#selective forgiveness

[fannedandflawless]

The Exit Was Always Coming?

If Severus hadn’t said Mudblood, how much longer would the friendship have lasted? Or was Lily simply waiting for a moment that felt righteous enough to walk away?

[egophiliac]

don't think I'm not still deep in the episode 7 brainrot. because OH BOY AM I

(also one more extremely, obnoxiously self-referential thing, I'm -- I'm so sorry)

[prettyboykatsuki]

FANG IM ON MY HANDS AND KNEES PLEASE I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR MORE ABOUT BEST FRIENDS TO LOVERS WITH SAE

you meet sae at 14

in spain, an exchange student from another country. your very first words to him come out in a very broken spanish—trying to tell him his bangs look ridiculous while you’re busy running away from the other students from your school.

sae harbors no good memories of spain. this includes you. you’re a nuisance in his side from that moment forward. not only do you force your phone number on him and manage to snatch his too - you text him all the time with nonsense updates. you speak sometimes in spanish, sometimes in english, and later—in japanese when you choose to study in highschool, to curse at him a little better. he spends the first few months running your messages through a translator, but he keeps this a secret from everyone - including you.

you’re a thorn in his side, but you met at the right time. back before sae was completely beaten down, still receptive to people coming in and out of his life.

you weren’t even especially close. not enough to be there for all the good and bad like something out of a manga. not constantly stuck together. you were more like a pen pal. or a pet he had to maintain in his phone. it wasn’t that you were so connected

it was just that - in a place where his existence and talent became meaningless, occasionally there would be some moron who would spam his phone in a hundred different texts if he took too long to text back. nothing more, nothing less.

you meet up a few times in the years sae lives in spain. once every few months, at the same cafe you met. you do most of the talking and take a million pictures. time goes by like that, with you in the constant peripherals of his life.

a connection he doesn’t want to acknowledge until he’s forced to. even as he hardens over the years, for some reason you stick around. he doesn’t want to see you as anything. he doesn’t form relationships that way. his indifference is genuine. but you’re alright

by the time you’re both 18–sae has to return to japan for a short while. and at the airport, you sob - mistakenly thinking he was moving back. he stood and watched you for a long while before smacking your head and calling you stupid.

despite that there was nothing but pure relief on your face. and his expression, for once, had a pleasant tiny smile.

it’s then that sae would acknowledge you as more than a nuisance. he refuses to call you his best friend even as the years continue. even as you turn 19, 20, 21 and as saes career blossoms and you’re the only one who ever seems to check in about his games. even though you spend holidays together and make sure you celebrate birthdays.

sae can’t close the distance. he doesn’t want to. the comfortable, accommodating relationship between you suits him. anything more would make him uncomfortable. you never push it, so he doesn’t either.

and then, at 23 - you come to sae heartbroken for the very first time.

it’s a mess. you come over sobbing, mascara running down your face with a bottle of wine in hand. it’s the first time in your almost ten years of friendship that you come to him for anything and sae lets you in. you sit down on his living room floor and sob helplessly about some guy who broke your heart. sae hadn’t even known you’d been seeing someone.

he didn’t even know you were dating. or seeing people in that way. he didnt know something about you. him, the person you text your cycle to. him, the person whose heard your opinion on every single ghibli movie ten times over. him, whose been putting up with your spam texts for a decade nearly of his life.

sae feels his heartbeat pulse for the first time. its an ugly feeling under his ribcage. throbbing and red blooded and alive. he manages to comfort you without being weird (he’s gotten good at it over the years) but you insist on sleeping at his place.

so he lets you. you sleep on the floor of his room despite him offering you the guest room. it’s the first time you stay over. just before bed, you thank him for letting you in and he thinks you’re an idiot for being thankful for that. that much is nothing.

you sleep soundly. it makes sense.

sae does not sleep. for some reason he can’t. all he does is lay down and close his eyes and feel frustrated. he thinks about how easily he let you in to his place. he thinks about all the dates you’ve been on without him knowing - surely assuming he wouldn’t care.

he shouldn’t care. if you decided that you don’t need to tell him that then sae doesn’t see a reason to push. he shouldn’t care. he never pries into your life anyhow. your relationship has always been comfortable. he puts up with you because you’re pretty alright.

no matter how much he tries to sleep, nothing lets him. he tosses and turns until the sun is almost risen.

he turns to face you where you sleep on the floor and the sun is hitting your back.

