#thanks mcgonagall

[oxydiane]

mcgonagall: mr potter, is that a snake?

harry: this is herbert, professor. he’s here for emotional support

mcgonagall: in what way?

harry: when he talks shit about professor snape and malfoy in a way only i can understand i feel positive emotions

[easton-creations]

Minerva McGonagall is a lesbian

[snapeaddict]

Snapetober Day 12 - Amphibian

Silliness alert - He Deserved Better AU, Severus is around five

A response to @waningstarlight's prompt

Diagon Alley was particularly busy; perhaps they should have elected to go on another day, but the present weather was lovely, especially in contrast to tomorrow's when heavy showers were forecasted all over England. So be it - they were ready to brave the crowd for the bookshop and toy store.

Severus found three books he was looking forward to reading and a lovely set of play cards, for rainy days. There were, of course, many such days in the Highlands, and the few times they had taken him out to play, he had come down with a cold. Minerva intended on keeping him indoors as much as possible during the worst days of late autumn, but the boy did like the rain.

Now was time for the mandatory ice cream, a tradition instituted since Severus' first visit to Diagon Alley, over a year ago. He asked for vanilla and coffee, Minerva picked a scoop of pistachio, and Albus, of course, requested a huge cone with chocolate, lemon and raspberry scoops decorated by a garish amount of sprinkles and chocolate sauce. The seller even added a cherry on top of it all, evidently quite pleased with the ridiculous amount of money Minerva ended up paying him. 

The deputy headmistress attempted to make her way back to Severus and Albus without bumping into anyone. They were waiting for her on the other side of the street, in the shade. It was a complex balancing act deserving of the utmost praise, and she was about to comment on it when she caught sight of Severus - in the middle of the street.

They had put the boy in a child harness, for obvious reasons. While they were frowned upon on the continent, English and Scottish people took a more practical approach to things when it came to child safety. But half that leash was now in the middle of the road, and a mule carrying stacks of books was approaching dangerously. The boy was looking in the other direction - Albus was absorbed in the contemplation of a shop display - no one was paying attention -

"ALBUS!" Minerva screamed, stopping most people around her in their tracks. 

Her cry was visceral: she could not breathe properly, and the "s" died in her throat.

The headmaster turned around. His eyes landed on Severus and he immediately waved his wand; the collision was narrowly avoided. People let the furious transfiguration teacher come through, cowering on both sides of the street.

It did not matter how many ice cream cones she was holding: she looked absolutely terrifying. 

"My dear", Albus began contritely, "I have cast all sorts of spells on him - he's absolutely fine - he would have bounced into the air -"

"It does not matter if you know he is safe, Albus Dumbledore", she interrupted him. "What matters is what we teach him. How incredibly stupid can you be? You think it will do him any good, to think he can just wander around because you have cast the right spells?"

The crowds around them, though civilly feigning to look away, glanced at Minerva furtively with a mixture of awe and astonishment. Had the dignified deputy headmistress of Hogwarts just called the most gifted wizard of the century stupid?

Albus lowered his eyes.

"You are right, of course, Minerva. I apologize. This is not about me."

"Indeed", she replied acerbically, her temple vein pulsating.

She turned to Severus, who had been watching them fearfully. Her face relaxed slightly.

"You do not ever go on the street by yourself, is that understood, Severus?" she told him gently, though firmly. 

The boy nodded eagerly. 

"I'm sorry", he replied quietly.

For a second, she thought he was going to cry. She knelt in front of him, determined for their day to not be ruined by Albus' carelessness. 

How the man could be both so brainless and brilliant, she could still not understand...

"It's alright, Severus", she told him softly. "We all make mistakes and we learn from them, mmh? Now you know. Here, take your ice cream."

When she got up, the headmaster was watching them apologetically. She handed him his ice cream, still tight-lipped. 

"May I know what was so interesting to look at?" she told him rather drily, in an undetermined attempt to resume the conversation without letting go of the issue.

Taking the hint, Albus nodded at the shop display in front of them which presented various items of clothing. He was pointing at a specific robe, gold and deep green, with quite refined ornaments and motifs: the triangular sleeves were long and trimmed with delicate emerald lace. Upon closer inspection, though, it had something peculiar...

...The whole thing was covered in slightly lighter motifs of jumping frogs, going from one lily pad to the other. While in the dark they were not very striking, it was all one could see in the sunlight.

