#pro tom riddle

[vyrid]

The way Tom Riddle Jr. was conceived never sat right with me. It has so many plot holes, things that don't add up, and it sounds pretty aggressive towards people who are born under the influence of rape.

In the 6th book, Dumbledore says that Merope used the love potion on Tom Riddle Sr. so that they would be together, and she got pregnant along the way. She stopped the usage of Amortentia when she found out she was with child in hopes that Tom Riddle Jr's birth would make Sr. love her. Instead of loving her, Sr was horrified and ran away from her, leaving her pregnant and broke. He was traumatized from being raped and therefore didn't want anything to have to do with his son.

I don't like Dumbledore's theory. I hate it, actually. Because it doesn't make any sense. We can see from the memories Harry and him go through that Merope was practically a squib and had only a drop of magic in her. She could barely wave around her wand, for God's sake! How the hell would a woman as weak as her make Amortentia not once but multiple times? You need to be decent at magic to even attempt to make the love potion. Her drugging Tom Riddle Sr. suggests that she was a powerful witch, but she clearly isn't, as shown in Gaunt House.

Even if she didn't make the potion herself, there is no way that she bought it either considering she was dirt poor and Amortentia, being the strongest love potion and all, was probably very expensive.

It would have made more sense for Tom Riddle Sr. to dump Merope when he found out she was a witch. Merope would have thought that since she was with a child, Sr. would have mercy and try to look at the situation with a cool head. But he left her, and probably never went looking for Tom Jr. because he would be "freaky" like Merope, too.

It would make a lot of sense for Tom to hate muggle's with such a passion, too, because his own father made his life hell because he hated him for having magic. It makes the whole situation seem like more muggles ruined my life, so I'll ruin theirs instead of I'm a hopeless bully simply hungry for power. It would make the impact of what Voldemort became so much stronger, instead of the usual pure-evil for no reason cliche.

And Tom Riddle killing Sr. would have hit so much different, knowing that Tom knew that Sr. hated him because he was a wizard, just like everyone else in his life (Mrs. Cole, the kids at the orphanage.) Tom wouldn't care for Merope enough to commit murder, no matter how much of a psychopath that he was. But somebody insulting him for who he was? Now that would have done it.

People say that her using the potion was necessary because of Voldemort not being able to love, but I have a lot of things to say about this and none of it is friendly. Claiming that since he was a product of loveless intercourse, he in turn didn't have what it was needed to love another is blasphemy. Children born from rape can't love? What? Yes, it is true that kids born of rape are more likely to be anxious and have anxiety and be more detached than other kids, but they are humans, too. They can and have the right to love, too.

If she wanted to make Voldemort loveless so badly, she could have given him a personality disorder or simply made him aromantic. Depersonalization disorder, borderline personality disorder, or emotional detachment all make it really hard to form healthy relationships with other people. Sarah, an actress with depersonalization disorder, said on BBC news that, "I was unable to love." Something along those lines could have been easily fitted into the story instead of attacking kids born from rape.

If that didn't fit into anything J.K.R could do, she could have just used the excuse of him being a psychopath and not caring for love, or having the time to think about it, because he believed himself superior to anyone else, even in the love department.

She could have done so much with Tom Riddle, instead of making him exactly like all the other baseless villains, and she wasted the opportunity. Anyway, she says that Dumbledore thought that was a theory anyway, so I'm going to continue believing what I said above as canon because nowhere in the book actually confirmed that Dumbledore was right and I don't trust Rowling outside of the series.

Very disappointed, Joanne. 👎

[batwingsrosa]

Snape and what a victim is supposed to look like.

Or: The reason you all hate him so much while making up excuses for other characters!

Would he still be so despised by the fandom, if he had been portrayed as weaker? As more emotional?

No, i don’t think so.

Others have said this before and i have to agree with what they said:

Y‘all are angry, because he is not the perfect victim.

He is not what you would expect a victim of abuse and bullying to look like.

He is confident.

He is strong.

He is sharp.

And he is bitter.

He is so, so bitter.

he harbours resentment.

He does not forgive those who wronged him.

When that is exactly what you would expect from a victim, is it not??

A victim is supposed to look weak and behave weak and to suck it up.

And to forgive.

When you tell people they have to forgive their tormentors, do you really tell them that so that they can heal?

Or…. so you don‘t have to deal with the mess?

Maybe, so you don‘t have to adjust your world view?

People are not obligated to forgive their tormentors.

It doesn‘t matter if they have changed.

What matters is how they made the victim feel.

