#//this was originally written up on Draco's old blog

[pygmy-puffy]

i've been going through my online accounts trying to put everything in one place and delete the millions of project accounts I never use. This has sent me on a journey through years-old posts, when I just started posting fanart for the harry potter fandom. I was in a really rough spot mentally during those years and revisiting old posts makes me so grateful to this community for seeing me and interacting with me when my everyday life outside of tumblr was sad and grey. When I started feeling better and regained some sort of control on my life, I naturally started getting busier with stuff and stopped creating fanworks. These pieces and the community still hold a very special place in my heart though.

i deleted the original post of this illustration from an old blog, but I wanted to keep it on tumblr for old times sake. I think this was the second piece of art I posted ever. The following is the text I had written to go with it:

"I just wish that during the summer before his 4th Year at Hogwarts, Draco would begin to understand the true implications of sharing his parents’ views about the world. Horrified, he would distance himself from anyone with similar beliefs. A few weeks into the school year, he would even muster up the courage to approach Hermione, Ron and eventually Harry to apologize for what he has said and done. By the end of the year, Draco and Harry would have become civil with each other and would actually regularly study together outside in the shade of the trees. One day, they would be taking a break from studying, and Harry would pick a flower from the grass and pretend he is offering to Draco. With a light chuckle, he’d prepare to throw it back into the grass, but Draco would suddenly reach out and brush his fingertips across Harry’s wrist. They would look at each other for a long moment, tiny smiles curling up the corner of their mouths. Then in silence, they would enjoy the warmth of an early summer and a budding relationship that would change the course of the war."

[phoebe-delia]

Pst,

From the writers game: 18, 25 y 29

(Hello lovely Pheebs, is that time of the year again when I'm re-reading this is me trying because a year ago I read it for the first time and it changed my life.)

@luna13e-blog first of all, thank you for the ask, my friend. And second, before I get to the answers, I want to say thank you. I am so humbled and honored that "this is me trying" means as much to you as it does to me. As you know, it's my favorite thing I've written, and I can't tell you how happy it makes me that you found something meaningful by reading it.

Now on to the ask game!!

18. What’s one of your favorite lines you’ve written in a fic?

In the spirit of your lovely message, I'll share a passage from TIMT!!

“So, Harry, what do you do in your free time other than bribing me with baked goods in exchange for friendship?”

Harry snorted. “I drive around looking for diners that have hired my old arch-enemies, obviously.”

“How dare you,” Draco held a hand to his own chest in mock offense. “I thought I was your only nemesis. Have you been cheating on me all this time?”

“Oh yeah, this other bloke made t-shirts that said ‘Potter’s An Idiot.’ Really outshone your badges.”

“Well, the joke’s on you, because I had a side enemy, too.”

“When he pranked you, did you at least think of me?”

“I admit it, Potter, he meant nothing. It was hate at first sight, with you,” Draco batted his eyelashes, and Harry burst out laughing. Draco’s face split into a wide grin before he started giggling, too.

25. Have you ever upset yourself with your own writing?

Yes, yes I have. The first time I wrote MCD I was sad for like a day and a half. Ironically, I also had Draco working in a cafe in this fic—which was written months before TIMT was even a passing idea in my head.

29. Share a bit from a fic you’ll never post OR from a scene that was cut from an already posted fic. (If you don’t have either, just share a random fic idea you have that you don’t plan on getting to.)

OKAY SO!!! You may recall in the tags of TIMT I say that there's a line I cut because I was afraid it was too suggestive.

Well. I went back into my drafts of the fic and I found iiiittttt!!!! In retrospect, I understand why I changed it, and I think the final version is fine, but it wasn't THAT bad.

I will post BOTH versions so you can compare, with the differing parts underlined. It's honestly not that big of a change, but I hope this at least makes you laugh!

ORIGINAL:

Draco’s eyes were open, but the smile stayed intact as he tilted up his head to look at the stars. Harry busied himself with opening the container of cookies and offering one to Draco, who took the proffered dessert and took a greedy bite with a satisfied groan that surprisingly made Harry’s jeans tighten slightly. Merlin, Harry needed to get laid if he was getting worked up over Draco Malfoy.

PUBLISHED:

Draco’s eyes were open, but the smile stayed intact as he tilted up his head to look at the stars. Harry busied himself with opening the container of cookies and offering one to Draco, who accepted the proffered dessert and took a greedy bite with a satisfied groan that made Harry flush.

_____

Thanks so much again, my friend!!

Send me an ask from this list!

[indiscretus]

Draco was not the only Death Eater pressured into becoming one.

In fact, I would argue that all of the Death Eaters were, on some level, a product of their environment. There seems to be this misconception that Draco is special- that he is the only precious baby who might have felt conflicted about the direction his parents encouraged him to follow, that he is somehow the only pureblood who was directly affected by the way he was raised, and might have turned out different in a different environment. Sometimes other characters are acknowledged under this idea- Regulus, though we actually don’t know a single thing about him beyond that he was well trusted by Voldemort, and did indeed become a DE before turning on the Dark Lord, and Severus, rarely, are acknowledged as products of their upbringing.

BUT HERE’S THE THING.

NEARLY ALL THE DEATH EATERS WERE RAISED IN THE SAME SOCIETY?

All the witches and wizards who took Voldemort’s mark, with very few exceptions were raised in rich families with purist ideals. Many of the older generation were indoctrinated by their very own parents just as Draco was by his- we simply don’t directly see it happening because frankly, no book has the time to explore the formation of every character. But, for example, we do know for a fact that Abraxas Malfoy, Draco’s grandfather and Lucius Malfoy’s father, was a part of Voldemort’s inner circle when the Death Eaters were still known as the Knights of Walpurgis, and likely indoctrinated his own son into the group. We know that the same family line which drove Regulus Black to the Dark Lord likely also did so to Bellatrix, who was Regulus’s first cousin.

This is why Death Eaters can be fascinating characters to explore, once we look past the two-dimensional children’s book presentation- they are people, each and individually, who may very well have led totally different lives, if only they’d been raised by someone else.

[lostdrarryfics]

THE BIG FIND: DAY ONE

Welcome to the first day of our anniversary celebration!

The Big Find is a 10-day long Drarry fic-finding marathon to celebrate the blog’s first anniversary. Below is the Day 1 compilation of lost fics, both old and new, that we’ve been unable to find. Our aim is to get as much attention to these lost fics as possible, to help people finally find their missing fics! Anyone can participate by reblogging, reading through each list, providing additional fic details, and informing us the title, author, or link of a fic, and their respective number in the comment section. Happy finding!

1.1 I’m looking for a fic I read, probably 10+ years ago, before AO3 even existed. The only scene I can really remember takes place in the Great Hall and Harry and Draco have a play Quidditch competition using gingerbread men, and one of the boys makes their gingerbread man do a bunch of aerial summersaults and it made everyone in the Great Hall laugh. (original post)

1.2 I am looking for a sequel fic, it was in the mid of updates in Jan 2019-Feb 2019 in wattpad, and they were out of Hogwarts and Draco had run away (he and Harry had dated before he ran in the 1st book) and Harry, Hermione, Ron, Pansy, and Blaise had went on a trip to New York and found him at the place they were staying (he had disguised himself). (original post)

FOUND! 1.3 ao3, Draco is friends with the Golden Trio. They’re doing research in a library they found in the chamber of secrets. Ron and Hermione find a book written in parseltongue, and Harry summons a snake to clarify the word horcrux and the snake tells him that it’s a very dark magic and he shouldn’t do it. They figure out Harry’s a horcrux and he sneaks away from the library and stabs himself in the forehead with a basilisk fang. They take him to the hospital wing and tell Pomfrey that he fell while running and that’s why he has blood all over his face and Hermione shows her Ron’s scraped palms to convince her. She can’t heal his scar and calls someone from the hospital to try and heal it but the injury deflects magic so I think they end up giving him stitches. (original post)

fic is not the fanciful providence of death series by hoboheartache

1.4 Auror Harry, Draco is brought in as a consultant, likely a potions consultant. He consults for an ongoing case that concerns dark magic/potions. Draco had really bad anxiety. They have a BDSM relationship where Draco wants to give up control because he feels he made too many bad decisions and wants someone to control him. Harry wants control because he has never had enough of it. He had his entire life planned out for him by destiny and Dumbledore. There was an auror meeting, Draco is called in to give a presentation regarding a dangerous potion or dark magic. He has a briefcase. The aurors don’t respect him or pay attention, but he shows gruesome images of the subject they’re dealing with and they do. Harry is new to BDSM and that they might have started their relationship prior to or after meeting in the workplace. Bottom!Draco, if I recall correctly. Probably at least over 15k or longer. Draco was very competent at his job, and the case they were working on likely involved gruesome potion related things happening to the victims faces, which Draco presented slides of at a meeting. (original post)

fic is not yours is the earth (hold on, hold on) by chickenlivesinpumpkin

1.5 ffn, it was finished before deathly hallows was published (2007). Wolfstar raised Harry since he was a baby and when he was 13 Narcissus + Lucius died, and Draco ended up in Sirius’s custody. I think it had some 20 odd chapters. A lot of the conflict was Wolfstar trying to get Draco and Harry to get along and them feuding (and secretly pining for each other). There was a whole chapter dedicated to them sabotaging each others dates to the Yule ball. It ended with them getting together at Wolfstar wedding. (original post)

FOUND! 1.6 It’s their first date, hogwarts age, and I’m pretty sure it’s ao3. Draco has this magical umbrella that they sit under for a picnic, that I’m sure is off the road to hogsmead, and I think the date doesn’t end too well because once they “come out” of the umbrella it’s raining and eventually Draco explains that the magic of the umbrella is capturing a moment in time so they can relive it again and he’d hoped that first date was the first of many memories recorded. I think his parents had used it as well. (original post)

1.7 Draco and Harry are in a relationship. Either Teddy lived with them or they were taking care of him. Draco is a Healer in training, so he is always extremely busy. Harry starts feeling neglected. On the night of Halloween, Draco comes home and tells Harry that he is just there for a short amount of time, so that he can take Teddy trick and treating. Harry feels extremely hurt and asks if Draco even remembers that it is the death anniversary of Harry’s parents and that Harry was expecting Draco to be there for him. Draco feels extremely guilty but he has to go back to St. Mungo’s. Harry then says that if Draco leaves him now to go back to the hospital, he should just never come back. Draco is stunned and helpless but he still leaves. Fast forward to six years later, Harry takes Teddy with him to a party where he meets Draco. When Teddy sees Draco, he hugs him and asks him why he never came to play with him in the last six years and stuff like that. Teddy says that Draco should hang out with them and Draco tells him that he should ask Harry. If Harry is okay with it, he will come to see Teddy. Harry tells him that it’s ok. Slowly, they rekindle their relationship and Harry confesses that when they were together, he used to feel like he wasn’t important enough for Draco. Harry used to think that for Draco, his first priority was Teddy and then his job and Harry couldn’t see himself in that list. But Draco reassured Harry that Harry was and is the most important person for Draco. Draco tells him that he never dated anyone after Harry, never slept with anyone in the last six years and that he have always loved Harry. (original post)

fic is not the storm by kizkhalifa

1.8 Draco is sentenced to live in muggle world. He first works in a coffee shop then in a pharmaceutical company formed by a witch. On a full moon day, he suddenly turns into a werewolf and Bill helps him adjust. He takes the job as potions professor. Harry adopts Teddy, becomes defense professor. Harry’s magic goes haywire. (original post)

FOUND! 1.9 AO3, H&D are staying at Grimmauld, raising Teddy together. D&T finds a magical compartment in the house that they get into because they’re Blacks and they find old pictures of I think Sirius and Remus. Auror!H investigating some funky time travel curse on Hogwarts. Towards the end everyone goes crazy because he’s been gone for a week but H thinks its only been an hour or something. (original post)

1.10 Harry suspecting that Draco is a death eater in 6th year. He got suspicious because Draco can see the Thestrals now, and get more suspicious when notices that Draco became more powerful during summer, first when he saw Draco transforming water into oil (the salad one) during first dinner and the second when he saw him in a duel with a kind of cloud the professors were using to test students in defense, and Draco’s turn was intense because the cloud shot what seemed a killing curse at him. Harry started to find Draco more attractive. They met by accident sometimes in the bathroom where Harry find Draco smoking by a window. (original post)

FOUND! 1.11 Harry has erectile problems and Ginny tries to force it but ends up hurting his crotch. (original post)

FOUND! 1.12 Dudley’s POV, he hates Harry and loves that Harry hates him back, it’s what makes him happy bc he thinks he owns him in some way? But then… yer a wizard Harry! New friends! Adventures! Other bully kids! War! But Draco joins them and with the years Dudley realizes Harry doesn’t care about him enough to hate and that there is something special in the hate he feels for Draco (it’s love, actually, big surprise). I think Draco becomes a spy or he wants to but Harry is not okay with it. (original post)

FOUND! 1.13 8th years are having a party in the Room of Requirement. They have to wear colours from other houses instead of their own houses, otherwise they’re not allowed in the party. Zacharias Smith and Ernie Macmillon weren’t allowed in because they wore black. The 8th years were playing a game involving potions. (original post)

FOUND! 1.14 Draco was playing truth or dare with a mix of students, and when he was asked to show his dark mark, he showed them a mess of scars instead and he was like “im trying to remove it” (original post)

[spcncershybrid]

movies and tv shows i write for

—this is an updated version of my old list of things i write for. meaning i have added shows and taken out some.

