogwarts acceptance letter even though she is already sorted to Ravenclaw. She’s not adept at any game ending in –ball (basketball, football, volleyball, etc.) other than Quidditch and Scrabble. She has a one-sided relationship with music and strongly opposes to divorce with it, believing that music will learn to love her singing voice…eventually.

Wattpad: @lunatrix|Facebook: Trix Luna | Twitter: @3xLuna

AlaraChan IDA AlaraChan IDA is a kabute who like books, cats, and hot chocolate. She takes long quiet walks, bike rides, and binge-watching a number of TV series to keep her muse alive and kicking. She dreams of becoming a pod racer, a dragon-tamer, and a space pirate. She recently took up watercolor painting and is now torn between writing and the arts.

Wattpad: @AlaraChan| Instagram: @alara_arts

Johanna Lee Johanna Lee is a Filipino writer based in Western Australia who writes poetry, and fictional stories in the genre of Chicklit, Romance, and Paranormal. A published Tagalog Romance author, Radish Fiction writer, and a Children’s-storyteller-wannabe. She finds joy in her collection of toys, books, stationery, and old-fashioned writing tools.

Twitter: @ilivewritenow| Instagram: @ilivewritenow

Yelle Felicenny Felicenny is an awkward melange of multiple extremes: an artist hemmed in a thriving tycoon’s body. While business is her field of study and training remote communities is her passion in public service, her heart belongs to art, poetry and travelling. Bus rides, sunsets and coffee shops are among her favorite things, for the untamed muse beckons the most - inked on bus tickets, receipts and table napkins.

Wattpad: @Felicenny| Facebook: Yelle Felicenny

R.K. Sanchez R.K. Sanchez is a teacher by profession, but is fond of learning a lot of things from her students. Her hands are often dirty as she is a right-handed artist and guitarist, often having guitar string marks on her left hand fingertips and paint stains all over her right hand. She is an introvert who has always been afraid of meeting and approaching new people, but never afraid of approaching stray cats and dogs.

Wattpad : @PrivateHeroine| | Facebook: Skribsinner | Instagram: @skribsinner

[weascleys]

Baby Steps: Chapter 10

Chapter Title: “You’re Fine, Man” Pairing: George Weasley/Donella Stirling (Original Character) Warning(s): none Words: 1462

Chapter Summary: Juni shares his secret with Fred, George, and Lee.

Notes: This is quite fluffy and kind of a filler chapter, but I really liked writing it. :) This was so sweet. 

“I can’t believe you actually tried to send Harry a toilet seat,” Ella said as she glanced at Fred and George over the copy of Hogwarts, A History that she had borrowed from Hermione.

“We wanted to make him feel better! He could have died down there, you know!” George said defensively.

“Yeah, and we would have successfully sent him a toilet seat if Madam Pomfrey hadn’t have deemed it ‘unsanitary.’” Fred grumbled from next to George and sulked in his seat.

Ella chuckled and rolled her eyes, pushing her glasses further up on the bridge of her nose. “You two are so weird.”

“Speaking of weird,” Lee Jordan said, “what are you doing in our train compartment?”

“Your train compartment?” Ella asked with raised eyebrows. “I’m sorry, I don’t recall seeing your names on the door.” Fred and George stifled their laughter.

“I just mean why are you here with us? You’re usually with all of your other friends. What about Katie?”

“She’s with Angelina and Alicia in another car,” Ella said, hardly even paying attention anymore, she was more interested in her book.

“And what about Cho?”

“She’s with her friends from Ravenclaw.” Ella thumbed to the next page.

“Okay, fine. But, what about Juni? The two of you are inseparable.”

“I’m sure he’ll be along soon. He said he was just going to find the trolley and buy something before all the good things have gone.”

“Alright,” Fred said, “about that. What’s this whole ‘he’ thing about? You’ve been referring to Juni as a boy for like, six months now. Why?”

Before the winter holidays had even ended, Ella had convinced Juni to tell his parents about being transgender. Like Ella had suspected, it went swimmingly. Juni’s parents were very liberal and very supporting people, all they wanted was for their daughter, now their son, to be happy. And if being a boy is what made Juni happy, then so be it. They had even gone as far to let him cut his hair and had gotten him some “boy” clothes of his own. Until then, he had been using Jackson’s old ones.

Ella shrugged. “Because Juni’s a boy. Simple as that.”

“But what does that mean?” George asked her. Just like Ella hadn’t before, they didn’t understand.

“I really don’t think that I’m the person to tell you that.” Ella pulled out the connected journals that she and Juni had exchanged at the beginning of their first year. When a message was sent through it, it became very hot. So, she was sure Juni would know that she had written to him if he had it on him. Which, of course, she knew he did.