And if the victim feels if they can forgive them.

And if they chose not to forgive, they turn in something else in your eyes.

They turn into the hater, the bully, the bad guy.

Bacause the victim is supposed to forgive and forget and let it go and not be bitter about it.

A victim is supposed to turn into a good person.

To learn from their experiences to be kinder to others.

To not treat others like they have been treated.

They are not supposed to not be able to let it go.

And if they are not able to do that, well then there‘s something wrong with them.

If a victim doesn‘t turn out the way they wanted them too, well - then they had it coming from the beginning and they probaly deserved what happened to them because they would have turned out bad either way!

Snape is the opposite of what a victim is supposed to be like.

Severus turned into a resentful and bitter adult.

He was never able to move on and heal from his trauma.

And at the same time, he knows who he is and what and doesn‘t make up excuses for his behaviour and instead just accepts himself the way he is.

And that is what makes you so fucking mad.

He turns into an asshole and is not sorry about it.

He is openly resentful and at times hateful.

And he is not fucking sorry about it.

And it makes all of you mad because that is not what is supposed to happen.

And let‘s not lie to yourselves- if he didn‘t have greasy hair and a hooked nose- you would look at him from an entirely different angle.

Like you do with Tom Riddle, or Regulus Black or Draco Malfoy.

[chocfrog-enjoyer]

J.K.Rowling really was ahead of her time when she wrote Chamber of Secrets, because Ginny writing in Riddle’s diary and slowly being manipulated, exploited and abused by him, while she though he was her friend is such a good allegory for grooming.

[honeyed-latte]

Something I want written about better is the canonical fact that Snape was Voldemort's most trusted advisor, Snape demonstrates this as well, they literally say it, and Harry even uses Snape's defection as a 'gotcha' at the end.

I wonder what sort of private relationship Severus and Voldemort had. Did he actually value Sev's opinions? Did he trust him with secrets beyond his ken? Did they have long talks about politics and about how to properly direct the Death Eaters? Did they debate and discuss together?

Did the other Death Eaters suck up to Snape, hoping for a good word to their Lord?

What was the personal, private relationship between Severus and Tom Riddle like....

[moderndayamymarch]

one of my favorite things about the deathly hallows book is the revelation that snape and petunia knew each other. like if you asked someone in 1997, “hey which two characters from harry potter have longstanding childhood beef with each other”. I’m not sure anyone would’ve answered “harry’s bitchy muggle aunt and the mean potions teacher”. but it also makes total sense. like they are the two biggest haters.

[automaticcroissantbatsludge]

Most people said that Voldemort, Snape, and Harry had many similarities, but I want to point out what makes Snape different from the other two.

1 Snape was raised by his own parents; the other two weren't. 

2 Snape knew he was a wizard before receiving his Hogwarts letter. The other two didn't. 

3 Snape told a gryffindor that she was magical. The other two were told by gryffindors that they were magical. 

4 Snape resembled his mother; the other two resembled their fathers.

5 Snape was unpopular when he was a student; the other two were popular. 

6 Snape didn't have special status (as far as we know) when he was a student; the other two did (Harry was a captain, and Voldemort was a headboy).

7 Snape's first name was an uncommon name; the other two's were common names. 

8 Snape's first name wasn't a nickname; the other two's names were (Tom can be a nickname for Thomas). Harry can be a nickname for Henry. 

9 Snape wasn't the headmaster's pet; the other two were. 

10Snape didn't have a werewolf that loyal to him; the other two had

(Harry had Remus, and Voldemort had Greyback.)

[rosencatholic]

Some Harry Potter fans excuse Tom Riddle and love and defend him but draw the line at Severus Snape? Yeah okay.

[slitheringghost]

Unweaving Canon Lily: Master Of Death

In this meta I wanted to explore how the text portrays Lily as Death. 

Dumbledore tells Harry, “You are the true master of death, because the true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying.” 

Since Harry mirrors Lily in his sacrifice (“I’ve done what my mother did”), and since Lily is the reason Harry survived the Killing Curse and Voldemort was vanquished (IMO due to deliberate planning by Lily), what goes unsaid, but what readers are meant to weave together, is that Lily too is the Master of Death, and Death itself. 