—i am in the middle of creating a masterlist and a taglist. even a lil emoji anon’s are welcome esp if you want to req often but don’t want your user shared.

—taglist’s are split between by overall and by fandom. just send in an ask or msg me [“i wanna be in so and so taglist.”]

—under cut is full list + req format.

—movies

harry potter

—harry potter

—ron weasley

—the twins

—draco malfoy

—tom riddle

—cedric diggory

—oliver wood

—neville longbottom

fbawtft

—newt scamander

—theseus scamander

—credence barebone

mcu

—bucky barnes

—peter parker

—steve rogers

—sam wilson

—matt murdock [even though he’s nmcu I’m adding him here.]

—foggy nelson

—any other character will be in a platonic way [reasoning is in a few posts back.]

eternals

[i know this is within the mcu category but for the sake of this list it’ll be separate.]

—druig

—ikaris

—dane whitman

—rest of characters platonic

x-men

—charles xavier

—erik lehnsherr

—alex summers

—hank mccoy

—tv shows

teen wolf

—liam dunbar

—stiles stilinski

—scott mccall

—theo raeken

criminal minds

—spencer reid

—derek morgan

tvd

—damon salvatore

—stefan salvatore

—kai parker

—jeremy gilbert

the originals

—elijah mikaelson

—kol mikaelson

—klaus mikaelson

—req style/ format + some other stuff

—throughout this blogs history i mainly have written fem!reader and mainly will keep it that way. [open to writing gn!reader though! just make sure to specify in request.] [my pronouns are she/her so i have more experience from a females perspective in writing.]

—also open to do requests based on songs. just include song and ship. and open to doing poly ships [only with characters i have under my lists + love triangles.]

—also this blog might become more nsfw [still undecided.] but i am still sticking to my stance on not writing smut i’ll only go as far as suggestive things.

—personally i think my writing has changed between my hiatus times so hopefully the quality of writing will be good.

—req formats

—always include the ship. this is an obvious given.

[ex. druig x reader.]

—plot of imagine. another obvious given. they don’t need to be overly detailed but just enough for me to come up with a full imagine.

[ex. fem!reader and bucky have fist fight and reader wins.]

[ex. gn!reader is an avenger and meets ikaris.]

[ex. reader x avengers platonic, they all go to beach.]

—others

—i wanna take this little section to appreciate anyone that sends in requests, likes, and reblogs any of my works. i genuinely appreciate it even though i don’t mention it often on this blog.

—i also have a wattpad account if anyone wants to read my works from there [-laminades is my account name.]

—if i remember anything else i’ll add it in the future.

—old list if for whatever reason you are interested.

[sitp-recs]

Hello! I LOVE your recs and your blog, thank you so much ❤ was wondering if you know any drarry fic where the presence of their friends (either the slytherin or the gryffidor or both) is very important and there's like an found/adopted-family kind of vibe? Maybe a bunch of them are roomates or something? Like something very heart-warming. It's okay if you don't know any or don't wanna answer! Also I hope I managed to make it understandable what I mean 😅 english isn't my first language and I'm searching my words haha

Hi anon, your English is great! I love the found family trope, it’s so wholesome ❤️ These are some of my favorites, hope you enjoy them!

Griffyndors/Slytherins

Cupboard Love by @shealwaysreads (2021, G, 4k)

Harry’s life, and love, in food.

All Tied Up by MyNameIsThunder (2020, M, 6k)

Blaise is determined to find out why the entrance to the Slytherin common room is acting up all of a sudden. Draco is determined to keep it a secret.

It's Friday (I'm in Love) by @punk-rock-yuppie (2018, E, 16k)

At first, Draco only hangs out with them on Fridays after work; then he starts shagging Potter after pub nights. Then all the rest of the gang tries to befriend Draco and even worse, Potter tries to date him. It’s an absolute disaster, if you ask Draco.

Nice Things by aideomai (2020, M, 22k)

The first thing that happened was Theodore Nott came back from France.

The Moon Looks Lovely Tonight by Omi_Ohmy (2014, M, 35k)

When Harry moves into the damp and empty Black house, it doesn’t quite feel like home. And then the first owl moves in. After that, it’s a steep slope leading to bed-sharing, more owls, assorted housemates, strange potions experiments, and terrible cooking. And a bit of waltzing, too.

(Un)wanted by @aibidil (2020, E, 36k)

Ginny's pregnant, then she's not and Harry's single. Harry, again with no family, doesn't know what to do with this turn of events, or how to find a new life—post-war, post-Ginny, post-abortion—in which he belongs. He doesn't expect that life to include dancing to the Backstreet Boys with Hermione and Draco Malfoy. A story of finding belonging in the unexpected.

Follow the Water by @xanthippe74 (2020, T, 38k)

Harry Potter’s life is fine. Maybe a little dull and predictable, but he shouldn’t complain about that, right? When he unexpectedly finds himself at Luna’s house one afternoon, Harry gets invited to join the secret wonderland that she’s creating with a surprising group of friends.

Right Hand Red by @lqtraintracks (2015, E, 73k)

Harry felt Malfoy's breath on his lips as they came together over the bottle, hands firmly planted on the floor as though they each needed their familiar soil, refusing to cross into enemy territory. Except that Malfoy no longer felt like his enemy. Malfoy felt inevitable.

Hermione Granger's Hogwarts Crammer for Delinquents on the Run by waspabi (2016, T, 93k)

‘You're a wizard, Harry' is easier to hear from a half-giant when you're eleven, rather than from some kids on a tube platform when you're seventeen and late for work.

Written on the Heart by who_la_hoop (2016, E, 113k)

Unnerved by the attention he’s attracting from everyone – the Slytherins are the least of it, to be fair – and struggling with a raft of changes to Hogwarts itself, Harry wishes he could be happy that one constant remains: Draco Malfoy really fucking hates him.

Original characters:

We Might Be Too Old for a Bildungsroman by @wellhalesbells (2015, T, 21k)

Harry finds something he’s been looking for since the war’s end. Admittedly, the packaging’s a bit odder than he expected.

When You Kiss Me (What A Lovely Way To Burn) by Femme (2018, E, 22k)

A drag fairytale of New York in which Draco wears red lipstick and Potter can’t get enough.

Here's The Pencil, Make It Work by ignatiustrout (2013, M, 49k)

Harry thinks "Why is Malfoy working in a coffee shop in muggle London?" is a much simpler question than, "Are you going to accept that auror offer and, if you don't, what will you do?"

Modern Love by @tackytigerfic (2020, E, 61k)

Harry Potter, of all people, knows that life isn’t always fair. And no one gets to be happy all of the time. But surely there’s something more—something better—than a rubbish Ministry job, and a lonely old house, and that feeling that everyone out there is doing a better job of living than Harry is.

Headlights in the Snow by Saras_Girl (2016, M, 71k)

What’s big and purple and smells like tea? Harry is about to find out.

[juuls]

Juulna’s ‘Hold Onto Your Sanity’ Fic, Book, and Music Recs for the 2020 Dumpster Fire... Part 3!

So you just crash-landed behind enemy lines in a war you know barely anything about except that your role seems infinitesimal and insignificant, and dumped into a year, 2020, that already seems fifteen years too long.

Before you drown your sorrows in some fantastic scotch or wine coolers for days (or weeks)… I have a proposal.

That you step back from the flames, tune things out for a bit, and try to forget about the outside world for a while (but don’t forget to vote or I will be very sad at you!).

These fics are meant to take you out of your head (I’m including more plot/story-minded fics than PWP) for the next few weeks or months as the world goes to hell (even more) but of course there are some bits of solid angst in these as there is wont to be in many a fic. Check the tags, read responsibly, don’t like-don’t read, ship and let ship, and please do leave a kudos and maybe even a comment! :)

This is PART THREE.

Check out here for Part One and most of the Marvel fic recs, along with a selection of book recs too. :)

And here’s Part Two, which has the bulk of my Star Wars and Game of Thrones recs, along with Spotify playlists!

Part Three is this one here, all about the Potterverse.

(Not yet complete) Here’s Part Four, filled with even more shippy goodness from all over the Star Trek universe. So. Many. Ships. :D

(Not yet complete) Part Five is Witcher, Man From UNCLE, Stargate: Atlantis and SG-1, Sherlock, Hannibal, and Doctor Who.

(Not yet complete) Part Six will probably be all for my newfound love of Supergirl, along with some Game of Thrones and Marvel ships I skipped, because I gotta stop somewhere with all these recommendations or I’ll be at it forever. Seriously, how much of this stuff have I read!?

But I think we all need some distractions from the world these days, eh? Or something to console us other than internet rage and a barrel of ice cream and/or hard alcohol.

Potterverse

I’ve chosen to pick fics (mostly) off of AO3 for their easy reading access, though HP fics’ golden years were on sites like fanfiction.net and other independent archives like Sycophanthex and others which have closed their doors over the years, sadly. Some of these fics date back to almost 20 years old, or more, amazingly!

For fics on fanfiction.net, I highly recommend using this link (FicSave) to epub/mobi converter rather than dealing with the frustrating app. It functions like AO3′s built-in download button.

SSHG/Sevmione

Rec assistance by @perrydowning​

Second Life by Lariope

Phantom of Hogwarts by Good_Witch

Romancing the War by Pubella

The Poison Garden by turtle_wexler @turtlewexlerwrites

A Light in the Fog by turtle_wexler

Pride of Time by AnubisAnkh

The Savage by MagdatheMagpie

Snape’s Story by Tbird1965

Recognition by jezzie (krith)

Tedium of Time by oneredshoe

Tango by Desert_Sea

Sense and Insensibility by Desert_Sea

Time Mutable Immutable by Grooot

The Twenty by Leyna Rountree

For the Only Hope by ausland @run-with-me-to-the-sea

Bundle of Joy by LadyTuesday

Our Hands Tied by multilingualism

Choose Something Like A Star by TeddyRadiator

Mistress of the Stacks by Ms_Anthrop

A Derailed Train of Thought by Ms_Anthrop

Antiquities by stormcorona

Watch Over Me by @snapeslittleblackbuttons​

Dropped Down into the Unknown by @q-drew​

Delicate Transitions by @morbidmuch​

Lay Me Low by TeddyRadiator

The Savage by MagdatheMagpie

Another Dream by @dragoon811​

A Chance For Happiness by @corvusdraconis​

Breath of the Nundu by corvusdraconis, Dragon_and_the_Rose

Just to Be by Amarti @amarti-writes-stuff​

Hinge of Fate by Ramos

Forged in Flames by @mswhich​

Days in the Sun by bluespring864

Making sure the boy who lived, actually does by Hold_en @hold-enwrites​

The Problem With Purity by Phoenix.Writing

One Step Forward, Two Decades Back by corvusdraconis

The Headmaster’s Wife by Mrs_HH @propertyofseverustsnape

The Master, the Warden, the Headmaster, and the Deputy by mak5258

Cloak of Courage by Wendynat

Hermione Granger and the Intended Vessels by ShawnaCanon

Augury and Ardor by SnapeySnax

Before the Dawn by snarkyroxy

The Love You Take by Subversa

His Draught of Delicate Poison by Subversa

and sooooo many more if you want them just ask, this is both mine and Perry’s oldest ship lol

Gramander (Original Graves x Newt)

A Gilded Cage is Still a Cage by Anonymous

take a deep breath (and let it go) by lincesque @tumbloncat

Roar by @elenothar

Matchmaker, Matchmaker by @prosodiical

Dearly Beloved by prosodiical

Basic Instincts by @manic-intent

Promised by Miss_Lv

Plan G by Aate

Heat of the Chase by argentoswan @wannahearaboutmycats

Newt Scamander’s Guide to Getting Things Done by arthureameslove

Against all Odds by Maril

Where I Belong by Mishafied

He Wants To Say, “I Love You, Nothing Can Hurt You”  by @obsidionwingsofmidnight

Arranged by Miss_Lv

death of a bachelor by gudetama (elementary)

The Graves Identity by Mishafied

you make me feel this way somehow by gudetama (elementary)