"It looks dashing, don't you think, my dear? There's a formal dinner at the ministry next week..."

Minerva closed her eyes, sighed rather loudly, and pulled out a handkerchief from her left pocket. She knelt again and proceeded to clean Severus' face. When she was done, she put it away and simply replied:

"Given your questionable taste in clothing and appalling wardrobe, Albus, this would be absolutely fine at the school. But at a banquet with foreign ministers... think about it..."

"But precisely! I understand green is more suited to the occasion than purple..."

"Didn't you say the French prime minister would be there?"

"I did."

"And you think he is an idiot."

"There are often... gaps in his understanding."

"Then no, Albus, you cannot wear a frog-teamed robe to a meeting with a French official you clearly despise."

The old man looked crushed. 

"And we are here solely to buy Severus a proper raincoat, if I recall. Let's go in."

-

"You seem sceptical, my dear", the headmaster told Minerva as they exited the shop.

He was meticulously folding a green garment, which he then placed in a large paper bag.

"I assure you, Severus is not going to meet any French official, if that is what is troubling you", he added, smiling smugly. 

She rolled her eyes.

-

On their next rainy outing though, she had to confess Severus looked absolutely adorable in that frog-shaped raincoat of his. 

~~~

Severus' coat looks like the combination of these by the way:

[generation-fucked-nostalgia]

Have you ever seen Sarah McGonagalls re-creation of the bad case of the stripes?? Her photography is so good I love her work

Well I hadn't before but now I certainly have!

[fandomassimilator]

I know people hc that Fred II and Roxanne are the next generation of Weasley twins but I always imagine it as Molly and Lucy. Percy watched Fred die, so emotional damage, and identical or not, he would still know to raise his daughters like different people without as much pressure of ‘the Weasley twins’ on them. It follows the pattern of the sibling of the twins having the next generation.

Screw it, rant time. You can tell which gen people prefer by how they characterize the next gen. Rose isnt the next Hermionie, Hugo isnt just another Ron, Albus isnt Regulous, Scorbus isnt Drarry or Jegulous for that matter. Most importantly, kids named after dead people arent those people. The pressure of having to live up to James Potter, Sirius Black, and Fred Weasley isnt going to shape these kids into them.

Imagine it like this: Mcgonagall sees the names James Sirius, Fred II, Teddy Lupin, and thinks it’s all over. But James is a good kid, he likes being liked. He plays Quidditch, but isn’t obsessed with it. They pull the occasional prank, but it’s nothing ingenious. They grew up on stories of the mauaders, prewetts and Weasley how can you blame them. Teddy tutors younger-years, James makes non-magical maps for first-years, Fred’s fireworks are the silent type as to not wake anyone. All is well.

Then Lilly Luna Potter strolls in, followed closely by the next generation of twins. Lily’s in Slytherin, Molly in Gryphindor and Lucy in Ravenclaw, though Mcgonagall finds herself questioning it twice a week. They have access to three common rooms, the RoR, Lilly nicks the Mauaders map from James three weeks in, Albus lets them borrow the invisibility cloak. Gravity is reversed in the great hall, everyone’s dragonhide gloves are filled with itching powder, thornless roses block corridors, hundreds of marbles are released down the staircases. Mcgonagall writes to Percy twice to confirm he only has two children because Argus keeps swearing there are four, one in each house.

It’s a miracle to see any of them wearing the correct tie, Huffelpuff tries to stay out of it, a ‘war’ starts between the entire house of Ravenclaw and Slytherin that ends with a school-wide assembly because oh my gods its all the geniuses of the school going to war the Gryphindors and Huffelpuffs need to actually learn. Molly plays Beater for Ravenclaw, Lily takes Teddys job of commentator. In third year Iily and Alice Longobottom take polyjuice so there actually are four of them during Christmas dinner, Rose has never looked so afraid.

Molly gets every detention, though probably split them 50/5o with Lucy. Lucy’s record is perfect as a Result, she makes prefect. A mistake. She catches a group of muggleborns trying to set up Wi-Fi and actively helps them. Lily finds out she inherited Parseltounge from her dad in fifth year, they of course turn the Chamber of Secrets into a lounge (their parents had the baskalisk cleared out) Most letters send home say: ‘Something has happened, we cant prove it was your daughter, but who else could train two hundred garden snakes to follow Albus around so kids stop picking on him’

[whinlatter]

hi! I might be childish but I am 100% agreeing with McGonagall not getting Ginny’s Christmas card…🙃

Can you please tell us some about her mindset? Is it just trying to get the school through this year, is it really though love, remorse or..?