1.0 Lily as Death

If you pay close attention to the scene of the Potters’ deaths, you’ll see that it parallels the story of Death and The Three Brothers, with Lily as the main one playing Death, and I'll be weaving the two together below to illuminate this (from DH 21 and DH 17):

There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight And along a new and darker street he moved, and now his destination was in sight at last - In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear... He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in... - However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave of his wand - They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure. ...and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hoped to be chosen instead... - “‘And Death spoke to them —’” “Sorry,” interjected Harry, “but Death spoke to them?” “Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!” “Stand aside, you silly girl... stand aside, now.” “Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead —” “This is my last warning —” “Not Harry! Please... have mercy... have mercy... Not Harry! Not Harry! Please — I’ll do anything —” “Stand aside. Stand aside, girl!” ‘Then Death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way, and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death’s gifts.

(The line about the river being too deep to wade through etc. could probably apply to some other lines too) The most notable connection is Voldemort repeatedly telling Lily to “stand aside” and the line “Death stood aside”. 

The connection to the line “Death stood aside” is reiterated in the language surrounding Voldemort, Lily, and Harry as a trio, with the three of them described as “standing” - because the three of them are Death, and are (one variation of) the three brothers who conquered Death:

He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave of his wand... and there she stood, the child in her arms.  The child had not cried all this time: He could stand, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruder’s face with a kind of bright interest  And now he stood at the broken window of Bathilda’s house, immersed in memories of his greatest loss (DH)

More on these lines in my meta about Lily and Harry as Voldemort’s Mirror Of Erised. 

Additionally, Voldemort who also plays Death is described explicitly as a “hooded figure” - “He saw the small boy’s smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak”; but Lily too is a “hooded figure” in a more subtle way, because her face covered by her long hair evokes the hood of a cloak - "the mother entered [...] her long dark-red hair falling over her face." More on this in section 4.0.

2.0 Lily’s arms are Death’s arms

Lily's arms are repeatedly emphasized, especially in the scene of her death where they open towards Voldemort, because they're Death's arms wrapping around both Harry and Voldemort - welcoming for Harry, crushing and choking and drowning for Voldemort.

But though gashes appeared in their sodden rags and their icy skin, they had no blood to spill: They walked on, unfeeling, their shrunken hands outstretched toward him, and as he backed away still farther, he felt arms enclose him from behind, thin, fleshless arms cold as death, and his feet left the ground as they lifted him and began to carry him, slowly and surely, back to the water, and he knew there would be no release, that he would be drowned (HBP 26) “Death’s got an Invisibility Cloak?” Harry interrupted again. “So he can sneak up on people,” said Ron. “Sometimes he gets bored of running at them, flapping his arms and shrieking" (DH 21) Thrashing, suffocating, he scrabbled at the strangling chain, his frozen fingers unable to loosen it, and now little lights were popping inside his head, and he was going to drown, there was nothing left, nothing he could do, and the arms that closed around his chest were surely Death’s… (DH 19) […] Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death’s welcoming arms. (DH 34) - Harry saw Sirius move up the bench to make room for her. She took one look at him, seemed to recognize him from the train, folded her arms, and firmly turned her back on him. (DH 33) It was nighttime. Lily, who was wearing a dressing gown, stood with her arms folded in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. (DH 33) there was a statue of three people: a man with untidy hair and glasses, a woman with long hair and a kind, pretty face, and a baby boy sitting in his mother’s arms. (DH 16) and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hoped to be chosen instead… (DH 17) Flitwick’s spell hit the suit of armor behind which Snape had taken shelter: With a clatter it came to life. Snape struggled free of the crushing arms and sent it flying back toward his attackers: Harry and Luna had to dive sideways to avoid it as it smashed into the wall and shattered. When Harry looked up again, Snape was in full flight (DH 30)

The suit of armor Snape hides behind is implied as the one by the door where Harry first found the Mirror of Erised, thereby tying it to Lily, who is both Harry and Snape's Mirror of Erised (For more on this, read my meta When Lily Cast Her Life As A Shield”: Analysis of the Shield Charm).

3.0 Lily’s ties to the Deathly Hallows

Since Lily is portrayed as Death, the text gives Lily links to all three Hallows, and I'll go through them below.