The Nature of the Beast by AntiGravitas @absolutelynogravitaswhatsoever

The Knights, the Newt, and the Rose by @yinyangswings

The Wizard’s Cat by @natecchi

The Color of Boom by gypsiangel

Signalling Theory: Blue Coat by @obaewankenope​

Flame by @esamastation​

And The Tag Read Simply: “Pretty” by @funkzpiel​

Aren’t You Gonna Arrest Me, Officer? by JoyBurd

a little bit lost by shortbread @shortbread-fanfiction​

Dramione

Rec assistance by @cuthian​

Seven Times by kerri240879

Her Beauty and the Moonlight by BrilliantLady

The Fallout by everythursday (orphaned and only available on AO3 now, but complete)

The Eagle’s Nest by HeartOfAspen

Turncoat by elizaye @imnotleavinherewithoutyou

The Virgin Conundrum by AkashaTheKitty @akashathekitty

Bad Faith by Morrighan256

Isolation by bexchan @bex-chan-blog

The Serpent, the Witch, and the Broom Closet by bitchywitchy

Silencio by AkashaTheKitty

All You Want by senlinyu @senlinyu

Static by galfoy @heymanticore

What the Room Requires by Alydia Rackham

And We All Fall Down by @rumaan

Ambition’s End by Hanako A

Wait and Hope by mightbewriting @mightbewriting

Rewriting Destiny by mayawrites95 (mayarox95)

Chronos Historia by In_Dreams @indreamsink

A Muggle-born Magic by Musyc @willhavetheirtrinkets

Hunted by Bex-chan

A Second Look by @riverwriter

The Nietzsche Classes by Beringae

This Too, Is Sacred by HeartOfAspen

Bite First, Ask Questions Later by Daredevilsinthedetails, Kaylessi

Nocturnus by In_Dreams @indreamsink

Broken by @inadaze22​

The Green Girl by Colubrina

Lady of the Lake by Colubrina

Rebuilding by Colubrina (really just anything written by @colubrina)

Presque Toujours Pur by @shayalonnie

Can’t Change the Way I Am by @nauticalparamour

Law and Marriage by DragonGrin (formerly TeenTypist)

The Tower Window by @xodramaqueenox​

Unexpected by Emara88

Something Old, Something New by Kate Dessi

Suppressed Emotions by hopelesslydevoted.xx 

Silver Blood by @freyaishtar

When the Day Met the Night by @bex-la-get

Harmony

A Marauder’s Plan by CatsAreCool (Rachel500)

A Step to the Right by CatsAreCool (Rachel500)

Eighth by lorien829

The Catalyst by lorien829

Harry Potter and the Isle of Mists by lorien829

Knife’s Edge by Celtic55

The Black Book by mosteveryonesmad

Awakening by SweetShireen

The Sword and the Snake by bartonfink1974

Dispelling the Silence by Indygodusk

One Year Later: Return to Hogwarts by Twilight’s Inferno

DraHarmony

Fourteen Thousand Galleons by @frumpologist

The Invitation by hot_elf @hot-elf

Love Love Love by MissELY @misselylux​

Changing Scenery by aethling

East of Eden by msmerlin @ms-merlinblack

Turn Back Time by Dazeventura6

Foxfire by @setissma

Come Together by @nuclearnik

The Soul of the Wolves by LR_Earl @fanficbylrearl

Running From Lions by tryslora @tryslora

An Unexpected Family by ladyroxanne21

The Prophecies by jamcreynolds

Drarhinny

Reconstruction by @aldersprig​

Fell From the Sky by BrandonStrayne @brandonstrayne​ (I really love this one, and not just as a Canadian.)

Demons From the Past by pottermum

Drarry

Rec assistance by @newtypeshadow​

Rarely Pure and Never Simple by birdsofshore

Aural Gratification by birdsofshore

Lost Among and Falling by @bafflinghaze

The Corruption Sequence series by beren @berenwrites

Sentinel ‘verse series by elyssblair @elyssblair-blog

Date Blindness by dysonrules

Starts With a Spin by Maxine @serasarahhhh​

Temptation on the Warfront by alizarincrimson

Paradigm by dysonrules

Here’s The Pencil, Make It Happen by ignatiustrout

Draco Sodding Malfoy by Shewhxmustnxtbenamed @shewhomustnotbenamed

Pieces of What by Jadwiga

Found, Not Lost by inspiration_assaulted

Shared Detention by DadIWriteGayPorn

Dirty Little Secret by Writcraft @writcraft​

19 Years by shilo1364 @whimsicaldragonette​

Morning Suns & Coffee Runs by laugh_a_latte @queer-coffee​

Reus Una by purplepen76

Between Ink and Blood by Candamira

Ginmione

Distractions by @morningsound15​ 

Cissamione

(This seems like it’s a bit cracky, but there’s some good ones, I promise! I sorta stumbled ass-backwards into this ship but really enjoy some of them.)

One Step Left by Cysteine @cysteine

Extinction by @rubikanon​

Blinding Light by @16-pennies​

Somebody Loved by beforeyouspeak

...

..

There. This is much better, isn’t it?

So my challenge to you, if your world is falling, burning down around you in flames... is this:

...if you feel yourself getting anxious or depressed, whether from the news or being cooped up in isolation or bored or on the verge of tearing your hair out or jumping off that roof or grabbing something to go after the dictator-of-the-week.... pause, take a breath, open up this rec list, close your eyes and pick something, and let chance take you somewhere hopefully far away. Let yourself be transported.

Oh, and don’t click on this Google Drive link. Really, there’s not 30+ GB of data on that Drive I’m sharing. Shame. There totally aren’t tens of thousands of books, as many audiobooks as could fit, and a large collection of fanfiction downloaded from AO3 in there. (Also, not all fics have been shared to that folder yet; I’m working on it a little at a time as I download more.)

[dhrdrabbles]

Four portraits of Astoria were placed across the manor.

Each was beautiful in its own regard – the tall, slender woman being surrounded by peach blossoms, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, and winterberries, respectively. Draco Malfoy had commissioned each portrait of his late wife symbolising a season after she had passed far too young, leaving her grieving husband and distraught son. Draco had wanted to make sure that she would be remembered in every corner of the haunting, old mansion and be a part of their family around the year without seeming eerily misplaced. He had also hoped for a symbolism of eternity – an endless circle of the four seasons, although this notion now struck him as a bit melodramatic.

Astoria had been Draco’s ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak youth. She was caring, smart, empathetic, and funny. Astoria’s heart was open for anyone and she treated all people and creatures equally respectful. Astoria would listen patiently and give thorough advice even at a young age. Astoria was missed by her family and friends alike, none of which could believe they had lost her so early in life. Her portraits seemed so much more alive, so much more present than other portraits of deceased persons.

So when Hermione Granger, née Granger but ex-Weasley (not by name but by statute), mother of two brilliant children, former minister for magic (the youngest on record even by the time she stepped down on her own accord), acclaimed author, and Draco Malfoy’s new partner in life, first passed one (the spring version) of the portraits she had heard so much about before she first visited the manor (aside from that fateful night over twenty years prior, let’s not discuss it, thank you very much), she was irritated to find that Astoria’s beautiful face (and Hermione was positive that this was not an embellished version of the late Malfoy (junior-)matriarch, this had been her actual face) in a bored but irritable expression.

Hermione passed her quickly then, thinking about mentioning the mood to Draco but quickly deciding otherwise. Astoria had been perfect on every account and Hermione, distinguished former minister of magic and all, had felt quite small every time Draco spoke of his late wife. It was difficult not to believe that Astoria’s grimace had been due to Hermione’s presence in the manor.

Such thoughts plagued Hermione ‘the original overthinker’ Granger until she and Draco had an ‘official’ meeting with Astoria (her summery version) where Draco’s late wife proved to be everything he had made her to be. She was interested in Hermione’s career, but more so her well-being, she was witty and snorted at the right names when Hermione told stories straight out of the Wizengamot. Even her snort was charming. Glancing at Draco during their conversation, Hermione spotted a wistful look in his eyes and she had to admit then that even without knowing her much, she missed Astoria herself.

Hermione was all the more surprised – and irritated, if she was being honest with herself – when she walked past chrysanthemum-Astoria sometime later only to find the other woman rather irritable and tight-lipped again. In this moment, Hermione did not know how to react (or act – situation far from clear: Astoria had barely returned her own greeting) and so she stomped on, inwardly fuming. Was she mad at Astoria for putting on an act when Draco was around? Was Draco part of this scheme and did he care how this made her feel at all?

She was able hold back during dinner and focused instead on Draco’s recital of his new publication on the side effects of pepper-up potion. However, later, she couldn’t get herself to respond to his hands or mouth, made a half-hearted excuse and so they went to bed rather irritated on both sides. Hermione had a hard time feeling bad, even when Draco’s last words before finally falling asleep were “I don’t care if we have sex once a day or once a month, I’d just wish you’d be honest with me”.

When sleep wouldn’t come, Hermione finally made a decision. She slipped out from under the heavy blanket, made sure Draco was still fully covered and tip-toed out of the room.

Astoria looked ethereal in her white dress, sitting on a stone bench, surrounded by masses of snow and framed by little red specks – winterberries. This time, she full acknowledged Hermione but did not speak once again.

I must not be jealous of a dead woman, Hermione had told herself all over all evening and yet here she was, feeling both jealous and nervous in front of a painting.

“Good evening, Astoria.”

“Hello, Hermione. What brings you here?”

Astoria’s tone was levelled and Hermione was even more jealous that the woman in front of her seemed so capable of perfect containment when necessary. During her time in office, she had frequently been criticised for being too emotional. (Too emotional – hah. Hermione usually had gotten angry, linking this label to her femininity and lecturing an overwhelmed Ron about the relationship between emotions and gender. He had trouble understanding. Draco had been with her from the first second – he was now avidly reading de Beauvoir).

“I uhm–“, Hermione began, scolding herself for thinking about jealousy when walking to the portrait instead of coming up with a sensitive question.

“Do you want to know how to please Draco best? I have a few–“

“What? No!”

Hermione had been shouting and now listened carefully for Draco down the hallway, cursing herself mentally for being so clumsy. Nothing happened. Relieved, she looked back up at Astoria who now seemed rather amused.

“I … I’m sorry, this might come across as incredibly rude, but”, Hermione took a deep breath, “are you, by any chance, really unhappy that Draco is with me?”

Astoria’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

“It’s just…”, again, Hermione had to breathe awkwardly before continuing, “I couldn’t help but notice that you were so lovely when we spoke with Draco, but every time I’m walking past you by myself, you seem … sulking?”

Hermione rolled her eyes inwardly at her own unelaborate phrasing. But before she could correct herself, Astoria had jumped up from her bench (did it look Ancient Greek?) and took a step towards Hermione.

“Hermione, what? I’m so sorry I came across this rude!”

What?

This was surely not what Hermione had expected.

“Oh no, I’m so sorry, truly. I should not have jumped to conclusions.”

Come again?

Hermione’s face must have mirrored her confusion because Astoria now awkwardly shuffled strands of long, dark, straight hair out of her face hectically.

“It’s just that –”

Astoria now seemed lost for words as she helplessly flapped her arms and looked around.

“You see”, she began cautiously, “I was never the biggest fan of flowers.”

Hermione’s eyes widened.

“Of course, they’re beautiful et cetera, but I had a ridiculous hay fever that could barely be treated with potions and my green thumb was non-existent. My relationship to flowers is rocky at best. You’re right, I’m sulking. I know Draco loved me dearly and he wanted the best for me, Scorpius, and himself after I passed. Of course, he wanted to have me portrayed as memorable as possible. But all this”, again, she helplessly moved her arms and Hermione now realised that she meant all four versions of herself, all the flowery beauty, the references to goddesses and eternal beauty and wisdom, “that is not the essence of who I was.”

Hermione had felt foolish already, but Astoria’s final statement was too much. “I’m a family person. I would have pictured myself with them, I guess. And I love Draco. I always will and this is why I will never complain to him. When he told me you were with him now, I was unbelievably happy for him. You do him justice, Hermione. You understand him – maybe even better than I ever did. And I let my guard down because I felt this was possible around you. You seemed to be the person I could trust with my exasperation. I just never mentioned it to you, which was very stupid on my part.”

Astoria now shook her head. Hermione was stunned.

“Flower girl, can you believe it?”

Astoria’s bone-dry tone drove Hermione over the edge. She started giggling. Astoria’s initial silence turned into a hearty laugh after a few moments as well and – to Hermione’s surprise and delight – Astoria let out tiny snorts.

“In all honesty though”, Hermione said when they had calmed down, holding her ribs from laughter. “I do see it. The melodrama and all.”

They kept laughing.

“Feel free to sulk”, Hermione added after a few seconds, luring a few snorts from Astoria.

Draco rolled his eyes and closed the door to his bedroom, going back to bed before Hermione realised his feet were cold when she eventually came back. He should have known these two women were a lethal combination.

*

Authors notes:

Hi again!