the mcgonagall discourse continues to tickle me no end. anon i for one applaud an encourage any and all childishness. also i agree! dropping people from the christmas card list because you've got major beef with them is a time-honoured and noble tradition and ginny is right to uphold it

i don't want to say too much that will end up in the fic but! i think mcgonagall in beasts thinks she is trying to Do Her Best - for ginny, for the other students under her care, but also for hogwarts as an institution, which is an institution whose mission and ethos she really believes in. a lot of this is is (understandably, and not necessarily wrongly) bound up in her loyalty to her mentor, dumbledore, someone she didn't always agree with but whose vision for hogwarts she consistently throws her weight behind.

minnie's got a huge amount on her plate stepping up as headmistress in 1998. she's the headteacher of a student body who are individually and collectively traumatised, who are only just beginning to process what happened to them, and whose traumas are extremely complex and diverse and don't really have the tools to grasp each other's often very different but no less serious sufferings (obviously the the pureblood/half-blood students who endured life under the carrows during the war and the DA lot who actively resisted the carrows and paid a huge price for it, but also muggleborn students who were on the run, and all those who were in azkaban.) she's dealing with a lot of guilt for all that she couldn't shield her students from (more to come on this), and she's sincere in her belief that young people who have gone through enormous upheaval need structure, routine, accountability, and a kind of compassion that manifests as someone saying no, you can't punch whoever you like because they said something horrible to you. you do have to hand your homework in. you do need to not sneak out of the castle at night and make everyone worry about you. partly this is generational - she was born in 1935, she has a set of ideas about acceptable and unacceptable ways of expressing your distress as a child. but i think this is also a not inherently cruel or abusive child welfare philosophy, even if it doesn't really take on a lot of what we know of how trauma manifests in young people and adolescents. minerva would say: it's my job to look after my students, i'm the adult and authority figure, i need to reimpose and safeguard the social contract that holds an institution like a school together, and also to make sure that i care about each individual student while also managing the impact of students' behaviours on each other. (in canon, she repeatedly does enforce the rules in strong terms and doesn't make excuses when harry - a character who is well within his rights to act out given his life experiences - gets in a fight or fucks up and breaks the rules in ways that meaningfully impact his peers.)

when it comes to ginny, i think mcgonagall sees lots of herself in her. they share a fierce protective streak, they're both very loyal, they're both incredibly stubborn, and they both are petty as hell and show their emotions by way of biscuit/christmas card deprivation. but that also means mcgonagall expects more of ginny than most, especially as someone who rode hard for the hogwarts student body the preceding year. mcgonagall wants ginny to help her keep hogwarts standing and continue to play the part of a role model for her peers as someone (she knows) they look up to. ginny does not want to do that. and mcgonagall's massively frustrated that ginny has (also understandably) held her hands up and said fuck that, role model schmole model, i've gone through it and you're all now saying back to normal and pretending it never happened. what's hard is that they're both kind of right! but neither is able to say it. and that's why gryffindor girlies are so fun and massively annoying to smash into each other when doing the literary equivalent of playing dolls (writing fanfiction)

[sbnkalny]

You all right!? That was seriously impressive!

A black leather miniskirt, pink fishnets and black spikes, but also McGonagall and Snape, that's quite Impressive! thank you for the cosplay tip! a neon green tracksuit, and some belts

[firendgold]

If you’re doing the violence ask game, can you do 9, 13 , and 19?

oooh, yes. I am indeed. Let's not delay. My friend the read-more is here to help.

choose violence ask game

9. worst part of canon

This is a very 2007 era, "I just finished Deathly Hallows" opinion, but even after all this time, I think the epilogue really is the worst part of canon. Not just because I personally dislike the canon ships, but because JKR (hereafter referred to as That Woman) had the opportunity to do some more "show not tell" for Life After Voldemort, to flesh out what the characters' priorities would be after defeating the figurehead of Wizarding Britain's prejudice and a few of his public cronies, and she just... didn't.