3.1 The Elder Wand

The scene with Snape, Lily, and Petunia by the Cokeworth river and Lily picking up the fallen twig evokes the imagery of the river of Death and the Elder Wand:

“‘So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother .” (DH 21) He was now in a small thicket of trees. He could see a sunlit river glittering through their trunks. The shadows cast by the trees made a basin of cool green shade. Two children sat facing each other, cross-legged on the ground. [...] “...and the Ministry can punish you if you do magic outside school, you get letters.” “But I have done magic outside school!” “We’re all right. We haven’t got wands yet. They let you off when you’re a kid and you can’t help it. But once you’re eleven,” he nodded importantly, “and they start training you, then you’ve got to go careful.” There was a little silence. Lily had picked up a fallen twig and twirled it in the air, and Harry knew that she was imagining sparks trailing from it. Then she dropped the twig , leaned in toward the boy, and said, “It is real, isn’t it?" (DH 33) There was a crack: A branch over Petunia’s head had fallen. Lily screamed: The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears. (DH 33)

3.2 The Resurrection Stone

An important implication is that it's specifically Lily's soul that came out of the Resurrection Stone and created the versions of James, Sirius, and Remus, the way the Tom Riddle locket horcrux soul piece creates Riddle-Harry and Riddle-Hermione.

Several details point to this - Sirius and Remus look much younger, rather than how they looked when they died; presumably their shades match their appearances in 1981, because they match when Lily last saw them and how she remembers them; likewise, James is stated to look exactly how he did the day he died, because that’s how Lily remembers him.

Lily's shade’s eyes being emphasized is a huge clue that it was Lily’s soul, as eyes are windows to the soul; this idea is echoed in Tom Riddle's eyes in the locket:

Behind both of the glass windows within blinked a living eye, dark and handsome as Tom Riddle’s eyes had been before he turned them scarlet and slit-pupiled. Ron raised the sword still higher, and as he did so, Riddle’s eyes gleamed scarlet. His [Ron’s] eyes were wide, and the Riddle-Harry and the Riddle-Hermione were reflected in them, their hair swirling like flames, their eyes shining red, their voices lifted in an evil duet. Ron looked toward him, and Harry thought he saw a trace of scarlet in his eyes. (DH 19) She pushed her long hair back as she drew close to him, and her green eyes, so like his, searched his face hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at him enough. (DH 34)

Lily’s stated as looking at Harry hungrily - because Lily’s soul has been separated from Harry. 

Interestingly, Lily’s shade and Harry both speak to each other the least - Lily only says four words “You’ve been so brave”, and Harry likewise only tells her “Stay close to me”. This is because Lily's speaking through the others to Harry. The strongest evidence towards this is the echoing here:

“And what use would that be to anyone?” said Dumbledore coldly. “If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear.” [...] “You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help me protect Lily’s son.” (DH 33) “I didn’t want you to die,” Harry said. These words came without his volition. “Any of you. I’m sorry —” He addressed Lupin more than any of them, beseeching him. “— right after you’d had your son ... Remus, I’m sorry —” “I am sorry too,” said Lupin. “Sorry I will never know him... but he will know why I died and I hope he will understand. I was trying to make a world in which he could live a happier life.” A chilly breeze that seemed to emanate from the heart of the forest lifted the hair at Harry’s brow. (DH 34)

Lily also died right after she’d had her son, and this is Lily telling Harry that she’s sorry that she’ll never know him, and he’ll never know her, but she hopes he understands why she sacrificed herself - to vanquish Voldemort and create a better world.

The breeze lifting Harry’s hair echoes Hermione doing the same thing earlier, who also echoes the gesture of Lily pushing her hair back to look at Harry - AKA that breeze is Lily’s hand brushing Harry’s hair, perhaps kissing his forehead (for more on how Hermione performs the part of Lily, read my meta Hermione As Teacher And Connections To Lily):

She picked up the book and then walked back past him into the tent, but as she did so, she brushed the top of his head lightly with her hand. He closed his eyes at her touch […] (DH 18) “Hermione!” She stirred, then sat up quickly, pushing her hair out of her face. “What’s wrong? Harry? Are you all right?” (DH 19)

Other connections include:

1. Harry’s dream with Nagini (Voldemort's symbolic mother) going through the Gaunt ring with the Resurrection Stone and then Lily's grave - in the same chapter the Silver Doe appears, and only a chapter after he visits Lily's grave and sees the memory of her murder, and

2. the Lily from the Resurrection Stone parallels Morfin while he's wearing the Gaunt ring with the Stone in it:

Harry’s dreams were confused and disturbing: Nagini wove in and out of them, first through a gigantic, cracked ring, then through a wreath of Christmas roses. (DH 19) Lily’s smile was widest of all. She pushed her long hair back as she drew close to him, and her green eyes, so like his, searched his face hungrily, as though she would never be able to look at him enough. (DH 34) Morfin pushed the hair out of his dirty face, the better to see Riddle, and Harry saw that he wore Marvolo’s black-stoned ring on his right hand. (HBP 17)

As fandom has pointed out, the real James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus never would’ve told Harry to die and so it’s a theory that it was Death purposely luring Harry - but if you accept that the Resurrection Stone’s shades were all Lily, and that Lily is Master of Death, it would make sense that they all tell Harry to sacrifice himself, because unlike Dumbledore who can only guess, Lily knows that Harry will come back to life, as it was her magic in the first place that caused it to happen (of course, in a way it was Death, because Lily is Death, etc).