This one was a lot of fun to write, despite containing very little Draco. It’s been a headcanon of mine for a while that he would glorify Astoria after her death (in a universe where their marriage took place and all, that is) and that Astoria herself would feel some kind of way about it, bonding over it with Hermione. Hope you guys enjoyed it!

Also, the initial premise of this blog was once that I would also happilypublish drabbles written by other authors and that I would take prompts. Just so you know. :)

Finally: HELLO to all my new followers! This almost vacant account (revived after six years!) grew by ca. 25% after only one post last week (and this post also became the most successful one to date). Thank you all so much and what a pleasure to have you. I also have a multifandom-blog where I usually am which you can find under @ahoidraco if you’re interested. 

Until next time!

[vias-words]

Ask Game For Fan Fiction Writers

Thank you @mygeeknessisa-quivering for tagging me!

1. What fandoms do you write for? 

Usually The Cursed Child but I’m starting to write for Julie and the Phantoms too. I used to be a big Marvel writer as well and I have one Miss Peregrine’s fic that I’m really proud of. Had a bunch of other fandoms that I wrote for when I was younger but these would be the main ones. 

2. What parings do you write for? 

Scorbus!! Then I used to write Stucky and Clintasha when I did Marvel fics

3. What is your most popular fanfic? 

Albus Potter and the Cursed Legacy on AO3 but my most popular of all time was a Stucky fic on Wattpad called Coming Back Home 

4. Do you write original stories as well? 

Yes! But none are published

5. What is a fandom you will never write for? 

Probably just ones that I’m not interested in or don’t know that much about. 

6. Which platform do you prefer? 

AO3 for sure

7. What are your favorite fanfics? 

There are so many amazing fics that I forgot to save but here are some of my favorites that I have book marked

Scorbus: Blood, Ice, Water ; Paper Dragons ; Beneath the Wisteria 

General Harry Potter: A Future Beyond 17

Jeddy/Scorbus: King and Lionheart

JATP: The Ghosts of My Past

8. How do you stay motivated to finish what you’ve started? 

Definitely getting feedback helps. And just staying invested in the story. I take breaks when needed so I don’t burn out. 

9. What’s your longest fanfic? 

Albus Potter and the Cursed legacy is almost 200,000 words which is absolutely insane to me but I love it dearly

10. Do you use sentence starters, writing prompts and/or fandom headcanons for your fanfics? 

Sometimes! Usually just for shorter fics. But I incorporate fandom headcanons into longer fics as well. Basically my fics are based on fanon most of the time anyway

11. Do you use/follow advice from writing blogs/posts? 

Sometimes!

12. What’s your shortest fanfic? 

Borderline is just under 4,000 words

13. Do you listen to music during your writing process? 

Yes, it helps me focus. I like atmospheric music to match the story. There’s a lot of great youtube videos for that but also instrumentals and movie scores on spotify are great.

14. What is your favorite writing prompt? 

Can’t say I have one

15. Can we get a list of all of your current available fanfics? 

Here is a link to my AO3! I have some reaaaallly old ones on Wattpad too if you want to see how 13-15 y.o. me wrote haha the user is via_words

16. Long chapters or short chapters?

Long. I notoriously write a lot.

17. How many WIPs (work-in-progress) do you’ve got? 

Too many...I’d say a solid 8 but a lot of started fic ideas that never took off

18. Do you take requests? 

I’m open to hearing them but I usually struggle to write someone else’s ideas 

19. What’s more difficult? Fanfics or original work? 

Original work for sure, which is very frustrating to me. I’ve written a novel length fic before I can even get halfway through an original. I think I just know fic characters and the world a whole lot better and I know my audience will too, so there’s not stress about making sure everything is clear.

20. How did you find the magical world of fanfics?

I can’t even remember. I think I got on Wattpad through word of mouth when I was 12 but didn’t start posting until I was like 13 or 14.

21. Do you partake in any fanfic/writing events? 

I try to! 

22. Does fanart of your fanfic exist? 

Yes!! Which is AMAZING! I’ve got a small folder of drawings people have made inspired by or for my fic. I even got a video edit and vine comp once which I could not stop watching and smiling. It’s honestly so incredible that people have done that for something I wrote and I’m so thankful.

23. Do fanfics of your fanfic exist? 

No I didn’t even realize that could be a thing. I’d say if you’re using someone’s OC’s or ideas, do be sure to ask them first.

24. What is your favorite sentence that you’ve used in a fanfic? 

Oh gosh this is hard. One that’s always stood out to my is this line from Draco in chapter 18 of the Cursed Legacy

"Do you really think I wanted to be evil? That I set out to achieve that goal? No, that was never my reasoning to join the Deatheaters. No, mainly I wanted to fit in--to be a part of something greater. And to a naive boy who faced nothing but pressure from his parents to conform to their ideals, this," He forced up the left sleeve of his cloak to reveal the faded scar of where his dark mark once branded him, "seemed like that answer.”

25. Where do you draw inspiration from? 

A lot of music or photos/art. Whatever get’s me in the right mood to delve deeper into these characters. 

26. Can we get a teaser for an upcoming chapter? 

Here’s the one I used in a recent ask game for the next chapter of the Cursed Legacy!

"I think we're all a little afraid of the unknown. But that's what makes life exciting, right?"

James eyed Albus up and down, "Who are you and where's the pessimistic Albus I know?"

Albus gave his brother a small shove but cracked a smile, "You're a git."

No tags for this one since I would probably end tagging people how have already been tagged. But feel free to do this as well if you want to and consider yourself tagged by me :)

[caitofcaithall]

2020 Rec List Challenge

Hiya folks!

So here’s the thing: I realized that I was getting very squirrelly about wtf I was doing on Tumblr. This blog itself is newer, but I’ve been on Tumblr since 2013, I think, in various fandoms in various capacities, and each time I start to transition into another fandom, knowing I’m not abandoning the other one, I start to beat myself up, because growth is hard and I always think that people will decide they don’t like me in droves and even though I’m sort of shouting into the void right now, the void can be so much lonelier when my tiny follower count gets even tinier. 😂 But you know what... I have a lot of interests, and that’s just me. So... I figure I might as well embrace it. 

For a few years now I’ve contemplated doing a ‘track everything I read/every media I interact with’ sort of challenge, but holy hell, that is an impossible task! I read a lot. So. I’ll probably goof up at some point, and that’s okay.

I need to give myself a place in Tumblr to... feel secure about? I know that sounds really dumb, but my life has been change after change lately and even though they are actually good changes, it’s a lot. So I’m combining these ideas, and hitting the blog curation hard for 2020. I’m not abandoning actually writing fic - I’ve still got WIPs that I’m excited about finishing - but my primary focus will be sharing fic, etc, on weekly round up posts, with some other content reblogged and some original content posted in between. Also I’ll definitely be playing around with the formatting for this because hey.  Week One: I read 777,893 words across 28 works encompassing three fandoms + one non-fandom article. These are my recs for the week -- 

Harry Potter

The Anti-Heroine by cheshire_carroll. This is a WIP, which I’ll generally be rec’ing less of, but it’s also 636k, so plenty of words to tuck into! This work is actually pretty deeply unsettling - quite political, doesn’t shy away from violence, these characters are survivors with all of the nuance that entails. You’ll want to read the tags. Harry/Hermione & Harry/Hermione/Voldemort. Link. 

these other stories by Issay. 3948 words. In one version of this story the Sorting Hat recognizes the burning loneliness in Hermione Granger and puts her in Gryffindor, a house with too much bravery and too little common sense. In that world Hermione fights her way through obstacles, makes friends for life, falls in love with Ron Weasley and saves the world. Not in this, though. Hermione/Fred/George. Link. 

who brings the thoughts of home by Issay. 5570 words. In which Viktor Krum gets a backstory, falls in love with a lioness and doesn't let her go. Hermione/Viktor Krum. Link. 

winter songs by Issay. 4263 words. Albus/Gellert. The Mirror cannot lie. It will show you the deepest, most desperate desires - but it lacks the power to grant them. Or, five times Albus Dumbledore looked into the Mirror of Erised. (This had a desolate feeling, and was written for a Yule exchange… it gave me the feeling of a crisp Narnian winter.) Link. 

Regrets Collect Like Old Friends by ScotlandEvander | 72634 words | Traveling into the past, Draco Malfoy finds himself in his eleven-year-old body with all his memories from the past seventeen years. Using this knowledge, he sets out to change time. His first mission: befriend Harry Potter. Part one of a complete series. Link. 

Starker

Gluttony by StarkerIsTheEndgame | 412 words  | Moodboard prompt where Tony represents the deadly sin of Gluttony. Link.

Grease Monkey by Scarlet Manuka | 1652 | A short Mafia AU in which Peter is with Mob Boss Tony and turns up to one of his parties still in the greasy clothes he spent the day in working on cars.  Link. 

The Best Part of Waking Up by NightskyGardenia | 3012 | [Folgers Christmas Commercial AU] Anxious with anticipation and an agonizing sense of longing, Peter has just one wish this Christmas season: to be reunited with his beloved older brother. Little does he know what Tony has in store for him upon his arrival home. Link. (I don’t really like to use the term guilty pleasure, because there shouldn’t be anything guilty about pleasure... but in this case, maybe it fits. I have a thing for Folgers commerical AUs lmaoooo)

Peachy by flowersandteeth | 2043 | Peter can take care of himself just fine. He's been doing it his entire grade school career, doubly so since he presented as an omega; he definitely doesn't need some knothead alpha to fight his battles for him. But, oh man, Tony Stark is hot when he's angry. Link. 

Steter

The Devil You Know by Triangulum | 6226 | Hell is busy and Peter is understaffed. There are too many evil people being sent down below and there are only so many demons Peter has to torture them with. He needs to reorganize. They don't utilize group torture nearly as much as they should. Stiles probably has some ideas on that. Link. 

It Started with a Kiss by cathcer1984 | 1039 | Stiles is researching the Monster of the Week when Peter kisses him 'hello'. Link. 

Rebel with a Claus by Harratus | 808 | "Everyone knows it's not really breaking and entering if you're wearing a Santa costume!" Link. 

[war-sword]

the ilvermorny exchange (1)

Part 1 | index | masterlist

summary: you’re an Ilvermorny student, and you’ve applied to the International Magic Student Exchange Program to attend your sixth year at Hogwarts instead. You and your friends are excited to go to school overseas, but a certain blonde prefect has decided to personally make your exchange year suck. Time to give him a taste of his own medicine. ( draco x reader, enemies to lovers, female reader ) words: 3,976 warnings: cursing a/n: i’ve been working on this story for nearly a month now and i have a lot written for it. but i’m not sure of an ending yet! we’ll see where it goes. i have enough for four parts as of right now, so keep checking back on my blog for updates, or reply and ask to be added to the taglist for this fic. please keep in mind this story is enemies to lovers so the first couple chapters you’re not going to be getting along!

◈◈◈

You’d been waiting for your opportunity to go on the Exchange since your fourth year. You’d never been out of the United States before, and while you wished you could visit Beauxbatons in France or Castelobruxo in Brazil, you hadn’t learned any foreign languages in your early school years. Besides, the British school was said to be just as different education-wise as any of the other schools, and Hogwarts had just opened up to being participants in the IMSEP (International Magic Student Exchange Program) recently. You and everyone else who was selected would be the first overseas visitors the school would have in over a four decades.

Since Hogwarts was a very sought-after Exchange destination, a lottery system had been set into place. You awaited your letter by owl everyday over the summer, wondering if it would contain the words you so desperately hoped it would. Exchange letters were supposed to be delivered by the end of July. Today was July 30th, and you were beginning to think you weren’t going to be picked. Your very best friend, Alex, was selected for the Hogwarts exchange last week, and in her letter she sent you she said she wouldn’t go if you weren’t also selected. As much as you appreciate the sentiment, you didn’t want Alex to miss out on her opportunity. You sat on the porch of your house, thinking of how you could convince Alex to go without you, when a dark brown owl silently settled onto the railing in front of you.

“MOM!” You screeched. The owl startled, dropping the precious letter from its beak. You dove to  catch it in your shaking hands, hitting your head on the railing. “Ow…” You rubbed your head, and the owl flew off, disgruntled.

“Sweetheart, what is it?” Your mom opened the front door and took in your slumped figure on the front porch, sounding worried.

You simply held up the letter, and she gasped. In the house, you torn it open with the letter opener, and read the words so fast you almost didn’t get it.

Dear Ms. Y/L/N,

Congratulations! From a pool of seventy-eight students, you and fourteen of your classmates were chosen to go on this year’s International Magic Student Exchange Program to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland, United Kingdom. While we will miss you at Ilvermorny, we hope you will have a wonderful and edifying time out of the country. More information is enclosed about your expectations set forth by your chosen school, and the time and place of the Portkey leaving Ilvermorny in September.