I probably could have stomached the canon ships if more attention was paid in the epilogue to the reforms that were made or being made to society, the ones that have only passing mentions in Pottermore or post-book interviews—the reformation of Azkaban/removal of dementors, actually seeing Harry as an Auror/Department Head (perhaps chasing down some minor league foe?), or any sort of follow up on the themes That Woman set up in the series. In DH alone we have heroes falling from pedestals, the gritty realities of war for the average people, hostile takeover of an already corrupt government, falsely torturing and imprisoning innocent people, the fallout of being betrayed by peers and/or superiors you trust, more kids becoming orphans... I could go on. There's many, many issues for the war's survivors to tackle once the dust has settled.

But we don't get that. Instead we get "here, look, the main characters got married and had kids! even Teddy is dating someone! you remember Teddy right? last time you saw him he was a baby, and now he's all grown up with a Weasley girlfriend! love love love! kiddos off to Hogwarts again! isn't that charming?" Eh... not really. I, uh, wanted to know if society has improved at all...?

I definitely get the appeal of having the "back to normal" feeling of Kids Boarding the Train at the Platform, I do... it just wasn't what I expected for the end of Harry Potter. In my not-so-humble opinion, "and then they got married and had kids" is boring in literature of any kind. It's just so boring. And it's worse for a world of magic where the characters could be doing anything else.

13. worst blorboficiation

I'm becoming such an old I had to look this up to make sure I knew what it meant before giving my opinion. :')

Am I allowed to say more than one person? This is me choosing violence, so I'm going to list off all the HP ones that came to my mind once I knew the definition.

Remus Lupin. Holy shit, bro. This fandom has ruined this character. I get that people like him. (I like him too!) I get that he's very hard to pin down because he's one of the more mysterious people, but (until recently) I've never seen a character who's pretty neutral in canon get so positively inflated by the fandom. And it's literally just because of wolfstar. Sirius gets inflated too (more on that in a sec), but Remus gets inflated just because long ago fans decided that the two of them were obviously together and, by extension, would be perfect, flawless co-dads for Harry. You could argue that Remus doesn't really show much romantic feeling towards Tonks until DH, but you'd also have to argue that he doesn't show much romantic feeling (or feelings at all, besides grief and nostalgia) for anyone.

But like... I'm not a total Debbie Downer. I get the appeal of wolfstar alone and wolfstar dads, really, but they're hard to completely buy into (especially when the latter usually turns into a Dumbledore bashfest). Sometimes fans act like their ideal of who Remus is and what he is to Harry, Sirius, and other characters is canon when it's not. Preferable to canon, maybe, but not source material at all. The wolfstar-partner-raising-Harry!Remus is nowhere close to the real Remus. The real Remus:

is unaccounted for for the first 10 years of Harry's time at the Dursleys, and for his first and second year, with no retroactive explanation given

doesn't contact Harry after year 3, and indeed isn't even seen or mentioned again until year 5

is only briefly around Harry in year 6 (you know, the year right after Sirius dies)

consents to starting a family and then almost immediately tries to leave that family behind once he finally gets bit by the "oh, maybe now I should try being Harry's surrogate parent" bug, then doesn't understand why that pisses Harry off

So. Yeah. You teach a kid the Patronus charm one time and suddenly you're the man who can Do No Wrong in 99.3% of all fanon material. It's irritating. Ships and/or found family stuff could wrangle with the man Remus is, they just choose not to in favor of recycling old fanon archetypes.

Sirius Black. Much of the same said above about Remus applies to Sirius tenfold. Sirius cares about Harry, sure, but lots of fans like to sand over the part where Sirius made one little protest about Harry going to the Dursleys, then fully committed to going after Pettigrew in 1981 without telling anyone about the Secret-Keeper switch, or anything that would have kept him out of jail even in our aforementioned corrupt wizarding society. In their minds, that evil meanie Dumbledore forced him to not whisk Harry away to Black Manor or whatever to raise him. *eyeroll*

Sirius is a character who is developmentally delayed in canon, but some of his fans downright infantilize him. Poor Sirius, he just wanted to be a baby gay and raise Harry but the Ministry/Dumbledore/That Woman just wouldn't let him. (You can argue the last one, but it is SO RARE to find a fanfic where Sirius has to grow the fuck up and face the consequences of his early choices, while also actually taking steps to be better and be a good surrogate dad for Harry.) Just because Sirius is Harry's godfather doesn't mean he's a perfect one. And he's not dealing with a typical kid either. Sirius and Harry wouldn't easily or neatly slot into typical familial roles because they've both Been Through Some Shit—and that's why their relationship is so compelling.