he stares and stares and stares. he thinks—if you barged in on him like this even further. if you got even closer, he’d be fine with it. if you were looking to date just to have a guy to show off, he’d be fine if you asked. if you walked in and made yourself even more comfortable and pressed on - well whatever. he might as well.

he thinks, if he knew you were wanting to date someone, he wouldve just been your boyfriend. it’d be fine. if you wanted to kiss or go on dates - sae would go with you.

he jolts. freezes when that thought crosses his mind. and he pinches the bridge of his nose, eyes shut hard and brow furrowed. suddenly frustrated.

in the confessional of dawn, sae thinks to himself just once—it’s probably a lot more than just tolerance. and it’s been that way for a long time.

it’s the first time in his life he doesn’t know what to do. what the hell does he do? what does he want to do?

he tells himself nothing. really. it’s been fine until then so why should it change.

but your phone buzzes with the number of the guy you just broke up with when he thinks and he learns quickly that’s not happening either.

he’s never felt so exasperated with something in his life. the only option is to do the one thing he’s been avoiding his entire life and make you fall for him.

it’s his turn, he figures - being the one looking stupid between you

[friendsinsolitude]

FUCKING YAYYYY!!! Finally I have access to this side story… so peak

[nightgarla]

doesnt post for like a month -> comes back with obscure kids show fanart -> leaves

[wordedarchive]

/ text id: people forgive but do they forget? /

[sweetevoltrap]

Caleb scares me so much and then they do cute shit like this he's too good at this. 😩

[psychicthepsychic-daily]

hood is the ceo of “other people have it worse” /HJ

[fannedandflawless]

Why, of all people, did Lily Evans choose to marry James Potter?

To me, full bias, as someone who went from Snily to anti-Snily, it reads like a rebrand. A calculated step into the wizarding world, fully and securely.

Marrying James? Perfect on paper: wealthy pure-blood, no in-laws to navigate, utterly devoted to her, and apparently, his earlier arrogance could now be rewritten as charm.

And perhaps, it carried a touch of the vindictive about Severus too. You called me a Mudblood once? Well then, I married someone your world would’ve approved of.

Just speculating, of course. But if her ego really does reach Mars... wouldn’t rule it out.

[callixton]

hipbones.......

[prettyboykatsuki]

should’ve known noel noa had darkness in his spirit after finding out he has a situationship with ego

[askczernholz]

Hello, I hope you are both feeling on the better side today, health-wise. Do you have any favorite songs to listen to? To play? Together or separate? I just wonder where music overlaps for you, and where you have different preferences. Hoping for your health, anon

E: We've both been well recently, danke. Helps when someone remembers to take his medicine when he's supposed to.

C: Helps when someone reminds me. As for music, while we have both been branching out since coming to Rhodes Island, we still make time to return to our roots, trying new compositions and practicing old ones together. Especially as Ebenholz is still adjusting to the cello.

E: There is a Rondo for Piano and Cello we have been working on together, penned by an Ursan composer. It has actually been a rather fun piece, I must admit!

C: As I told you, every time you complained about it when first we practiced it. But you always come around eventually.

[picklewednesday]

HES... NOT... AN... IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *ny telekinetic powers throw everything into outer space and blow up the planet*

[steviescrystals]

i graduated high school 3 years ago and i’m still not over the fact that NO ONE TOLD ME the district would delete all of our school accounts like a month later and now every paper, presentation, project, etc. i made on that account from 5th-12th grade is just gone forever 🫠

[mermaidsirennikita]

truly insane and honestly not unrealistic that Victoria spent 3 episodes obsessed with Lord Melbourne and as soon as Albert started slipping her the bratwurst she was like "sorry to that man"

[fannedandflawless]

The Role of Pride in Lily Evans’ Unforgiving Nature—Was It Principle, Ego, or Both?

📌 A gentle note for Snily and Marauders fans: this isn’t an attack—it’s an examination. I say this as a former Snily loyalist turned emotionally weathered centrist. This piece is not here to villainise or romanticise, but simply to trace the weight of choices that never got buried with their makers.

This piece is a direct extension of "Lily Evans: Golden Girl or Something Sharper?"—because darling, some women don’t just close the chapter, they seal it with wax and walk off the page.

Lily Evans is often described as principled. And oh, how lovely that sounds in theory. But when we examine her choices—who she forgave, who she didn't, and the emotional calculus behind it all—what emerges isn’t just moral clarity. It’s curated boundaries, polished silence, and pride dressed head to toe in virtue.

