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not to be a human trailer but

I'll be back here soon

(also Snape season is coming)

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Purveyor of Knowledge

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The three stages of shipping.

Stage 1: NOW KISS

Stage 2: NOW FUCK

Stage 3: NOW BREAK EACH OTHER’S HEARTS AND THEN MEND THEM SLOWLY WHILE TOUCHING EACH OTHER WITH REVERENT, TREMBLING HANDS

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Fandoms stopped being a fun escape from reality when people started spreading the belief that you should prioritize purity over pleasure and the art you create must be a reflection of your moral standards at all times.

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After survival

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– devotion & vulnerability.

// artistic nudity ahead. //

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What do you think about Harry owning Kreacher? Sinve I seen some people say it doesnt make sense for Harry to get a slave when he grew up being treated as one.

It's stupid, we all know it's stupid. The good-guy protagonist defined by his magical super-love ends the book owning a slave, and the last sentence of the main story is about him thinking he should ask his slave to go get him a sandwich. Harry goes from identifying with Dobby's situation and empathizing ("Can’t anyone help you? Can’t I?”) to hearing that Slughorn is using house-elves as poison testers and being all like Hermione is going to be so annoying if I tell her about this.

The house-elf weirdness comes from a few places.

1.I do not think the metaphor JKR originally had in mind for house-elves was american-style chattel slavery. I think she was thinking of Dobby as like... a victorian-style scullery maid, and house-elves as more a comment on class. Like that's the *british* touch stone (especially in fantasy, especially in children's fantasy.)

(JKR's American history just, isn't very good. The "Mercy Lewis" thing in Fantastic Beasts drives me insane.)

2. BUT her American fanbase started interpreting house elves as more of anti-racism thing (versus an anti-classism thing) and she just excepted the extra kudos. I think JKR may have liked/run with this interpretation because Fantastic Beasts 2 has a character who is *part* house elf, which is both incredibly disturbing and *does* make it explictly a race thing. The Fantastic Beasts films as a whole do start introducing race politics to the HP world, which is handled about as well as you'd expect.

3. House elves are very relevant to the plot, and especially to the mystery aspects of Book 2 and 4. So the needs of the mystery are going to dictate a lot of the house-elf centric world building. House-elves are based on brownies (or dobies) who do housework if they like you or if they feel like it, but get offended and leave if you try to imply that you have any ownership over them or their identity. Brownies leave if you give them names, religion, supervision, criticism, money... and clothes is of course the classic.

But you can't give Dobby that much agency, or he'd just tell Harry what was going on in Book 2. He needs to be stuck giving Harry cryptic riddles. Then in Book 4, a lot of the Barty Junior reveal revolves around Winky: her strange behavior, and Barty Senior's strange behavior when it comes to her. But, you can't make "intense loyalty to their master" just a Winky thing, that would make that part seem too suspicious. So it's just treated as normal. You also can't make it so only *bad guys* have house elves, because that would make it too obvious that Barty Senior is behind it all.

(also, the house-elf self harm punishment stuff? In Book 2, it's implied to be a magical compulsion Dobby is under. In Book 4 we learn that's not the case, house elves are just Like That. That's a call that makes a pretty clever clue work, but it's got crazy implications.)

So, you're left with a universe where owning a house-elf is morally neutral behavior, and most house elves are very loyal to their masters. And then JKR doesn't want to go into a whole house-elf liberation subplot (and I honestly don't think she initially meant to open that can of worms.) S0... she tries to put the subject to bed with the whole Sirius + Regulus + Kreacher lesson. Regulus sacrifices himself for Kreacher, which is treated as cool and awesome and redemptive. Then Kreacher lives on, supporting his cause and fighting in his memory. But Sirius is mean to Kreacher, and Kreacher gets him killed.

The problem is, I do not think JKR really thinks of house elves as slaves. She thinks of them as badly-treated servants or workers. And "be nice to your employees" is a great message! But she's missing the institutionalism of the system she's created. It doesn't matter if you are really really nice to your slave, they are still existing in a system that hurts them and helps you. And this lack of understanding of the power and reach of the system is one of the issues with JKR's worldbuilding... and her irl worldview.