And I haven't even gone into the other side of fanon!Sirius, the one who's this devil-may-care man who Got All The Ladies in his time, is mostly physically and mentally unaffected by his Azkaban stint, and is only around to: support Harry in whatever independent!Harry schemes he has going on (screw Dumbledore! run away from the war somehow! become a Cool Dude! fight the power!), blather on about Lordships and fanon shit the real Sirius wouldn't give one toss about, or to give him girl advice on whatever girl (or harem) Harry is being shipped with in that particular fic. The only reason this version of Sirius isn't an obvious homophobic backlash to the "Sirius is gay" version is because I'm pretty sure this version came first chronologically in fandom. I'm actually not sure which version of Sirius is more annoying to me.

last but not least, we have:

Daphne Greengrass. Technically I shouldn't be able to put her here, because she doesn't even HAVE a canon personality. Everything about her besides her name, her House, and her sister('s relationship to Draco) is completely made up. But fanon has come to a Consensus on her, and this consensus is THE MOST annoying made-up persona in a fandom where we also have "he's just misunderstood/traumatized by the Muggle wars/going about things the wrong way!" Tom Riddle/Voldemort, "he was just being mean to Harry for his cover/Harry deserved it" Severus Snape, "brightest witch of her age And No Other Personality Traits" Hermione Granger, "he WAS going to change sides, really!" Draco Malfoy, and "purebloods wanting to gatekeep magical society and call uppity muggleborns slurs is fine actually" fanon discourse, among other irritants. Maybe it was intriguing the first time I read it. Now, it's not.

Every single time I see "politically-neutral blonde/black-haired ice queen who teaches Harry about Noble Houses/convinces him that Not All Slytherins/gets him on the Right Political Path For His Future" I want to throw up in my mouth. It's so fucking boring. It's not what Harry Potter is about to me, it's not what it should be about, and it's not even what I look for in other media. (I think the Sword of Truth series is the only series I read where there's actual politics that I care about, and it's still high fantasy!) So much Daphne and Haphne fandom content just feels like a bunch of people missed the point of the series, which is that pretentious family nonsense is just that and pureblood tradition shit doesn't matter. And Daphne's "backstory" is not even logical. Neutral factions? "Gray" factions? Do you really think that 1970s era Voldemort, at the top of his game, would have been okay with a supposedly prominent and influential pureblood family sitting out the war in the way the Greengrasses are often written? Like, actually saying "no thanks, our clan has always been capital-N Neutral" to him? No. Fuck no. He would have murdered them all and skipped away, leaving them to be found by other "fence-sitting" purebloods as an example. Yes, there are people who are neutral in wars, but not in the HP universe when Voldemort asks you directly. And the fanon Greengrasses would have been asked directly to get that skull tattoo.

I've even been bamboozled in the past into reading Haphnes that I think are going to be different but then start treading down this same stupid road, like the comments are getting to them or something. (And readers, why the fuck would you want to read the exact same fanfic 1,000 times but written by 1,000 different people? Hello??)

It's gotten to the point where it's actually refreshing if Daphne shows up in a fic and isn't shipped with Harry, or if she is but she has a completely different personality than the above. I'm reading a few Haphnes now that I can stomach because they are different or the plot is interesting enough for me to ignore the tropes, but it's been a long time since an HP fanon "collective character headcanon" or ship other than wolfstar has left such a bad taste in my mouth or caused me to actively avoid content with that character.

...oop. I know I said "last but not least" above but I forgot to mention Regulus Black so I'll briefly do so here. I don't know what happened in the last five-ish years but this man went from "devoted Voldemort follower who did one decent thing because he liked his slave, thank goodness, even though he slowed down the locket's destruction by taking it away" to "OMG my BLORBO he was fighting the GOOD FIGHT and also he's probably in love with James Potter!! and Lily is evil for keeping them apart!!" Huh?? Fanon's gonna fanon, but is one fanfic really responsible for all this? Jegulus and "secret freedom fighter Regulus" are just beyond my comprehension I guess. Mostly because it seems like fandom picks and chooses when they want a character to be evil-aligned-but-complex, and when they want to just sand over their rough edges and make them an Unsung Hero Who Did Nothing Wrong Ever. And also because I firmly believe that if James was gay, he'd have been with Sirius.