3.3 The Invisibility Cloak

Despite the Cloak belonging to James, Lily is implied as the "true owner" as the Master of Death. For more on the Cloak’s link to Lily and how it represents the Aegis which is sometimes featured as a cloak, Lily passing the Cloak onto Harry as Zeus gives Athena the aegis, see the Shield Charm meta.

An important detail regarding both the 1981 flashback and the shades from the Resurrection Stone is that Voldemort, Harry, James, Remus, and Sirius's clothes are mentioned, but what Lily was wearing is never mentioned - because we're meant to make the connection that Lily is Death and Death wears an Invisibility Cloak:

“Nice costume, mister!” He saw the small boy’s smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his painted face […] Beneath the robe he fingered the handle of his wand (DH 17) he saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black-haired man in his glasses, making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black-haired boy in his blue pajamas. (DH 17) James was exactly the same height as Harry. He was wearing the clothes in which he had died, and his hair was untidy and ruffled, and his glasses were a little lopsided, like Mr. Weasley’s. Sirius was tall and handsome, and younger by far than Harry had seen him in life. He loped with an easy grace, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. Lupin was younger too, and much less shabby, and his hair was thicker and darker. He looked happy to be back in this familiar place, scene of so many adolescent wanderings. (DH 34)

Note that mentions of Remus's "shabbiness" throughout the series are often references to his clothes ("The stranger was wearing an extremely shabby set of wizard’s robes that had been darned in several places"), so his clothes are referenced, if obliquely.

The text also emphasizes that Voldemort can "see James and Harry clearly", as well as see the child’s face clearly, with the unsaid implication being that he can't see Lily clearly - because her face is covered by her hair that resembles a cloak, perhaps because she's wearing Death's Invisibility Cloak around her shoulders (in a metaphorical sense) or has Disillusioned herself and therefore only part of her body is visible.

Additionally, one way to read the Three Brothers story is that Lily is the third brother who met Death as an old friend - and Harry is the third brother’s son, who she passes down her Cloak to; and when the text tells us that Harry is descended from the Ignotus Peverell, the hidden meaning behind this is that he's descended from Lily.

4.0 Additional details 

“Death’s got an Invisibility Cloak?” Harry interrupted again. “So he can sneak up on people,” said Ron. “Sometimes he gets bored of running at them, flapping his arms and shrieking" (DH 21)

Death “running at” people is echoed in Voldemort’s words about Lily, and “flapping his arms and shrieking" is evoked by Lily’s arms opening wide and her screams:

“Dumbledore’s favorite solution, love, which he claimed conquered death, though love did not stop him falling from the tower and breaking like an old waxwork? Love, which did not prevent me stamping out your Mudblood mother like a cockroach, Potter — and nobody seems to love you enough to run forward this time and take my curse. So what will stop you dying now when I strike?” (DH 36) He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear (DH 17) At the sight of him, she dropped her son into the crib behind her and threw her arms wide (DH 17)

As for Death sneaking up on people. Lily and Voldemort mirror each other here - as Voldemort is sneaking up on the Potters, so Lily is sneaking up on him (from DH 17).

And he made less noise than the dead leaves slithering along the pavement as he drew level with the dark hedge, and stared over it A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear The gate creaked a little as he pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear.

The wording also echoes Lily’s shade in Priori Incantatem: 

She walked close to Harry, looking down at him, and she spoke in the same distant, echoing voice as the others, but quietly, so that Voldemort, his face now livid with fear as his victims prowled around him, could not hear… (GoF)

More on this in future metas.

-

The part with the small child going up to Voldemort and running away is echoed by Voldemort and Lily, with Lily taking Voldemort’s role and Voldemort playing the child:

“Nice costume, mister!” He saw the small boy’s smile falter as he ran near enough to see beneath the hood of the cloak, saw the fear cloud his painted face: Then the child turned and ran away... (DH 17)

Remember, Voldemort turns into a child after he’s vanquished, as we see in GoF, and Harry compares him to a child in DH ("Harry […] thought absurdly of a child counting in a game of hide-and-seek", "His head was still tilted to one side, like a curious child, wondering what would happen if he proceeded.")