Signed,

Joan Rittler, Principal of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

On September 12th, you and your parents traveled to Ilvermorny by apparation. Looking out across the grounds, you felt a small twinge in your heart that you wouldn’t be back here until the start of your seventh year. All your other friends were either on another Exchange, or hadn’t applied at all, and you would miss them all so much.

On the front lawn of the school, students and teachers you all knew well milled about. Ilvermorny’s term was starting next week, but the Hogwarts, Beauxbaton, and Durmstrang terms all started today. Three chairs had been set up in the great front lawn-- your portkeys to each of your schools.

“You have a wonderful time, okay?” Your mom said, hugging you goodbye.

“I will, I promise. I’ll write you as often as I do while I’m here.” You promised, hugging her tightly.

You dad gave you a hug also and a pat on the back. “I’m sure you’ll have just as much fun as you do here. Don’t get all posh on us over there!”

You beamed up at him. “I won’t!”

You dragged your suitcase over to the portkey, and your parents apparated away. Alex arrived a few minutes later and you grabbed each other in a bone crushing hug. “DUDE I’M SO EXCITED!”

“DUDE ME TOO!”

Quickly, the other students started to arrive. It was a small group, all people you were either friendly with or knew decently well. Your friend Chris from Washington and Sarah from Kentucky had been chosen to go. Some boys you knew from wandwork, Jason, and Kenny. Alice from your Charms class who was Sarah’s best friend was also there. When the clock struck one, you all gathered around your portkey. One of your favorite teachers, Ms. Bell, approached your group.

“Hey guys! Is everyone excited?”

You all chorused your yes’s.

“Okay, please make sure everything you’re taking with you is either on your body, or grasped firmly. We don’t want you leaving anything behind!” She pulled a pocket watch out, checking the time.

You straddle your trunk and grip the handle at one end, your other hand grabbed ahold of the portkey.

“Have fun guys! Okay, everyone get ready on three, two…”

On one, you felt the familiar whoosh of being sucked in by the portkey. Beside you, Alex screamed in delight. Within moments, you’d all been transported, and you tried to slow down as the Earth came up to meet you. Minorly successful, you stumbled as you hit the ground, dragging your trunk behind you. The results of the portkey travel were mixed, some of your friends crashing to the ground in a heap while others gracefully floated down with not a hair out of place.

You’d seemed to have landed near a train station. Fir trees rose up around you, the stretching single platform going off into a tiny town. As you took in the crisp air, you turned to see a tall looming man watching you all arrived with amusement.

“Welcome to ‘Ogwarts!” He bellowed, laughing as the last of you brushed off your jeans. “My name is ‘Agrid, I’m the groundskeeper here. Let’s get you all to the castle so we can ‘ave some grub, eh?”

The fifteen of you all dragged your stuff to the four waiting carriages. Hagrid went on as you walked, telling you all about the school. He lifted all your trunks with ease into the tall cars.

“Thank you,” you said, climbing up after your things.

The drive was very peaceful, the self-pulling carriages rolling quietly through the forest. At your first glimpse of the castle, you all gasped, ooh-ing and ahh-ing.

“I love the lake!” Alice said.

“It’s beautiful. I wonder how big it is inside. Bigger than Ilvermorny, do you think?” You asked.

“Hogwarts has half our student body, so I’d guess not. Although they don’t look much different.” Sarah explained, her eyes on the castle.

Everyone was giggling in excitement as you took tiny boats across the lake to get to the castle. After the long hike up the steps, you were all greeted by a tall woman in a traditional witch’s hat. Hagrid waved you all goodbye, and she thanked him. “Welcome, Ilvermorny students! We are all very glad to have you with us this year. I am professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house. I will be showing you to your dorms and then we will all head to the great hall for dinner. Now, after some discussion among the staff, we will be straying from our original plan. I’m sorry if this disappoints some of you, but none of you will be sorted into houses for this year.”

A murmur went through your small group. You had been excited to be sorted, to see if you got into the supposed Hogwarts equivalent of your house at Ilvermorny.

“We all thought it was best since there are so few of you, to keep you together. We’ve created your own dorms for you here, and the only time you will be separated from the Hogwarts students is for lodging. The rest of the time, you will be permitted to eat at any table with any new friends you make, enter any common room you’re invited into, and if you enjoy Quidditch you may try out to be on any house’s team when it is time. If you have a question at anytime, look for a student with the Prefect badge on, and they will help you to the best of their ability.”

Okay, that wasn’t so bad. You all followed McGonagall through twisting halls of the castle. It had huge, vaulted ceilings, and a grand staircase that had you all in wonder. Your Ilvermrony dorm was up on what she described as the west towers, at the end of a secluded corridor. A beautiful tapestry was hung on the wall of what looked like a young witch. Upon closer inspection, you recognized the woman as Isolt Sayre, founder of Ilvermorny. “This is the guardian of your dorms while you are here. Give her a password, and only you will be allowed in.”

You all were silent for a moment before Kenny spoke up. “Wait, right now?”

“There is no time like the present,” Professor McGonagall replied.

The fifteen of your formed a huddle, tossing around options. Finally, you all settled on Greylock, the mountain on which Ilvermorny was built.

Tapestry-Isolt smiled, and then the tapestry itself curled upwards, revealing a door. Professor McGonagall opened it, revealing a square room with a fireplace, a few couches and chairs and several large windows overlooking the lake. Two hallways branched off from the main room. “Please take the next thirty minutes to get settled, and change into your new uniforms. Boys on the left girls on the right, please!”

You all scattered, splitting off into the different sides. Each room housed four people, and you, Alex, Sarah, and Alice all agreed to room with one another. Your room had an old fashioned stove in the middle to warm it, with more windows going over each small bed. A tiny bathroom was attached to one end. After unpacking a bit, you all changed into your new uniforms. At Ilvermorny you wore all black under your robes, but here you had white button-ups and dark grey sweaters for if it was cold. You all had ties in stripes of cranberry red and blue, Ilvermorny colors, and your black robes were lined with the same pink-red color.

“To distinguish us from the other houses,” Sarah explained.

Five till the hour, you all gathered in the common room of your dorm, and between all of your brains you managed to make it back to where you’d started, where the entrance to the great hall was. Dinner was much different than you were used to at home, with long tables instead of high stacks, and all the years intermingled at the tables for each house. While everyone else was inside sitting with their houses, you all clustered together outside. A small group of about thirty first-years were there too, dressed in all black.

“Aw, they’re going to get sorted,” you sighed, putting a hand on your heart.

Alex made a similar soft face. “So small, so young.”

Professor McGonagall came out of the hall and looked at the group of you. “Ilvermorny students, you may proceed into the hall. There has been a small table set up at the front for you just for tonight. I hope you will enjoy watching the sorting ceremony.”

As the group of you walked into the hall, you could feel the eyes of all the Hogwarts students watching you. Everyone was staring, and Alex grabbed your hand. You squeezed it back to tell her it was okay. You settled down at your table in the front, with Alex on your one side and Chris on your left.

The sorting ceremony was very interesting to say the least. The first years, some trembling with excitement, some with fear, all went up one by one to sit on a chair and had what might’ve been the world’s rattiest looking hat sat upon their head. It talked, and would voice everything it was seeing in the kid’s mind and where it thought they should be placed. It would finally call out a house, sometimes taking up to three minutes to decide, and the house that was selected for the child would erupt into cheers at their dinner table.

When the sorting was over, Headmaster Dumbledore stood at the podium to speak. “Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts, or for some of us, your first year. As you’ve noticed, we have some wonderful students from the American school, Ilvermorny, here with us. They will be visiting all year, so please be kind and helpful to both them and our first-years these beginning weeks. Now, please, enjoy your dinner!”

The next day, you were all over the castle trying to get to your classes. At Ilvermorny, classes were separated into different parts of the castle based on what year you took the class in, so you never had to talk very far to get from place to place, unless you were going to an outdoors class. Here, classes were held in towers, dungeons, inside, outside, and it seemed like you’d run through every fucking corridor imaginable just this morning.

Just as you were about to rip your hair out in frustration, you noticed a group of three boys in green robes and ties. But one had a shiny pin attached to the front of his robe- a Prefect’s pin. You took off after them, waving your parchment timetable.

“Hey! HEY!”

The boy in the Prefect’s pin, who had nearly-white blonde hair, turned to look at you, confused by the yelling. You caught up to them and gasped for breath while he stared at you expectantly.

“Um… Professor McGonagall said I, uh, I mean we could ask a Prefect for help? If we needed it? Can you tell me where this is?” You pointed to the spot on your timetable that said ‘Potions- Professor Snape’ and nothing else.

The blonde Prefect took your parchment from you and considered it, and then you for a moment. “It’s in the west towers, that way,” he said, pointing. “Third flight of steps up.” He handed the parchment back.

“Okay. Thank you,” you breathed. “I can’t find anything in this giant ass castle.”

One side of his mouth quirked up, amused. “Sure. Better hurry, best not to be late.” He looked at you once more before turning on his heels and walking off, his two silent friends following him. You dashed off in the other direction.

In the towers, you walked up what seemed to be three floors, but there wasn’t even anything there. You went up and up until you reached a classroom, but one look inside told you it was definitely not potions.

You wandered some more, hopelessly lost. How could the Prefect boy have been so wrong? Did he do it on purpose? That would've been mean. You were on the verge of giving up when you saw another person in the hall. You asked them and they pointed you back downstairs to the dungeons. “It’s the only room down there that’s used, and the door is usually open. You can’t miss it,” She said. “If there’s a really scary looking guy with long black hair teaching, you know you’re in the right place.”

You thanked them profusely, and then followed their instructions all the way back down. Indeed, the door was open, and one peek inside the classroom confirmed the description of the teacher. Students were seated in twos around square tables while he lectured. Tentatively, you knocked on the door frame. Everyone in the class turned to look at you.

“Uh, I think I’m supposed to be here. I got lost.” You squeaked out.

The teacher-- Professor Snape, you supposed-- strode over silently and held out his hand. You offered your timetable and he snatched it away. After looking at it, he handed it back. “Find an empty seat. And do not, be late, again.” A small laugh could be heard from the back.

As soon as he turned, you grimaced. The only empty chair was on the side of the room, a table currently filled with three boys and one girl. You sat down next to her as quietly as you could while Professor Snape began to talk again. Your eyes swept across the rest of the room, and your heart nearly skipped as you caught sight of a familiar face. Not one of your friends, but the exact boy from earlier who you’d asked for directions. He was in this class too, and purposely told you wrong! Rage heated the skin on your face, but you made yourself turn away and focus on what Professor Snape was saying.

The girl you sat next too had wild hair and brown skin. She looked at you sympathetically, but didn’t say anything. You guessed this was a no-talking class.

Indeed it was not. Even though this was the first day, he assigned a potion to create with the remaining time in the class. As soon as he he let you go to begin work, the girl next to you turned and offered her hand. “I’m Hermione. Don’t worry about Snape, he’s like that to everyone. You’re one of the exchange students, I see.”

“I’m Y/N. Eh, it’s fine. He seems mean but as long as I do good work, that’s what matters. Right?”

Hermione beamed. “I think we’ll get along well. Let me know if you need any help finding your other classes after this. I know it can be confusing at first.”

“It’s hard but that’s not why I was late. I tried to ask a Prefect for help, but he told me wrong on purpose.” You frowned.

Hermione looked confused. “How do you know?”

“Cuz he’s right over there.” You pointed across the room to where the blonde boy was standing, sleeves rolled up and already working on his potion. Hermione’s face turned to pure rage.

“Malfoy,” she spat. “He’s the most intolerant person on this planet, mean to everyone.”

“Malfoy?” The red haired boy across the table asked, returning to his seat with an armful of ingredients. “What’d that arse do this time.”

“He told me the wrong way here on purpose,” you said.

The redhead rolled his eyes. “Bloody hell, can that git leave anyone alone? You poor lot haven’t even been here a whole day.”

You looked back over at the boy across the room. “Whatever. I don’t put up with people’s bullshit.”

The redhead widened his eyes and turned make eye contact with the boy with brown hair next to him. “Now that’s the attitude to have. I’m Ron.” He stuck out his hand across the table to you. “And this is Harry, and Neville is who sits over there. Malfoy hates all of us to, so welcome to the club.”

You shook Ron’s hand and laughed lightly. “Is the club very big?”

“Enormous.” Hermione rolled her eyes. “Hopefully it was just a one time incident. Come on, we can make the potion together.”

You followed Hermione back to the store room and gathered ingredients to being back to the table. “I can do the caterpillars and daisy root,” you offered as soon as you got back to the table. You began to expertly cut the caterpillars into thin slices while Hermione heated the cauldron.

“You’re supposed to peel those, you know.” You gestured across the table to Ron, who was sprinkling whole shrivelfig into his potion. Ron looked helplessly into his cauldron.