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

Teacher/student ships. (I mean, of course. I'm running this blog.) Of course IRL I don't condone that at all, but some of the most fascinating pairs in the HP universe are bonds between some of the professors and some of their students. Albus and Harry speak for themselves. But you've also got Minerva and Hermione to a lesser extent, and Snape with Draco in the early years (not so much later). And even those are nothing compared to the most interesting partnerships, which imo are between adults who at one point weren't both adults. Consider Albus and Minerva, who have been teaching, working and living together for at least five decades, before which Minerva was probably one of Albus' better Transfiguration students. Consider Albus and Snape, with Snape being the person who so recently graduated from being one of Albus' pupils to being one of his closest confidants. Consider Horace Slughorn and... well, Tom Riddle was my first choice, but really him with any student, because imo that man is very weird about networking with children. Hell, consider Albus and Tom because you know that was the most awkward seven years either of them has ever had, both being so powerful and skilled while intensely disliking each other. They're all so good. Playing with power dynamics can be fun. Especially when (and this is the only time I want politics in my HP fics!!) the older party potentially faces consequences, or doesn't, for taking advantage of the younger one, precisely because of who's involved and who's on the Hogwarts Board of Governors and what war's going on right now in the background and...

I think that's all the violence I can dish out for these questions! Thanks for the ask.~

[udaberriwrites]

McGonagall/Pomfrey

It's honestly not a ship I had considered at all before I heard you and Sara mention it, but I can definitely see it! They are both competent, no-nonsense women who care about the students and share a similar sense of humor, and they would respect the other's work a lot.

Imagine, if you will, them bonding over Marauder shenanigans, drinking late at night, and one thing leads to another...

So yes, I have never written for it, but it's an interesting ship!

[birlwrites]

my brain says you have enough wips my heart says lily-centric gen megafic in which she kills voldemort with the help of marlene, dorcas, and professor mcgonagall

[greenerteacups]

the latest lionheart chapter had me cheering at my phone like i was watching a goddamn UFC cage match. i think draco should be allowed to beat peoples ass all the time, personally. shoutout to neil, i’ve had you for two seconds and i would die for you. minerva mcgonnagall is an archangel confirmed canon. this was great, this was splendid, thank you for your contribution to society <3

thank you very much! "draco should be allowed to beat people's asses all the time" is incidentally an opinion that you and draco share!

i always love writing a good old-fashioned fight scene. neil macdonald is one of the few real OC's I've made for this fic — like pure no-canonical-counterpart OC — and I'm very glad you like him! <3

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

Can you IMAGINE if Sirius and Harry had been truly reunited the night Harry ran away after blowing up Aunt Marge? I feel like the two of them would've been SO chaotic together. 13 year old Harry fresh from inflating his non-blood aunt and seething over the Dursleys' words about his parents, teaming up with 33 year old Sirius fresh from 12 years in Azkaban, basically frothing at the mouth to rip Peter apart and protect his godson. They would be SO fucking fun for the Wizarding World to deal with (NOT). I'm imagining a world where Harry recognizes Sirius' magical signature or some bullshit as Padfoot and isn't immediately terrified when Padfoot suddenly turns into the murderous ex-con he just saw on the news had escaped. They're both just suddenly on the run from the Ministry bc Harry is like ??? WHY DO I RECOGNIZE YOU??? And Sirius is like I'M NOT LEAVING THIS KID AGAIN LIKE I DID THAT NIGHT!!!! So they're running around Britain and Harry's getting the 411 on Peter's betrayal and cute Marauders anecdotes and Sirius is losing his mind bc OMG it's his best friend and best friend-in-law (it's a thing, OKAY!?)'s son and he's so big and sassy and angry. And then Sirius is trying to figure out where they should go, and ends up deciding to go to fuckin Moony's place even though that's the first place people who knew them back then would check bc idk luck is on their side for once idc. So Remus has the absolute pleasure of opening the door to Mr. Harry James Potter in the company of a terrifyingly familiar black dog, and Remus' alarms are firing in his head as Sirius transforms from Padfoo t back into himself and he's