As mentioned before, Lily’s hair covering her face is meant to evoke the hood of a cloak and echo Voldemort's face being covered by his cloak, and it’s heavily implied that Voldemort never sees Lily's face or her eyes beneath the hair (remember the Lily from the Resurrection Stone pushes her hair back to see Harry, drawing a contrast to the Lily in the 1981 memory that Voldemort sees).

This is Voldemort first smiling with amusement like that child:

He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped, but as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear… He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in (DH 17)

When Voldemort murders Harry, he finally sees beneath the hood of Lily’s Cloak (AKA sees Lily's eyes) through Harry, because he’s looking into Harry’s eyes, which are exactly like Lily's, as he casts the Killing Curse on him (Lily and Harry’s eyes also being the color of the Killing Curse):

He pointed the wand very carefully into the boy’s face: He wanted to see it happen, the destruction of this one, inexplicable danger. The child began to cry: It had seen that he was not James. He did not like it crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage — “Avada Kedavra!” (DH 17)

And now Voldemort’s amusement is replaced by fear, and he runs away, exactly like that child:

And then he broke: He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the child was trapped and screaming, but far away... far away... (DH 17)

This is what Remus tells Harry about dementors:

“If it can, the dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself... soulless and evil.” (PoA 10)

Similarly to that quote, Voldemort turned Lily into someone like himself - turned her into Death.

-

The description of the street getting darker in the 1981 memory echoes the description the dementor's darkness, indicating that Voldemort is walking closer to Death:

And along a new and darker street he moved, and now his destination was in sight at last, the Fidelius Charm broken (DH 17) They turned right down the narrow alleyway where Harry had first seen Sirius and which formed a shortcut between Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk. It was empty and much darker than the streets it linked because there were no streetlamps. (OoTP 1) Something had happened to the night. The star-strewn indigo sky was suddenly pitch-black and lightless — the stars, the moon, the misty streetlamps at either end of the alley had vanished [...] They were surrounded by total, impenetrable, silent darkness, as though some giant hand had dropped a thick, icy mantle over the entire alleyway, blinding them. (OoTP 1)

Additionally, we never get an explanation to why Harry and Voldemort see this full memory - it’s the same memory Harry relives with the dementors, however it’s much stronger. Dementors don’t show visual memories, only emotions and voices - and the only thing stronger than dementors is Death itself, so presumably it’s actual Death that made them both view the memory.

Dementors are implied as created by Death and are “Death’s servants”. Therefore the effect of the dementors on Harry (making him relive the moment of Lily’s death and vanquishment of Voldemort, which is the same memory Voldemort and Harry both relive when they get near the site of murder) may be related to Lily’s role as Death.

5.0 Veil of Death

Lily’s role as Death might also be the reason for Harry’s attraction to the Veil of Death, with the implication that it was Lily whispering to Harry being the Veil, as Lily in the Mirror of Erised and the Veil are similarly described:

He had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on the other side of the archway. Gripping his wand very tightly, he edged around the dais, but there was nobody there. All that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil. (OoTP) There he was, reflected in it, white and scared-looking, and there, reflected behind him, were at least ten others. Harry looked over his shoulder — but still, no one was there. Or were they all invisible, too? Was he in fact in a room full of invisible people and this mirror’s trick was that it reflected them, invisible or not? He looked in the mirror again. A woman standing right behind his reflection was smiling at him and waving. He reached out a hand and felt the air behind him. If she was really there, he’d touch her, their reflections were so close together, but he felt only air — she and the others existed only in the mirror. (PS) - He took several paces back from the dais and wrenched his eyes from the veil. (OoTP) He tore his eyes away from his mother’s face, whispered, “I’ll come back,” and hurried from the room. (PS)

This implication is also weaved in via it being specifically Luna’s mother who is emphasized regarding the Veil, as well as Lily’s letter in DH described as “a friendly little wave from behind a veil”. 

Lily's long hair covering her face in her death scene also evokes the Veil, and Lily enters the memory through a door - which echoes both the Mirror of Erised and the Veil described as an "ancient doorway".

6.0 Draught of Living Death

JKR describes characters’ clothes often, and I expanded on Lily's tie to the Invisibility Cloak, but notably the only time Lily’s clothes are explicitly mentioned in the series is when she’s wearing a dressing gown outside of Gryffindor tower at night time, about to go to sleep. This is partially an allusion to Lily being in an “enchanted sleep”, like the state of the Draught of Living Death, which includes asphodel as an ingredient, a type of lily - again tying Lily to Death. When Harry needs her, her spirit is awoken from her death-like slumber and she comes to save him.