“Have you made shrinking solution before?” Hermione asked.

“Sure,” you answered. “My mom taught me potions at home, so I finished the course early. I took Advanced Potions last year.” You moved onto the daisy root, your knife moving quickly. “I was disappointed to see it on my schedule again when I got it this morning. I was hoping I could take a wandwork class, since you all make wands differently over here.”

All four of the others looked across the table at you silently. “What?”

“Wandwork? Like, creating wands?” Hermione asked, eyes wide.

“Uh, yeah? Do you guys not learn that here?”

Neville looked amazed. “Isn’t that dangerous? To teach everyone to make wands?”

“I mean, we never actually make any. It’s mostly about the different properties and how to identify them,” You explain. “If you don’t learn wandwork how are you supposed to duel?”

“To duel?” Ron and Harry asked at the same time.

“You know, advantages of Phoenix feather over unicorn hair? Properties that increase a wand’s tendency towards dark magic?” You offered. All you received in return were blank faces. “Wow you guys really don’t know.”

Hermione took the cutting board from you and added in the ingredients you’d chopped. “I’ll finish this. Tell me more about wand theory.”

The rest of the class you helped Hermione a little while you answered her questions about your wandwork class at Ilvermorny. You’d taken an intro class last year, so you knew a little. Hermione’s questions were very specific so you did your best to answer. Her enthusiasm for learning was very evident, and she seemed to like you a lot already based on your knowledge of potions and now wandwork theory. Professor Snape came over eventually and gave you and Hermione’s perfect potion a good mark, and the class was dismissed.

“Want to sit with us at lunch?” Hermione asked as you all walked out of the room.

“Sure, but only if my friend Alex can also. I don’t think she has anyone to sit with yet and I don’t want to leave her alone.” You replied. Today there was no Ilvermony-only table, so the pressure to find friends to sit with at meals was real.

“Of course.”

You were looking at Harry out of the corner of your eye, trying to decide why he looked so familiar, when you heard boyish laughter from behind you. Hermione sighed, and the four of you stopped and turned at the sound of “Granger!”

The source of the giggling was none other than Malfoy and his two friends. You scowled, and he looked right at you. “Decided to take the newbie under your wing, hm, Granger?”

“She seems perfectly capable on her own, Malfoy. I’m just being friendly.” Hermione spat, grabbing your arm to pull you away. But you broke free of her grip and stalked right up to him, pointing your finger in his face.

“Listen, dickhead. I don’t know what your deal is, but you stay in your lane and I’ll say in mine. Got it?”

He and his friends ooh-ed at your comment while you spun on your heel to walk of, this time you grabbed Hermione’s arm. “So it’s true Americans are as rude as they say!” He called after you. You bit back a reply and just walked away faster.

At lunch, you dragged Alex over to sit with your new friends.

“Ugh, I can’t find anything in this big ass building,” she groaned. “I don’t understand-- there’s half as many kids here as Ilvermorny! Why the fuck are there so many rooms.”

“Dude, me either. Wanna hear this bullshit that happened to me this morning?” While you put food on your plate, you told Alex the story of what happened with Malfoy. “He’s right over there.”

Alex turned from her place across from you to look for him. “Interesting,” she hummed. “That’s funny, cuz he’s your type.”

Hermione nearly spit out her drink. “Excuse me?”

You felt your face heat up. “What? Asshole boys?”

“Nah, blonde hair, pale with some freckles… are those blue eyes I see?” She teased.

“They’re grey, so no. Also, fuck off.”

“I was gonna say,” Ron said, voice muffled by food. “We were gonna have to revoke our offer of friendship if you did.”

“Understandable.” You glared across the great hall, and Malfoy looked back at you. A wicked smile broke across his face that just made you scowl harder. “Never in a million years.”

[ofrosesandash]

100+!

Holy crap, I've broken a hundred followers. And this reboot of Margaery has been kind of fantastic for me, so thank you to everyone following me, and everyone who has talked to or written with me. In honor of this milestone, I am giving a nod and a shout out to some great blogs and their writers. Due to my ass being terrible with noticing these details, I'm using the pronouns "They" because I'm not positive who is a she or a he or in between.

To begin with, my first shout-out to those I feel are constantly under appreciated: MultiMuse Blogs. I mean, there can be rare and wonderful Muses in their rosters. Running one of these Bad Boys is a HUGE commitment to multiple characters you believe you'll use frequently. These peeps are the lifeblood of RP Communities.

@astormofagirl​

Cori is amazing and we go way back to when I first started writing Margaery, I wanna say in 2015. We've both bounced between in different URLs and Blogs. While I've only written with their Sansa at this time, they have a lovely selection of ladies they write quite well!

@openxstrings​

They've got a selection of top notice rare muses, and at least one nifty OC. It's been a bit since I checked out the roster. The ones I've written with are Edward Covenant from "The Order", Herc Hansen from "Pacific Rim", their Pacific Rim original, and Riddick-aka the badass Scifi Anti-Hero portrayed by Vin Diesal. Not only are all of these characters available, they write them damn well. Talking with them has been a true delight; and though there is a time zone difference, it's worth waiting for them to respond. Not to mention, they're honestly just great to talk to about antics planned or occurred.

@fallesto​

This lovely person reblogs a roster of their active muses. They've got some of the tougher ones in the fandom-Cleganes, Joffrey, Qyburn, Selmy, and others. The roster also currently includes all of Margaery's husband. You should, honestly, already be following them.

@asoiafundone​

A multi Muse by Lady Grey. A fantastic Mun and a dynamite writer. We haven't written quite as much as I'd like yet-but we have spoken a bit. Lovely person, brilliant writer.

@orionknytechildofzeus​‌

Don't let the URL fool you, they’ve got more then one muse. They've got a cool selection of OC's and Canon characters, and they're a lot of fun to write with!

@sarcasmasadefense​

I haven't written with them yet (my bad), but they seem very nice, and on their roster includes the lost Tyrell brothers, Willas and Garlan!

@mcssagcinabottlc​

A lovely person I spoke to and wrote with a little; their roster contains Margaery's sister in law, Leonette Fossoway.

The Squad

These are two who've had the most OOC and partial crack interactions which. These discussions have been pretty much perfect, so, I identify them as Margaery's squad.

@bastardslayer​

I mean, look at that URL. There are many talented Sansa's on this site, but that URL definitely stands out to me. We've been plotting and talking out of character almost fairly regularly, and they've got a great grasp of their muse.

@chevalier-de-la-fleurs​

Similarly there are a number of great Loras's out there. That said, this particular Loras writer has always been the easiest for me to talk to. I don't know them well, but they're friendly, and a great writer, and I've really enjoyed writing with them.

Precious Ones

These are people I love writing with. Maybe they aren't in Margaery's squad (at least yet), but she definitely enjoys her time with them, and is prepared to fight for them.

@outlawerofbeets​

NORA IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE SPOT IN THE FANDOM. We mostly scream head canons about Margaery and her smol King Husband back and forth at each other, but we have threaded. It's always a treat, and it usually tugs at my heart strings. For instance, once upon a time, Margaery found herself romantic with a Tywin. And she started to apologize to Tommen and explain she didn't think it was wise if they married, because she'd fallen in love with another. When she revealed who, Nora's Tommen's response was the most precious, purest things ever. "But he's old!" Also they've got an older Tommen/Arya ship that's to die for.

@agirlofwinterfell​

This is the first time Margaery has really connected to an Arya. And, like most of the older people Arya meets, she would kill for this murder inclined child. We've already got one AU for my Olen verse, where both Arya and Margaery are at the wall pretending to be boys.

@a-maimed-man-and-bitter​

So far we've got one thread; but ya know, it's been great watching Margaery and Jaime interact. This is furthered by the fact that their grasp of Jaime hurts my heart.

@mombeavty​

Margaery is so happy to finally connect to her twice sister by law. And honestly, I've never quite grokked full book or show canon, as I personally favor blended-so I really like what the mun has done with their muse.

The Greatest Ladies GRRM Inspired

I have a mad love for original characters. While writing a pre-established character takes talent, original characters express one's love and passion for a fandom. That fandom has inspired a whole character. Side note, I honestly love original character relations to canon characters. (If you couldn't tell). I don't see role play as needing to follow canon, as long as everyone acts in character. So, the more the merrier.

@thelittlestrcse​

Margaery didn't know how much she wanted a real sister until Trysta appeared. I'm a bit slow to respond to my threads with them, but this isn't commentary on my appreciation for mun or muse.

@lilliyxn​

A newer lovely muse, one can never have enough Blackwaters. Where GRRM stopped with Bronn, they decided he needed a sister.

@meryllfrey​

Honestly this is an original character that's managed to stick around, and that's saying something. Writing an OC can be extremely discouraging, with minimal interaction, almost no chance at shipping. But Lady Grey's Meryll Frey is a testament of creativity and determination.

Shout Outs

These are people I've talked to but for whatever reason haven't written with yet. For some of them, this is strictly on the standard of Margaery wouldn't interact with them, or I haven't cooked up anything yet.

@truetargaryen​

This is a super sweet muse running a book based Danaerys Targaryean. While I favor blended canon myself, book canon is nuanced, so pulling it off is an impressive ability. And pull it off, they do.

@exilekniight​

I first ran into them on one of my OC blogs, and honestly, I love them. Other then a previous absence of Jorah Mormonts in the fandom, well, let me quote them "Jorah Mormont FUCKS". This highlights their delightful attitude.

@longmayshereignxcersei

For obvious reasons, Margaery and Cersei will never be best buddies. That said, this is still my personal favorite Cersei-and not just because they put up with my originals. They're lovely as a person, and a very talented writer with some brilliant insight about their muse.

@foreignaccent​

This is another monument of the fandom. I've been dabbling between different muses since Season 3, and I can usually find that URL around. A fandom treasure, and a nice person

@potterstillstinks​

In talks with them, I fleshed out Margaery's wizarding world verse. They also put up with me because we were in the middle of discussion when I found myself in the ER due to a negative medication reaction. Even checked in. So, if you've got an HP verse, I strongly suggest following this Draco Malfoy.

Shameless Self Promo For Other Blogs of Mine You Should Check Out:

Did you know the Hightower's - Margaery's Mother's Family - are actually really interesting? They have a Valyrian blade called Vigilance. Their house is one of the oldest, they man a Lighthouse, and their words are "We Light the Way". OH and more notably, they're rumored to dabble in alchemy, necromancy, and other magic. So Margaery has two side Blogs: One for her mother, and one for one of her Aunts.

@vigilantalerie

Alerie Hightower is probably the mother of your favorite Tyrell. Olenna was born a Redwyne, she doesn't count. That's right-this is Mace Tyrell's wife, mother of Willas, Garlan, Loras, Margaery-and Trysta too!

@madmaidmalora

First of all, consider that that's not just a clever url. That's literally what she's called-the Mad Maid, rumored to dabble in spells, last seen locked away with her father looking for a method to stop the Greyjoy Incursion.

Next up I have a pair of OC Families. The Wildcrows, completely Original Content, and House Ferren-mostly original content.

@thewildcrows

Technically Alyssa and Baelor Wildcrow had different names when I first conceptualized them. But those original concepts were AU's for characters whose face claims already existed in Game of Thrones-and characters I'm actually plugging in original works. As I result, I created these two. Lys and Bael Wildcrow are Sellswords born of a Night's watch Deserter and a Wildling. Their father may have been a Blackfyre, but they have no idea what that means-nor would either of them care. If I'm not bothering with giving them a claim, why bother making them Blackfyres? One: I wanted to give them purple eyes. Two: Fire invulnerability neither of them realizes they have, as they grew up isolated. I find this could make for excellent hijinks.

@ladyferren

See, I love ferrets. Probably my favorite animal. So when a canon house was revealed called Ferren with two silver ferrets on its banner, I was desperate to know more. Except there wasn't much. They existed. Banner House of House Lannister. So I got a little carried away creating a history of a House and occupants to inhabit it. While the primary character is Seiran-the sudden Lady of her house after her father's sudden death-I also have the whole damn house hold available for interactions.

Finally, just a pair of fandomless girls I think you might just like:

@trixboomblast

Beatrix is a favorite creation of mine. She's a fandomless original character with explosive tendencies, behaviors, and habits.

@wikipediawoman

This is a side blog of Beatrix. Deia was inspired by Deadpool-what with the ability to poke the Fourth Wall and know way more then she should about pre-established character. I'm winging her as well somewhere between a Time Agent from Doctor Who and a member of the Temps Commision from Netflix's Umbrella Academy Adapttion.

[bananannabeth]

Hi ashlee! Sorry to bother you but I've seen you and a couple people blogging about my immortal and I was hoping you could explain what's going on? From what I understand we just found out who the author is? But I'm not familiar with the actual story of my immortal. At least I don't remember ever coming across it. Thanks in advance!