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Okay, just listen to me. Severus with a high ponytail makes cookies. I was thinking about it and how funny he would look in an apron and what Sirius' reaction would be. How do you think he would have reacted! Did you think Severus was trying to poison him?

I doubt a single conscious thought will go through his head once he sees his bare nape

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hell yeah fruk forever

You get it, anon 🇨🇵♥️🇬🇧

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https://www.tumblr.com/lightningant/780784614085099520/okay-i-mentioned-the-marauders-fandom-sounds-like?source=share agree or not?

Just read the post and while I honestly can't say I've hung around the Maraudeur fandom myself (I'm just haunting the Snapedom), many of my fellow tumblr users have been reporting the same things overall: a lot of performative 'wokeness', a general avoidance around addressing problematic topics and an overall strangely aggressive stance against other parts of the fandoms.

@lightningant's thoughts are pretty on point to me.

I've stumbled upon some fake 'woke' people irl. People who have been studying the lingo around it and are able to explain to you why feminism is important, how consent is central to their sex life or how terrible capitalism is. To me they're the same as these other toxic people who went to therapy and used the words they learned there to keep on being toxic but like... in a more sneaky way. They haven't really made the work, they're not really interested in changing. It's performative. It's wearing a mask, learning to 'fit in', be seen as safe and 'on te good side'. Wolves in sheep's clothing.

From afar, the Maraudeur fandom kinda feels the same to me.

I never read their work and barely look at their fanarts. I'm not interested in twink Sirius, alpha Remus, Jegulus, nor any trans headcanons - which is not me saying I'm against them, I'm just not personally interested in these dynamics. I'm sure I could like it - everything is interesting if it's framed/written well enough - but every time I hear about the intent behind it (which is none, it's mostly aesthethic) I'm frankly put off.

Twink/femboy Sirius is off canon (which I'm not a fan of, I love my extremely flawed canon characters) but if you're going for that then it could be super interesting to really challenge this character with the oppression he'd face (which can open new cans of worms about performative masculinity, aristocracy, legacy, the wizarding world, patriarchy etc.) and ALSO with his friends. This would be an absolutely fascinating AU - and since I have to make everything about Snape - what if Sirius was making fun of Snape for being feminine then didn't grew up as hyper masculine himself and found himself being compared to Snape? Or worse, realizing it himself and everyone trying to ignore it? Imagine the rage, the hate, the sheer angst of it.

But this is what it would be: an AU. And this is the same with alpha Remus or any of these classic 'mordern Maraudeur fandom' tropes.

Claiming this isn't AU is full delulu.

I'm trying to put myself in their shoes a little bit. They're young and they have no idea - except theoretically - about the 90s, so trying to depict the systemic oppressions of the 70s or 80s doesn't sound easy. Hell, it isn't to me and I was born in the 90s. But I'm aware that things were tough and different. Is it because I'm older and I studied history more? Maybe.

But it also feels like most of them just don't care. Because they don't sound like genuinely deconstructed people who want to do better and get better at understanding these systems while using the HP universe to explore and deconstruct societal norms/expectations/identities/etc. You can't say 'fuck JKR' and buy her merch. You can't be 'half in'. Then again it's not easy (possible?) to be 'the perfect ally' and many of us may still be struggling with this or have been needing to go step by step in this process.

What's puzzling to me is how much they sound like JKR. She claims she's a feminist while oppressing trans women and women in general. They claim they're woke and queer - people who are supposed in theory to be OPEN-MINDED and capable of DISCUSSING difficult topics face-on - and yet are attacking queer people pointing out flaws in their logics and depictions of queer characters.

I'm not saying they're not queer, I don't know them. But they are indeed treating serious topics as badly as Hollywood was with gay and poc people ten years ago (not that it's good now but it's less terrible overall). It's tokenizing identities without exploring the topics linked to them.

AGAIN, they're young. When I was a teen I was reading yaoi Fye/Kurogane fanfics on ff.net and writing some Negima crack with emojis everywhere. I wrote some Hetalia smut including a footjob (and was VERY proud of it) and some gay porn and absolutely not addressing any heavy topics behind it. I didn't care at all and frankly my brain was certainly not cooked enough for any of this.

But I didn't claim I was queer or above anyone. I didn't claim my part of the fandom was better than another (tho FrUk was better than UsUk, change my mind lolz) and I was certainly not part of any fandom who had such a HEAVY history and link to systemic oppressions.