shouting at Remus to LET HIM EXPLAIN, while Harry is doing his best to not let Remus fire a spell at his newly discovered godfather. Eventually Remus just lets Sirius explain on his front porch steps like they're a bunch of barbarians bc he refuses to let Sirius inside or let his guard down for a single second, and then Sirius tells him the whole story and Harry pulls out the Daily Prophet, and suddenly Harry has two absolutely FUCKIN FURIOUS Marauders on his hands, and they both want to chop Peter's head off and roast it on a stick, but Harry is oddly enough the most reasonable bc he's suddenly got a godfather that he doesn't want to lose bc hey, dude's kinda really great and also doesn't hate his guts like the Dursleys do, so of course he yells at them that they can't do anything yet bc Sirius would be carted back to Azkaban and probably Remus (who is still currently this random man to him ngl but also apparently the other loyal bestie his dad had at Hogwarts, so Harry doesn't want him chucked in Azkaban either) as well. So they devise a plan that involves kidnapped the fuck outta Scabbers as soon as Ron and Harry board the train together on September 1st, and Remus already has the DADA job, so he can help w that (although he still falls asleep bc I think Moony is absolutely iconic for that). And then the three of them just chill for about a month til it's time to board the Hogwarts Express, in which everyone at the station is suitably horrified when Harry just rolls up to the train with his brand spankin new pet dog Snuffles like nothing happened and he didn't just disappear off the face of the earth for nearly a MONTH, but Harry just ignores all that shit bc boy is on a MISSION and that mission is to destroy the bastard who got his parents killed and also started the catalyst of events that led to him growing up in an abusive household for like 10 years. Which is a thing he discussed at length w Remus and Sirius because Dumbledore is a manipulative piece of shit who TOTALLY KNEW the Dursleys were awful people and still decided to place him there :))))

Basically what ends up happening is Harry asks Ron to hand Scabbers over for a minute under the pretense of idek checking his lil rat toes or some shit bc he saw one was missing ???? And then Harry kicks Remus awake to do the spell, which he does, while Ron and Hermione are becoming deeply confused and disturbed by Harry's one-track mind and clear hatred for this stupid little RAT, but they let it happen bc Hermione sees the Professor part of RJ Lupin on Remus' briefcase (which, SCORE 1 for the Marauders definitely pranking him by getting him that briefcase at some point bc they WOULD and he had never been a professor before then so ???), and Ron and Hermione don't have a problem with authority figures, that's fuckin Harry. And Remus turns Wormtail back into Peter, and we get the whole Peter begging the Trio for mercy before Sirius turns back into himself from Padfoot, at which time Ron and Hermione start yelling about the escaped very dangerous convict in their TRAIN CAR, while Harry tries to convince them that Sirius isn't a danger to anyone in the tiny space but the fucking RAT, at which time Ron is like WELL HE'S NOT ACTUALLY A RAT ANYMORE NOW IS HE HARRY???!!! And Harry has to go with the short version of HE BETRAYED MY PARENTS RONALD!!!! while Peter is cornered by Sirius and Remus. And no, nobody has heard the yelling yet bc obviously Remus cast the Muffliato Charm or something, of course he did, I wouldn't forget that people have EARS. And then all of the sudden, the train car starts getting all cold, so Remus starts yelling at Sirius to change back to Padfoot bc the dementors won't sense a human that could be Kissed if he's not in human form, and Sirius does, but Peter also tries and Ron realizes what's happening and knocks him out (why Ron? Idk, why NOT him honestly, it's what he deserves after letting that creepy motherfucker live with him for the past few years bc YIKES I would be so freaked out) before Peter can turn back into a rat. The dementors come into the train car and Harry has his fainting spell which makes Sirius and Remus suitably LOSE THEIR MINDS bc WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED TO THE KID?!!??!! and Remus uses the Patronus Charm to repel them even though it means Peter won't be Kissed and Remus really wants revenge.