The Draught of Living Death’s connection to Lily is further shown in HBP, where it’s the potion that wins Harry Felix Felicis, or Liquid Luck - and other than the alliteration with Liquid Luck and Lily, “luck” is constantly used to describe Lily saving Harry from the Killing Curse:

“But Harry — what if You-Know-Who’s with him?” “Well — I was lucky once, wasn’t I?” said Harry, pointing at his scar. “I might get lucky again.” (PS)

(Harry does "get lucky" again - Lily's blood magic saves him from Quirrelmort right after this.)

So. Your mother died to save you. Yes, that’s a powerful counter-charm. […] But after all, it was merely a lucky chance that saved you from me. (CoS) “Harry Potter escaped me by a lucky chance.” (GoF)

But of course, it wasn’t luck, it was Lily. (The Draught of Living Death’s modification also includes the number 7, the magically significant number of horcruxes, and the amount of times Lily says “Not Harry” in her final words). 

This ultimately threads to the scene where Harry, under the influence of Felix Felicis, uses the graphic details of Lily’s death - and Lily’s eyes - to manipulate Slughorn into getting the real horcrux memory. More on this link in future metas. 

7.0 Conclusion

To summarize, Lily is portrayed as Death itself and is linked to everything surrounding Death - to the three Deathly Hallows, Death’s arms, dementors, the Veil of Death, the Draught of Living Death.

She’s the one whose magic conquered Death and caused both Voldemort and Harry’s death and resurrections, the one who keeps reaching out from beyond death to save Harry again and again - the true Master of Death.

Thank you to @artemisia-black for helping me with this meta, and credit to slashmarks fics for some of these realizations.

Part 2 of this meta coming soon.

[kathrahender]

Some people always get angry when a villain is redeemed. They say things like "Stop redeeming the villain" "Villain redemption is such a terrible trope" "Not all villains deserve redemption" "Villains redemption are ruining media" "You are afraid of villanous characters because you can't bear people making mistakes" "Villain redemption is toxic/unhealthy" "You shouldn't try to fix someone!" and- Well- I have to talk about this because I seriously don't understand why people don't want to accept villains redemption.

"Villain redemption is such a terrible trope" "Villains redemption are ruining media". No, it's not a bad trope. Is not ruining media. It's an awesome trope, a wholesome trope, and I'm gonna say why. A villain redemption means nothing more than a person realizing they did bad things. It means a villain becoming a better person, a villain leaving the Dark Side because humanity and honor were more important than evilness and cruelty for them. And that's a beautiful concept. A villain becoming good? A villain who stops being bad because after all, they have a good side, because they are human? Where's the bad thing there? Where's the bad thing in realizing how much pain you've caused, and changing your morals for good? Seriously, people who hate villains redemption, where's the problem in this trope?

"Not all villains deserve redemption". Again with this tiring argument. When will you understand it? A villain redemption is not based on if they deserve it or not. It's based on the villain himself. It's based on their thoughts, on their morals. It's based on them changing from "I want to hurt/kill everyone who is against me" to "Oh God I'm a monster, what have I done?". Villains don't "deserve" redemption. They just redeem, or they don't, and it has nothing to do with "deserving" it. Some of you could think "Not all villains should be redeemed then!". I will talk about that argument in the last paragraph.

"You are afraid of villanous characters because you can't bear people making mistakes". That's definitely not true. That's bullshit. We're not afraid of people making mistakes. If that was true, we would be afraid of a hero making mistakes. And we aren't afraid of heroes who make mistakes. Because making mistakes makes you human. But- realizing you made a mistake also makes you human. That's what we like about this trope. A bad person, a villain or an anti-villain being actually human deep down.

"Villain redemption is toxic/unhealthy!" Actually- you know what's actually toxic? Hate. Hate is actually toxic. Hating someone is unhealthy. Of all the things you can do in your life, hating someone is the worst thing you can do. Why losing time hating when you can do better things for your heart and for your soul? Because the only thing you will get with hate is your heart/soul corrupted. A villain redeemed is not toxic nor unhealthy. Why a person changing for the better would be toxic or unhealthy?