Nowadays, hating, loving or being indifferent to Harry Potter is a political stance.

We are enjoying a universe which was created by a really bigoted woman who's actively harming people today. I'm not happy about it and this is a discomfort we all have to acknowledge and live with as being part of this fandom. And the least we can do is face the problems within the text, outside of the text (what she is doing with the money she's still getting) and while we create something inspired by this universe, strive to learn and be better than her.

Which means accepting that we are riddled with prejudices - it's not shameful to admit, we GREW UP learning these - and we're certainly not perfect and have work ahead of us to unlearn these things. The key is to remain flexible, open to discussion and learn new things. It's not easy but nobody said it was. And we don't have to be perfect all the time - hell no. It's not a life. And fandom is supposed to be fun.

I just think that being open-minded is an important thing to cultivate.

I may not be a fan of transforming the characters and making them queer where I personally don't see a fertile soil for it (gimme a gay Sirius any day but I'm not buying alpha Remus because canon) BUT I think it's great if younger generations are getting their hands on the story and... trying new things! Go them!

Just stop the delulu. Y'all sound like Lucius Malfoy posing with a muggleborn for the press and being like 'Yes this is my very good friend Dave, he's super oppressed by our society but he's so brave about it. And he's got a muggle tie, look how exotic he looks!'

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in love with this freaky little family

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@saintsenara

I shit you not I was minding my own business and suddenly I THOUGHT about Twotr and was like 'ah, yes, the next chapter is coming soon...'

my phone vibrated

got the notification

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You inspired me to find a beauty in hooked noses I hadn’t thought of before

….but now I have a fat crush on a photographer 4 years my senior so heeeelp? (He’s blonde and smiles at me and plays the guitar and piano and sings and wowww)

Go for it girl (gender neutral).

I'm super mega weak for musicians AND blond men. And you're saying he's got a hooked nose?

You're lucky I'm not there. I'd totally go for it too.

Four years is not that much. (Well I mean, how old are you yourself? Because some age gaps can be problematic-)

Give us the tea.

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Personal update below. TW: death.

My dad passed away last Saturday.

I'm going through the motions. It's going to be very tough until Thursday evening (the day of the funeral) but hopefully after that we'll be able to catch our breath.

I'm eager to get back to this blog and my asks and my art. I know it's going to do me good and y'all bring me joy. But this is going to take me a little while so wait for me.

Thank you

Love y'all to bits 💚🐍

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Sirius has a disgust for Severus. Severus is dirty, dirty underwear, hair.

Nah Sirius definitely craves it.

That dog man gotta sniff and lick.

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something about those “let snape be ugly! in the books, he's described as ugly. he is pale and has long hair and a hooked nose. he is UGLY!” posts are really off putting. i understand the sentiment that not all characters have to be attractive but why are you associating those features with ugly? why do you assume that for me to call him attractive i have to take away any of those features? i know what he looks like and i think it's hot! sorry harry has bad taste that's not my problem.

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Have you done Snape/Sirius for the ship asks yet?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

and what better occasion than sirius' birthday to give @ashesandhackles something she's been waiting for for well over a year...

so here we are then...

the snack manifesto

besides the ship name, the reason this ship slaps is for the absolutely classic reason that it's smashing a narrative mirror pairing together.

snape and sirius are obviously incredibly similar personality wise - they're both arrogant, theatrical, incredibly clever, creative, capable of great cruelty, stubborn, loyal, possessed of dry senses of humour, from difficult family backgrounds, and so on - and their differences - such as their looks, class, or wealth - are polar rather than divergent.

but they also serve identical narrative purposes. each functions as the guide who leads harry through the character arc which begins in prisoner of azkaban and concludes in deathly hallows, in which he sheds his childish, black-and-white view of his parents and comes to regard them as real, flawed, and complex people.

sirius takes him up to the end of order of the phoenix [and is then immediately killed, his narrative role complete], when harry's realisation that james was a bully stops his earlier hero-worship of his father and allows him to approach him as a whole person.