So Harry wakes up and is immediately accosted by his best friends, Sirius back in human form, and Remus trying to force chocolate into him. Ron and Hermione have been suitably informed of the situation, so they've closed the curtains, and nobody even knows what's happened besides those in the train car with them. Sirius doesn't have his wand, but he resolves to sit as Padfoot, staring at an unconscious Peter for the rest of the journey to Hogwarts, and the other four join him because no way in HELL are they letting that MF escape after Harry and Remus have managed to explain everything (and even before bc Ron and Hermione are the best and all they needed to hear was that Harry's parents died bc of Peter to determine that they would fucking the rat UP if he tried anything at all). So of course this weird fuckin quintet shows up to Hogsmeade's station with the real traitor and have to wait for everyone else to exit the train before traipsing up to the castle with the still unconscious Peter (Ron may not have cared all that much about being careful with head injuries from knocking bastards out bc of the whole ya know TRAITOR thing). Remus manages to send off a Patronus message to McGonagall (her bc of the aforementioned Dumbledore is a shithead thing) and they all head to Remus' new office with Peter in tow. Minerva shows up to Sirius as Padfoot, but an unconscious man who is CLEARLY Peter Pettigrew, and she's immediately like WHAT THE HELL??? and calls in some Aurors to deal with the trash. The Aurors are all suitably horrified but clear out soon bc they're not important to this story (sorry, kisses Aurors😘), and Minerva starts raging about Sirius being innocent and how DARE Peter, to which the Trio are extremely horrified bc they've never seen her lose her shit QUITE this much and it is highkey terrifying, but Remus is enjoying the show bc at least SOMEONE AGREES and Padfoot is wagging his tail and panting happily before Sirius realizes that Minerva can KNOW and he transforms back into himself, giving the poor professor half a heart attack. And because I think it would be hilarious for me personally, Snape walks in at the end of this lil story to see where tf Remus is bc he and Minerva are BOTH missing from the Welcome Feast, to Minerva McGonagall hugging the life out of a beaming Sirius Black while Remus looks at the two of them with a huge amount of relief bc THANK GOD she accepted his innocence, that could've been so bad for them lmao, they couldn't even Disapparate away at Hogwarts if she decided he wasn't innocent after all. And then Snape sees the Trio right beside Remus, also watching the hug and grinning like fools, especially Harry bc this meant Sirius was going to be FREE and also Harry would never have to deal with seeing the Dursleys or dealing with the fact that he literally blew up Dudley's aunt ever :)))

[st-severus]

It's established in canon when Arthur Weasley is also bitten by Nagini that her venom prevents the bites from her wound healing, or rather, it prevents blood from clotting, so I don't know if Vulnera Sanentur would be effective. Someone at St. Mungo's did eventually find an antidote, though, and I can't imagine Snape wouldn't have gotten his hands on some and carried it with him, not trusting Voldemort? Either that or he would have come up with a spell to separate out the venom from blood.

Actually, according to facts I just made up now when Vulnera Sanentur is performed by a powerful enough wizard it also has anti-venom properties - so long as it is narratively convenient.

[narcissa-black-supermacy]

apparently its not common knowledge that Walburga Black and Tom Riddle are the same age?

well let me blow your mind even more: Walburga Black is 10 years older than Minevra McGonagall.

[marblecarved]

@bccksmarts sent a letter to minerva mcgonagall: ‘‘ i’m just a little tired. i’ll be okay. ’’

prompt: beasts of little land.

Hermione's words do not seem to reassure her. In fact, as Minerva purses her lips in a thin line, peering down at her student from behind her glasses, they seem to do the exact opposite. Why is she tired ? Minerva now asks herself and then, out loud, she decides to ask: ❝ Miss Granger, are you having trouble sleeping ? ❞ using a rather brisk tone.

Perhaps it is too direct a question to ask, but it is best, in cases such as this, to ask instead of letting the matter be. The well-being of her students is important, after all.

❝ I could speak with Madam Pomfrey, if so, ❞ she continues then, looking momentarily away in consideration. As much as she would like to help her more directly, her knowledge of Potions and Herbology is not as extensive as her knowledge of other subjects, and she would be of no help. ❝ I'm sure she has something that could help, ❞ her voice trails off, here, only to pick up again with a question: ❝ unless something else is the matter... ? ❞

[whinlatter]

angry anon here 🙋🏻‍♀️ i’m not really mad at McGonagall because she took away the badge but more so because she is trying to solve this with tough love. I absolutely agree that Ginny should not play right now but she needs medical attention and not being called childish and doing homework. I suppose she is dealing with guilt because she couldn’t help the students, tho we don’t know the extent of it yet and this is because of the amazing way in which this story is built 🙏

I can’t wait to find out what the punishment of that asshole is! For saying those things… will McGonagall expell him? 🤞 #redemptionforMcGonagall

Minerva McGonagall, discovering that tough love might not be the best pedagogical approach for dealing with traumatised child soldiers 👁️👃👁️

Spoiler alert: Montague’s punishment is actually the Cruciatus Curse because old habits die hard