"You shouldn't try to fix someone". Why? Why shouldn't I try to fix someone? Why shouldn't I want a bad person to turn good? Why shouldn't I want a villain becoming a hero? Why should I want the hate in this world to grow? Why should I want evilness to win? What you're saying doesn't make any sense. I want to fix villains because I believe in goodness! Because I want the good side to win! I want people having a happy ending, and the only way a villain can get a happy ending is being redeemed. And I want the villains to have a happy ending too because dying or getting tortured/being imprisioned after being suffering in your past is horrible. Yeah, I know villains hurt people, but some of them also were hurt, and although I don't justify them, I still want their pain to end and I want them to live, not just survive. I want them to change for the good, why is that so bad?

And even if they were "born evil" (what I doubt because for me villains are made not born) and "didn't suffered"- I want them to have a happy ending after redeeming because I want to believe in their goodness, in their humanity, and I don't want them to die because I think they also deserve a second chance in life and a chance to be happy (because if you can't be happy in this life, what's even the point?).

"But why would you want a villain having a happy ending after all they did????" Because I don't want them to suffer. "They made other people suffer, why would you want them to have a happy ending?" Because I believe no one deserves to have a bad ending in life. "So you defend the monsters in real life??? You support the real killers?? You are a murder apologist!!" Now hold on a fucking second. There's a fucking difference between liking a villain in fiction and want them to have a happy ending and want the real life villains to have a happy ending. Fiction is not fucking reality and you should know that. I want villains in fiction to redeem because I want to believe in their goodness, because I want to believe everyone is capable of being good, because I want to believe love and goodness can conquer all. Because I want to believe that no matter what, the good side will always win. Besides, most of the villains live in magic worlds, where sometimes death is not permanent, where you can see your loved ones even if it's not for a long time. And in fiction time-travel also exist. None of these things happen in reality. There's no magic, there's no time turner who can help you travel back in time to erase the villain's actions, there aren't Force Ghosts of your family or friends. Real life villains' actions are irrevocable and unforgivable. You can't bring back the dead because in this world once a person dies, that's the end of the line. But that doesn't happen in fiction. So stop comparing a real life villain actions with a fictional villain actions. They're not the same.

To end this post I want to say that the ones who like villains redemption (I'm a part of those people, of course) don't want all villains to be redeemed. There are villains we hate with all our heart, villains who are pure evil who doesn't deserve anything good. Villains like Gerard Argent, Dolores Umbridge, Sheev Palpatine, Captain Turner, Sebastian Shaw and Azulon. And more villains like those. So yeah, we do not want to see every villain redeemed.

[poitionsprince]

Marauders fandom challenge (impossible):

Stop calling Death Eaters yatzees.

There's an entire difference between seeing similarities in events, especially since j*r took inspiration from them in writing.

But comparing one for one is:

Simply factually incorrect since you actually CAN'T do that. As in to compare specific groups in real life events to those in the books - meaning comparing muggles to Jews, but then what about half bloods? Polish? But what about half bloods with Muggle parents?

Is belittling the holocaust and the memory of it and trying to oversimplify it to a book written by someone who only made Voldemort a half blood because she believes mustache man is half Jewish (and said so herself in 2011, also made him a half blood by his father being a muggle - like it was suspected that mustache man's father was the Jewish one).

I'm sick and tired of people calling fictional characters over people whom hunted down my own family while in the same time have not even studied the holocaust in-dept enough to be even opening their mouths about it.

[turvi]

Promises

All images taken from Pinterest

Severus has been given the responsibility to protect Y/n who has been plagued by The Dark Lord's nightmares again but Y/n has her own secrets that had drawn Tom's attention towards her. Will Severus be able to protect Y/n or will the Dark Lord get to her.

DM me if you wanna get tagged for the next parts

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[snake-queen7]

Commissions open

I can drawing fanarts, chibi style, enamel pins designs, plushies projects and book and fanfic illustrations and more!! DM to me if you're interested or have some questions ✨️🌻✨️

[chocfrog-enjoyer]

Reminder that Hagrid was just 13 years old when Riddle framed him and got him expelled. A 13 years old boy with a good heart that was already facing major discrimination from the Wizarding World.

Like out of all the things Riddle could have done in that situations he chose to target an already discrimated younger student.

Hagrid whose mother left him when he was 3. Hagrid whose father died when he was 12. Hagrid who by all means was also an orphan.

If not for Albus’s kind heart and good nature, who put his effort into making Hagrid the groundskeeper and allowing him to stay at Hogwarts, Hagrid would have nowhere to go, nobody to look for, no future due to his expulsion and half-gigantism and no ability to manage a life on his own.

[mauveberries]

sometimes, this is how i feel when i condemn the marauders for their actions while being a voldy fan account