[which is important, since we then see in half-blood prince that voldemort's inability to do this - and his inability, therefore, to cope with the disappointment of discovering the elaborate fictional version of tom riddle sr. he'd created in his head wasn't what the real one was like - is why the text understands harry as superior to him.]

snape - through the proxies of slughorn, the discipline of potions, his textbook, his patronus, and his memories - takes harry through half-blood prince and deathly hallows, as harry starts to think more deeply about lily [who spends the earlier books secondary in importance to james in his mind] and to eventually learn that she and her sacrifice are the keys to the entire mystery.

snape and sirius are the figures who assist in this arc because each of their lives are defined by their relationship with and love for one half of james and lily as a pairing. their mirrored relationships with harry are similarly driven by their mirrored relationships with his parents.

and, most importantly, so is their relationship with each other. they hate each other on sight because snape blames sirius for james noticing lily [thus drawing her attention away from him] and sirius blames snape for the same thing [thus drawing james' attention away from him] and their constant mutual antagonism is the most interesting snape-versus-one-of-the-marauders dynamic because of the equality this lends. snape likes antagonising sirius - even though he thinks sirius tried to murder him! - whereas he is straightforwardly afraid of lupin and feels inferior to and resentful of james, because he must sense - however subconsciously - that sirius is his emotional equal: someone else struggling against the fact that the person he loves doesn't love him with the same intensity.

the mutual spark this creates is hot enough for an enemies-to-lovers conflagration for the ages even while they're at school. but it gets so much better once we're in the canon timeline, since sirius and snape's adult characterisation is entirely driven by their mirrored approaches to guilt and grief.

both of them indirectly trigger the death of the person they love - snape via reporting the prophecy, sirius via insisting on the secret keeper swap - and neither accepts that his actions were, in fact, indirect.

hollowed out by this feeling, both of them decide to punish themselves in an effort - one which they both clearly consider near-futile - to atone. both of them do this by subjecting themselves to the pain and humiliation of imprisonment and being thought a criminal - sirius by refusing to profess his innocence at any point before 1993; snape by staying at hogwarts and insisting that dumbledore keeps his true motivations concealed, allowing him to be thought of as an unreformed death eater - until they have a shot at the only thing they each think will redeem them in james and lily's eyes - murdering wormtail, for sirius, and murdering voldemort, for snape.

[after all, why does dumbledore say to harry at king's cross that his aim was for snape to control the elder wand if he wasn’t hoping he'd use it to give the dark lord his death blow? it's just a shame the dream-team of draco malfoy and nagini got there first...]

and this mirrored grief provides such a good point of narrative tension between them, which can so easily grow into something romantic.

because you have, at first, the fact that each can use the other's grief to wound - snape can scream at sirius about how stupid the secret keeper plan was; sirius can scream at snape about what a cunt he was to report the prophecy to voldemort - and to soothe - if snape blames sirius for lily's death, he can pretend that reporting the prophecy was less integral to it than it was; if sirius blames snape for james', he can pretend that insisting wormtail was the secret keeper was less integral to it than it was.

but this can then grow into a recognition of both their mutual culpability - the secret keeper swap only happened because of the prophecy; the prophecy could only be acted upon because of the secret keeper swap - and their mutual lack of it - neither actually knew that what they were doing would doom james and lily, and voldemort is the person who is actually to blame for their deaths.

and this can grow into each of them offering the other the forgiveness he craves, but can't give to himself.

and so, they're the best of the series' mirror pairings for writing love which is totally, utterly equal.

for example, harry and voldemort - who are the series' main narrative mirrors - don't have the mutual weight of guilt driving their relationship. writing them as a consensual romantic pairing requires dealing with the concept of forgiveness, absolutely - but harry is the only person who actually needs to do the forgiving; he hasn't done anything to voldemort which is an equivalent to voldemort killing his parents. similarly, while the grief of their orphanhood and the way it shapes them is one of their main mirror traits, this grief doesn't have equal causes - voldemort's mother died in childbirth; his father, and both of harry's parents, died because voldemort murdered them.

with snape and sirius - in contrast - there is none of this imbalance. they interact with each other - whether they're holding their wands to each other's throats or cuddling on the sofa [or, let's be real, both] - as equals [even though sirius attempts to introduce an element of inequality into many of their canon interactions by alluding to their divergent social classes].

which is to say, there's a respect behind the loathing which allows the loathing to be transformed with very little work into love.