It’s this 44 chapters long Harry Potter fanfic that was written back in 2006-2007 by ‘Tara Gilesbie’, published on fanfiction.net, and it’s so atrocious it’s great. The main character is a vampire goth (or ‘goffik’) called Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way but sometimes her name is spelled Enoby, the spelling overall is terrible, the plot is nonsensical and weirdly sexual, the characters and world are completely bastardised and on top of that the author sprinkles notes about her preferences and life story throughout the actual chapters and in the author’s notes. It’s so ridiculous, you truly have to read at least the first chapter to get an idea of how weird it is. There’s references to Hot Topic, to self-harm, to characters constantly hooking up, Hogwarts is divided into Goths and Preps, Harry and Draco are exes and everyone’s names are constantly being misspelled… It’s truly a wild read. Buzzfeed did a pretty god job picking out some of the best bits for its ten year anniversary, if you can’t sit through the whole thing you definitely have to read this.

It so completely disregarded Harry Potter canon and was so hated at the time that it got thousands of negative reviews, which made it infamous, and the author’s notes got more aggressive in response to the feedback. It was hacked twice, and then the author ‘got bored’ of it, and then she got locked out of her account.

It got really famous because no one could decide if it was genuine or a parody. It was so terrible a lot of people thought it must have been satire, but it was so long and so bad that a lot of people also thought it couldn’t have been made up because of the effort that went into it. It was like an over exaggerated example of all the worst bits of emo internet culture in the early 2000s, and some people saw it as a brilliant commentary on the state of fandom while others saw it as a blight on people who were trying to get fanfiction to be taken seriously. The debate raged and My Immortal even became required reading for a course at Princeton, but the author managed to stay anonymous and one of the greatest mysteries of the internet.

Recently, an unrelated scandal occurred in the YA publishing world where an ‘author’ named Lani Sarem attempted to buy her way onto the top of the NYT Bestsellers List with a book so terrible it garnered comparisons to My Immortal. People started speculating (half joking, half serious?) that maybe she was the author, My Immortal had been completely serious, and she had never grown up or changed her writing style at all and was now trying to scam her way to a profit with it. 

This is obviously terrible, and it actually coincided with the real author of My Immortal making her first public statement on the internet in years, after she rediscovered and updated the bio of her fictionpress.net account, which had a similar account name, creation date (and apparently the same email and password) as the fanfiction.net account that had hosted My Immortal. After that first update she came back to say, no, she was not Lani Sarem. And then she came back again to reiterate that she was the real author of My Immortal, and, in the process, dropped hints that she had an agent, an editor, worked with amazing women in the publishing industry, and that she couldn’t say anything else about My Immortal ‘for now’.

Linking directly back to the Lani Sarem scandal, an editorial assistant at Wednesday Books made a (now deleted) tweet saying, “we have a book with the girl who wrote My Immortal. Definitely not the same person as this nut.” 

Someone took this information and began hunting for clues as to who this author could be. They came across mention of a book called Under the Same Stars by Rose Christo, being published by the pretty damn impressive publishing house Macmillan. Now, I’ve heard two different stories at this point: Both might be true, maybe they happened at the same time or maybe one after the other, I’m not sure. But I’ve heard that they then found Rose Christo on Twitter, and discovered a screenshot she’d posted of something else that had another tab with what appeared to be the fictionpress account open. The other thing I’ve heard is that someone found Rose on tumblr and searched through her blog for mentions of My Immortal, and found a post where she admitted (in a round about way) to being the author (because she didn’t want Ebony being called a TERF, as if this story wasn’t wild enough to begin with!!).

Either way, people were now undeniably linking Rose Christo with My Immortal. And it turns out they were right, and Rose was the author, and Under the Same Stars is actually a story that details the time of her life when she was in the New York foster system, searching for her younger brother and writing My Immortal (which was a troll fic, she has confirmed) with her foster sister, referred to throughout the fic as Raven. 

Here’s the official description of the book:

In the early 2000s, Rose Christo was separated from her five-year-old brother and shuttled between foster homes in Brooklyn to the Bronx and back again. Desperate to be reunited with her sibling, she traveled the five boroughs, unable to find any trace of him, as New York State’s child care agencies failed to help her time and again.Then, with the help of one beloved foster sister, Rose created an infamous piece of Harry Potter fanfiction titled My Immortal, posting it online under the pseudonym XXXbloodyrists666XXX. The “44 chapters and 22,000 words of hysterical, typo-laden hyperbole” went viral as the most notoriously terrible fanfic ever read by the community. For years, fans, writers, and editors researched, debated, and contested the story’s origin and its mysterious author: Was this grammatically challenged rant actually written by a suicidal goth teenager named Tara Gilesbe living in Dubai, or was this a hoax perpetrated by a group of professional authors making fun of fanfiction?The truth is a gripping, compelling, and surprisingly funny story of how a young girl infiltrated and used the fanfiction community to search for her brother by baiting their attention with a deliberately badly written tale, creating a 10-year mystery that garnered pop culture media attention and remained unsolved — until now.

Understandably, everyone lost their minds, because all the backstories people had hypothesised for the author of My Immortal were so far from Rose’s real life story (or the glimpses we’ve gotten of it so far). 

She had been hoping to remain anonymous until the publication of the book was properly announced, when it’s subtitle The search for my brother and the true story of My Immortal, would have whipped up this same internet frenzy. But the whole thing with Lani just caused people to go snooping and the news came out earlier than she had planned, which is actually quite frustrating and upsetting for her, I’d imagine. But she seems to be taking it in stride.

You can read her FAQ, where she answers a few questions about all this in her own words, and you can read about the other books she has published here. I also recommend checking out her blog in general for some great insight into issues effecting Native Americans. You can buy her books on Amazon, too, if you want to read any others before Under the Same Stars comes out.

Even though we all know who the author is now, My Immortal remains one of the greatest things to ever come out of the hell-time that was the early 2000s, and is like a time capsule of all the worst bits of internet culture back then. After following this mystery for a decade, I’m really, really glad to know that the author has done so well for herself.

[thewistlingbadger]

And another thing, the fans don't choose the creator. If there's an amazing TV show but the creator is a douchebag then what? You want all the fans of that amazing TV show to just turn around and say "fuck you you are a bad person"? And never watch or even think about that show again? Tell that to the people who feel found in Harry Potter. Tell that to the people that learned so much because of Harry Potter. Tell that to the people who rarely find happiness but they find it in Harry Potter. Harry Potter is so much more than the books and JKR now. It's a fandom where there's tons of theory's and headcanons and fanfictions and fanart! It's quite possibly one thing that throughout the years preople of all ages can agree and like. It's something that parents can give to their children and their children end up loving it. And that's excactly what's happening btw. Harry Potter is a fandom that's been really strong despite the fact that the original material is over a decade old now. The story of Harry Potter is long over, but the number of potterheads keeps growing. And trust me, if the fans of Harry Potter could change who JKR is, we would do it in a heartbeat. If we could change the books or how they were written then we'd do it, in a heartbeat. Like, clearly you don't know anything about the Harry Potter fandom because if we could change the books Harry would have lived with his godfather and remus. If we could change the books Harry would be an open and proud bisexual. Draco would get a redemption arch. We'd have the ships we want like luna x Neville or Ginny x luna or Dean x Seamus or draco x hermione. The list of ships goes on and on. And if we could change the books there would be way more representation. Slytherin wouldn't be known as the "evil" house. There would be more hufflepuff's and Ravenclaws. MOTHERFUCKIN CEDRIC DIGGORY WOULD STILL BE ALIVE. IN FACT, A LOT OF THE PEOPLE WOULDN'T HAVE DIED LIKE FRED AND HEDWIG AND SIRUS AND REMUS AND DOBBY AND WHOEVER THE FUCK ELSE. And the thing about having your house in your bio is for multiple reasons. Reason number one would be so people who come on to your blog know you like Harry Potter. And also, could you imagine if you started talking to a person who didn't have their house in their bio and then you started talking shit about their house???? And our houses remind us about the good parts in us. It reminds hufflepuff's that they are kind and trustworthy. It reminds Ravenclaws that they're more then smarts they're creativity. It reminds Slytherins that they're not evil they are cunning and they are great leader's. Harry Potter is so much more than the books and the movies and JK Rowling. The fans can't change that she's a white, cishet woman who is a terf and put some bad shit into Harry Potter. You can't blame the fans for JK Rowling's flaws because we did not contribute to them. All the Harry Potter fans did not wake up one morning and said "you know what let's make JK Rowling a terf." It's not our fault that there is no representation in the books. We are not embarrassing. In fact, I'd say that we're handling the whole JKR thing very nicely thank you very much.

you know what’s embarrassing? the fact that you all still can’t let harry potter die in a ditch. its embarrassing that you can’t stop reading or consuming content for a mediocre (at best, honestly, it’s not even well written and it’s cliche) series, it’s embarrassing that you still want to buy that video game, it’s embarrassing that you want to watch the HBO Max show. And no, I don’t care if you pirate those things or thrift those books or whatever, because that just shows that you’ll bend over backwards for a racist, antisemitic, transmisogynistic author instead of supporting authors of color, jewish authors, or trans authors. there are so many actual well written fantasy series out there, it’s all been done before and will be done again better. i don’t care how important this series was when you were 11. you’re 20 now, take the hogwarts house out of your bio and MOVE ON

[darpok]

Blog Post: On Fan Fiction and Other Storytelling Traditions

When I was twelve or thirteen years old, and even our family finally had DSL internet, I discovered the joys of fan fiction. In case you haven’t been living under the same rock as I have, allow me to explain. “Fan fiction” refers to stories written by enthusiasts of a particular book, TV show, or other creative work. While most “fics” – as my friends and I would call them – take place within the particular universe of the original story, others take known characters and put them in an entirely new setting. (That’s how 50 Shades of Grey was born.) There’s also fan fiction that doesn’t deliberately draw on any work but revolves around real, famous people in imagined situations. (See Graham Norton and Daniel Radcliffe discuss this type on the former’s show.)

The stories that interested me ranged from shorter “one shots” to multi-chapter epics, but most were placed in the Harry Potter universe and nearly all were tales of romance – if you could call it that.

The pairings I read about (and often ‘shipped’ – a verb that comes from the ‘ship’ in ‘relationship’ and means “hoped would bang”) – whether true to canon (i.e. the original books), such as Lily and James Potter, or wildly inventive, such as Hermione and a Tom Riddle to whom she has traveled back in time – usually engaged in the kind of love/hate banter that sends real couples to therapy. The pair would glare at and insult each other (often employing strangely American turns of phrase for a pair of ostensible Brits), their apparent mutual disgust hiding a deeper attraction. For my friends and I, it was riveting stuff.

While I was mainly a Lily/James shipper myself, you can’t talk about Harry Potter fan fiction and not mention Dramione. The fan-invented romance between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger was a tale of forbidden passion, a defiance of Hogwarts housing norms and the mandates of Potter canon itself. Draco did need to be less of a whiny loser to be a deserving match for Hermione, but this could be arranged without too much trouble. In the fan fiction world, Draco was dark and brooding, and he didn’t bring his dad up in conversation quite as often as in the books. Hermione was clever and empathetic, and although she was rarely depicted with less than Yule Ball-level beauty, her looks were not her main characteristic.

Sometimes fan fiction Draco and Hermione fell for each other while at Hogwarts. In other fics, they met again under changed circumstances years after the fall of Voldemort. Then there were the AU fics in which a brilliant young paralegal named Hermione Granger begins work at the firm where successful lawyer Draco Malfoy practices. You get the idea.

Photoshop creations starring Tom Felton and Emma Watson (no credit belongs to me). The purple one in particular has stayed in my memory for years, and brings on a familiar feeling of excitement at all the great content to peruse in the world. It was the banner for a website that allowed fans to nominate and vote for their favorite Dramione fics.

A particularly sexy iteration of the Draco/Hermione story was called Water by kissherdraco. In it, Draco and Hermione are Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts. Of course, this means that they must live sequestered in their own dormitory, with its own entrance, common room and adjoining bathroom that ensure they see each other in a state of partial undress when the story demands it.

Water was held by many to be the pinnacle of the genre. It had lust and angst in equal measure, executed with a liberal dose of swear words and aggression. Moreover, Water took the common flaws of the Dramione world’s characters and actually explored them, allowing character to drive plot. In the story, Draco is brooding and cruel as ever, but these traits are linked to vicious abuse at the hands of Lucius. This backstory is not seen as an excuse for Draco’s behavior and he is forced to grow and change as the story progresses (although not quite enough, tbh).

I never finished the story, perhaps because my young brain was alarmed by all the hate-sex, but I revisited it with curiosity for this piece. Here is a relatively benign excerpt from the text, although please skip if you’d rather avoid themes of physical dominance:

“You’re crying,” growled Draco, leaning in and flicking his tongue onto her cheek. He tasted salt.