1. The Unforgivable Apology: When Regret Wasn’t Enough

Severus Snape apologised. Earnestly. Desperately. He waited outside Gryffindor Tower, laid bare his guilt, asked for forgiveness—not once, but repeatedly. (Darling, he was practically on emotional bended knee.)

Lily never opened the door. Not metaphorically, and not literally. Because why settle for closure when you can have a cold, gilded lock?

The world often applauds her for drawing the line, for protecting her worth. But there’s a difference between setting boundaries and monogramming them into stone. For Lily, once her pride was pierced—once someone she trusted made her feel wrong for trusting them—there was no path back. No redemption arc. No middle act rewrites.

She didn’t cut people off. She shut them out, and sealed the entryway behind her with grace so elegant it could pass for sainthood. And saints don’t look back. Not when the lighting is better from the pedestal.

This wasn’t about the word Mudblood. It was about the humiliation of having once vouched for someone who later proved her wrong. Severus didn’t just fail her standards—he embarrassed her taste. And Lily? She was not a woman who tolerated emotional misalignment in public.

So she did what any refined girl in control would do: she vanished, left the guilt in his hands, and never gave him a chance to return them.

⸻

2. Petunia Evans: The Sister Who Wasn’t Worth the Bridge

Lily’s pride wasn’t reserved for friendships. It ran thick through her family too.

Petunia was jealous, yes—but she was also a girl left behind in a world that no longer made room for her. Lily could see her sister’s discomfort. She could have explained, softened, reassured. She didn’t.

In canon, Petunia’s bitterness is dismissed as petty. But Lily’s aloofness never helped. Even years later, Lily writes in a letter to Sirius that Petunia "was being a bit more pleasant than usual, though she still won’t talk to me directly." There’s no warmth there—just polite distance.

And when Lily brought James into their home—a boy who sneered at Vernon and represented everything Petunia had grown to resent—Lily didn’t intervene. She didn’t apologise. She let the tension sit, perfectly composed.

If Severus failed her morally, Petunia failed her socially. And Lily’s response in both cases? Silence. Just long enough for the wound to scar over.

⸻

3. Forgiving James Potter: The Selective Mercy

The greatest contradiction in Lily’s story is this: the boy who bullied her closest friend—who mocked Severus publicly, gleefully, and often—was not only forgiven. He was loved.

Did James change? Arguably, yes. But Severus also changed. He tried to come back. He apologised. He regretted in a way James never publicly did. He asked for mercy Lily never extended.

And yet, Lily chose James.

Why?

Perhaps because she needed a new narrative. Severus was a story of disappointment. James became the story of potential. And Lily, above all, chose to believe in the version of someone who hadn't failed her personally.

Was it principle? Or was it pride in refusing to look back?

She didn’t just forgive James—she allowed herself to forget. His bullying, his arrogance, the way he laughed while Severus burned—all smoothed over by a present she preferred to the past.

Severus reminded her of a misjudgement. James offered her a chance to never admit she made one.

⸻

Grace, Guilt, and the Unsent RSVP

Lily Evans wasn’t cold. She was curated. Proud enough to walk away from anyone who couldn’t keep up with the version of themselves she’d approved, and polished enough to make it look like emotional maturity.

She loved James not because he was perfect—but because he wasn’t Severus. No inconvenient history. No public regret. Just a new story she could spin without ever citing her sources.

She left Petunia not because she was cruel—but because she refused to carry someone else’s bitterness in her handbag. (It didn’t match the robes, darling. She’d already curated the guest list, and neither Petunia nor the one in patched Slytherin black made the cut.)

And she never forgave Severus—because doing so would’ve meant admitting she had once misjudged, once invested wrongly. And that sort of vulnerability? Lily didn’t do clearance sales.

That’s not just principle. That’s ego in silk gloves.

And in Lily Evans’ world, they weren’t just dressed the same—they shared a wardrobe.

But what Lily likely never imagined—darling, what she never planned for—is that one day, the weight of all this curation would land on someone else. That Harry, her child, would inherit not just the love that protected him, but the bitterness that never got resolved. That he’d grow up with the only living relative she’d silently written off. That he'd arrive at school to find a professor who loathed him on sight—not for anything he did, but for the unresolved wreckage she left behind.

And Harry? He just blinked. And bore it. And kept going.

⸻

Related post: Lily Evans: Golden Girl or Something Sharper?