Would you be okay with telling Fred, George, and Lee about your situation? They keep asking me questions.

Only moments passed before she saw Juni’s handwriting appear on the page in front of her.

I guess. You just have to promise them that they won’t make fun of me.

Ella scribbled furiously in reply.

Of course. If you don’t want to you don’t have to. I just don’t really know how to answer all their questions without outting you.

Juni got back to her within the minute.

Nah, it’s fine. I can tell them, I just don’t feel like getting made fun of more than I already do.

Ella felt her heart clench at that. Juni has been getting made fun of ever since they got to school because he was Muggle-born, being trans only added to that. Not everyone knew that he was transgendered, most people just thought he was a really masculine girl. Juni was fine with that for now, though. The people who really mattered knew that he was a boy, and that was all he really cared about.

“Fine,” Ella said, snapping her book shut, “Juni’s going to come in here and he’s going to explain why I call him a boy. But all three of you have to promise that you’ll be mature and that you’ll tell absolutely no jokes. This is serious.” She fixed them all with a look that told her she was not taking this lightly.

“Okay,” George said skeptically. “We won’t do anything, right boys?” Fred and Lee nodded in agreement.

At just the perfect moment Juni opened the door and casually strode in to sit down next to Ella. If you didn’t know him before, you wouldn't even be able to tell that he looked completely different six months ago. His dark hair was cropped short and he looked no different from any other boy in his school robes. Juni was completely passable as a boy because in all reality he was.

“So,” Juni said, his voice still incredibly feminine and soft, “I hear you have some questions that you want answers to.”

“Well, I mean,” Lee Jordan said hesitantly, “if that’s alright.”

Juni shrugged. He might as well get used to telling people, he’d have to do it eventually. “Yeah, it’s fine. You guys just have to promise that you’ll take it well.”

“That depends on what there is to take,” Fred said, crossing his arms. And if looks could kill, the look that Ella shot him would have had him six feet under before he could say “Quidditch.”

“Fred, you promised —” Ella said menacingly.

“El, it’s fine,” Juni said and held his hands up to her like he was trying to calm down Ella’s aura. “They have a right to be a little confused.” He took a deep breath like he had done that day in Ella’s room, except there were no tears this time. In only a short amount of time, he had become way more comfortable with himself. “I am transgender,” Juni said very clearly. He was met with three blank stares.

“And what does that mean?” George said, leaning forward like he did when he was interested in something. Ella’s heart warmed a bit. He didn’t seem put off, just curious. And if she cared about anyone accepting Juni, it was Fred and George, and she couldn’t put her finger on why.

“Well,” Juni said, trying to find a good way to word it, “it definitely means that I’m a boy. And before you say that I’m not, I can assure that I am. Just not on the outside yet. But up here,” he tapped on his head, “and in here,” he placed his hand over his heart, “I am. I cannot begin to express how trapped I have felt in my body until now.” He was met by the blank stares again, they seemed to be sifting through all the information and trying to grasp the concept.

“So,” Lee said, “basically what you’re trying to say is that you’re not a girl anymore? And that you’re a guy now?”

“Brilliant observation, Lee,” Ella piped up, but quieted back down when Juni gave her a look as if to say, “calm down, please.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying,” Juni said coolly. He was far more composed than when he had come out to Ella and his parents.

“Oh,” Fred said and sank back, tension melting away from his shoulders. “That’s it? That’s all you had to tell us?”

“Yes…” Juni said skeptically.

“Well, that’s fine. If you’re a dude then you’re a dude. We don’t have a problem with that, do we, George?”

George shook his head. “I don’t see an issue with it. I mean, at this point, if I had just walked passed you on the street I would just think you’re a guy anyways. So, what’s the harm?”

Juni couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he had not expected to be received this well. All of the articles and books that he had read had led him to believe that all of his friends would abandon him and his parents would kick him out, that was the case for a lot of people and it disgusted him. But he was truly blessed to be in the company of such accepting people. “Wait, you’re serious? You don’t care?”

“Nah,” Lee said and clapped Juni on the shoulder, “you’re fine, man.”

“Well — I mean, okay,” Juni said, it was his turn to be befuddled. They were being so nonchalant as if he had just told them about the weather.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Fred said. “Can I have one of your Chocolate Frogs, man?”

Juni smiled and handed over one of his Chocolate Frogs to Fred. Being called “dude” and “man” was something that Juni reveled in, and to hear people so openly call him those things made him so incredibly happy that he couldn’t even put it into words. This had been such an incredible second year, he wouldn’t trade it for the world.