She struggled then, and he brought his hands to her shoulders to hold her still. “Don’t, Granger,” he warned. “I fucking need this. I can’t fucking…” He trailed off.

He never would have noticed before. Not like he did now, at least. Her lips were wet. They were red and moist and magnificently ripened for him. So full of blood. Hot, heated, sullied blood. He couldn’t take his eyes off them.

Other fics situated romance within a larger plot about the politics of the wizarding world. Prelude to Destiny by AnotherDreamer took place in the Marauder era (i.e. the time of Harry’s parents) and focused on the coming-of-age of Lily Evans and her role in the battle against evil. It begins, “Two cultures and a thousand miles from you, there is a castle on a hill…”

Another fave began life under the title Ancient and Most Noble and is now called Druella Black’s Guide to Womanhood. It is about the diverging lives of the three Black sisters — Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa — in the early years of Voldemort’s power. The sisters confront the crumbling of the their easy closeness as they make different choices in a changing world.

”It’ll be a laugh, you’ll see,” Bellatrix whispered into her ear, her breath sweet and thick from wine. They were curled in the cool grass, tangled in the layers upon layers of lace and satin that were their dress robes; it had taken them an hour to get them on right and just ten minutes to unsettle them. Andromeda’s head was spinning: from the liquor, from the heat, from far too much dancing. “It’ll all be just like this,” Bella was murmuring, her lips brushing against her ear. Stars whirled by overhead, maybe close enough to touch. Close enough to try.

“Always just like this.”

—

Andromeda swore as she stepped off the train. From inside the nicely cool travel car, summer had looked so charming, green and bright and gloriously school-free…

I was most interested in these fics, the ones that revolved around the generations before Harry’s. There was something compelling about the knowledge of forthcoming tragedy for many of the characters…Plucked away from the happy ending of the books, these fics became an exploration of why life is meaningful even in its flawed and finite scope.

I look back on my fan fiction experiences as belonging to a beautiful time when the internet was less like Janet from The Good Place* (if Janet were selling everything she knew about us to profit-hungry corporations and belligerent, militarized governments), and more like a library you went to when you felt like checking out a book. Nobody knew what I ate and where I went every minute of the day, because I didn’t put that stuff online, nor did I (to my knowledge) carry a tracking device with me when I went downstairs to play with my friends. At 5 pm, our moms would have to call each friend’s landline to reach us and remind us to stop home for our daily glass of milk or what-have-you.

*Janet is a humanoid presence in the afterlife who holds all knowledge in the universe and can create objects out of the void.

Fan fiction was a commerce-free creative space – devoid of ad revenue and the quick accumulation of likes. Since there was neither money nor social capital to be gained, everyone who participated did so out of pure interest. One did have the hope of raking in reviews from other community members, but these were about more than validation; reviews allowed people to have conversations about a shared passion and often included constructive criticism along with praise. There was little need for bitterness – if a fic was well-written, everybody won, since it meant they got to read it.

Below are some examples from the reviews section of Prelude to Destiny. It’s certainly no Twitter.

Written by rach on chapter #13. (March 28th 2009, 5am) Hey,

So I’ve read your whole story before, and now I’m reading it again, because I saw it spotlighted on the site. And this chapter is amazing. I love the end…I’ve never (well, before I read this the first time) compared Lily to Mrs Crouch. But it’s so true. They both gave their lives for their sons and…this chapter is phenomenal. Just thought I’d let you know

Rach

Written by Smith on chapter #26. (April 29th 2008, 11am)

…If I am to find any fault in the story, then I should say that Remus was rather dull. Not that it was completely out of character, but I imagine him being funnier and also good Lily’s friend. Their friendship is mentioned by Lupin in the third film and, I should think, in the book as well, though I don’t have a copy right now and thus can’t provide a quote. Pity, that. [Given my extensive knowledge of canon, I can tell you that the reviewer is mistaken on this last point.]

Thank you very much for writing this story. Reading it was an enjoyable experience that I might repeat in the future. You’re brilliant, to put it short.

Author Response: Thanks for the review!Yeah, Remus was a bit dull. Actually, I didn’t intend for Lily to be friends with any of the marauders besides James. I just wanted them out of the way. But I know what you mean. After Sirius entered the story, Remus was even duller in comparison. Plus, I wanted to make Peter seem like he fit in, and Remus just fell by the wayside, you know?I’m enjoying writing Gertrude again after taking over a story from my friend who used my characters. Anyway, thanks again!Miranda

For me, too, fandom was a more than a casual hobby. Since I was only allowed an hour of internet use a day, I would spend the time copying and pasting chapter after chapter of fan fiction onto Microsoft Word, allowing me to read all I wanted later. (As you might imagine, Water was not stored on the family computer.) I remember scouring for new fics on fanfiction.net and clicking through page after page of fan art on deviantart.com (both of which retain their early-2000s layouts, unlike Mugglenet or JK Rowling’s official site), very differently from how I scroll through Instagram today. I admired works of fandom the way one appreciates springtime’s first flower, or the décor of a friend’s bedroom – I admired the stamp of individuality they bore and that inspired me to create something myself, to express my joys and sorrows, to be a part of the world.

RIP old websites

When I did put Harry Potter-inspired art out there, somewhere around age fourteen, it was of course in the form of fan fiction, writing being my weapon of choice. I wrote two one-shot pieces, one funny and the other sad — or such were my intentions, though perhaps the results were inverted. While some friends wrote longer stories, I never felt talented or inspired enough to commit, which is a typical self-doubting move of the kind I am trying to leave behind. (I now plan to write no matter how untalented and uninspired I may be.)

One piece was about a character of my own invention, a Slytherin guy with the requisite pure-blood, Dark magic-loving family, and a perky, ponytailed Huffelpuff girl on whom he develops an obsessive crush. It was intended to be a BBC-inspired mockery of the character, taking all the gloomy sexiness of the Dramione universe and making it ridiculous. It was also a thorough exploration of really wanting to make out with somebody sitting in the same classroom as you, not that I’d know anything about that myself.

The other short story was a sincere ode to the books and an exploration of some of their core questions on death and loss. It followed Harry in an imagined scene that takes place (SPOILER ALERT lol) after Dumbledore’s death in the Half-Blood Prince. Harry is climbing the steps to the Owlery with a package in his hand, thinking over his relationship with Dumbledore. As I wrote, I found that I absolutely had to include excerpts from a fairly unexpected source, a chapter in the first and most overlooked of the Harry Potter books. The chapter is “The Mirror of Erised,” whose titular object reveals to the onlooker their deepest desire.

“Professor Dumbledore. Can I ask you something?”

“Obviously, you’ve just done so,” Dumbledore smiled. “You may ask me one more thing, however.”

“What do you see when you look in the mirror?”

“I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.” Harry stared. “One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful.

In my story, Harry gazes out at the Forbidden Forest for a little while, wondering who Dumbledore had been behind the mask of calm wisdom and pondering the burden of those left alive and grieving. Harry then ties the package he’s been holding to Hedwig’s arm and sends her off, chuckling a little through tears. In the last line it is revealed that – OMG – he has just sent off a pair of thick, woolen SOCKS. To DUMBLEDORE. Even though Dumbledore is DEAD. Isn’t that profound?

Two years later, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released, and to my complete surprise, it delved deep into some of the questions about Dumbledore that had tumbled out of me, stream-of-consciousness-like, in the story I wrote. The text even includes part of the above excerpt from “The Mirror of Erised”. At the outset of Deathly Hallows, Harry learns that Dumbledore’s childhood was a difficult one, the true details of which remain murky and contested by his admirers and critics. Harry regrets never having asked Dumbledore about his past, but recalls that, after all, the one personal question he had asked Dumbledore was not answered honestly…

While writing my story, I had imagined Harry’s pain and longing to know Dumbledore better. Because fan fiction allowed me to externalize my interpretation of the text, the questions in my mind took on concrete form. Their answers, when the next book presented them, became all the more striking and emotionally impactful. It was as though I had written a letter to the series of books that had shaped me and received, in a way, a gentle but meaningful response.

In 2004, JK Rowling released a statement about the phenomenon of fan fiction. She was flattered by fans’ desire to write about her characters, and her only caveats were that fan fiction should remain suitable for children (unfortunately that ship had already sailed, and Water was truly the least of it), as well as a non-commercial activity so that fans’ creative pursuits would remain unexploited. Other authors have not been as accepting, and have asked for fan fiction based on their work to be removed from popular websites. After all, in our current world, a story is classified as property. A sentence, a verse, a character’s name, can belong to someone the same way as the furniture in their house and the dollar figure in their bank account.

In the long history of storytelling, however, ownership is a relatively recent idea. Bear with me while I make an analogy – in pre-industrial Britain, every town had a commons, an area of land where anyone could gather firewood, take their cattle to graze, or hunt and fish to supplement a year of poor harvest. Storytelling has historically functioned as a kind of commons of ideas, one that anyone could pull from when the time came to tell a tale. Want to warn your kid against going near a well? Tell them about the hungry demon that lives in it. Were you hired to entertain a crowd at a wedding? Maybe you dust off an old poem about a prince and princess who meet one evening in the forest but spend years apart, not knowing each others’ true identity until it turns out they were betrothed all along.

Nobody invented well-dwelling monsters or estranged lovers for the first time – they simply existed in a shared cultural space, available when needed (or when it was particularly enjoyable to use them), ready to be shaped into something new and old at the same time. Even today, no one questions the use of familiar tropes in books and movies; we know that all storytelling involves a certain amount of borrowing and repetition, and we deem this acceptable as long as the storyteller has put an adequately original spin on the themes they utilize. The legal line is drawn once you get to the particulars – character names, or sentences and dialogue. These must be brand spanking new if you want to avoid a lawsuit and getting dropped by your publishers. (Does anyone else remember How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life?)

But for thousands of years, people told and re-told stories of beloved and familiar characters, not just unnamed archetypes – characters like Odysseus and Arjuna, Gilgamesh and King Arthur. The Sanskrit Mahabharata (Maha-BHA-rata) an epicly long, genre-defying story from South Asia, especially challenges the idea of a single, canonical text (much like other ancient story traditions from the subcontinent). It was told so many times by so many people that modern-day folks are not always able to agree on what the Mahabharata even is. The story is like a vast ocean — recognizable to all, but appears different depending on where you happen to be standing.

In the 20th century, some scholars collected Mahabharata manuscripts from all over the subcontinent, extracted the most commonly occurring parts to form a text, and detailed the many variations of each verse in footnotes that turned out longer than the text itself. No one can quite agree whether to treat this resulting (multi-volume) “Critical Edition” as the essential Sanskrit Mahabharata tradition, or as some kind of strange, post-colonial Mahabharata scrapbook. All this so that whenever somebody wrote an essay about the story, there was a single text, pieced together as it was, to use as a point of reference. (My Bachelor’s thesis was one of the lesser works of this scholarly genre.)

The plot of the Mahabharata goes like this: The five Pandava brothers, namely the prone-to-gambling leader Yudhishthira, morally-conflicted archer Arjuna, lovable beefcake Bhima, and something-to-do-with-horses twins Nakula and Sachdeva, along with their badass wife Draupadi, are exiled from their kingdom and forced into a year of disguise after a rigged dice game that Yudhishthira loses, and in which Draupadi is stripped and humiliated before a hall full of men. Eventually the Pandavas regain what they lost through a bloody war that leaves both sides devastated and questioning the point of all this conflict. The End.

Does my summary reflect my biases a little bit? For somebody else, the Pandavas might be perfect heroes, Draupadi a whiny ungrateful shrew who won’t stop yelling at them. To me, she is the moral backbone of the Pandavas, unafraid to call for what she feels is right even as everyone around her takes the coward’s way out of trouble.

Interpretations of Draupadi from various traditions

But it’s not just me who has a take on the story: the Mahabharata itself reflects a range of interacting and conflicting views, which might indicate that people from various backgrounds heard it and were able, in some way, to influence it. For example, although the text generally upholds hierarchies of caste and gender, it also pulls at the listener’s heartstrings with stories of characters who must confront these oppressive norms.

There’s Amba, who is stolen from her future-husband at her wedding and rejected by him when she manages to return; she later chooses to be re-born as a man in order to kill her kidnapper in battle. There’s Ekalavya, the talented archer from a forest tribe who trains with the Pandavas in youth and asks to prove his devotion to his archery guru any way he can; the guru, who favors the upper-caste prince Arjuna, asks Ekalavya to cut off his right thumb. There’s Kunti, who finds herself pregnant after an illicit affair with a god and places her baby, Karna, in a river; Karna is adopted by a lower-caste charioteer couple and goes on to fight against Kunti’s legitimate sons in the great battle that destroys the universe. And there’s Satyavati, whose husband/baby daddy pretends not to recognize her in front of his kingly court but gets completely schooled on how not to be an asshole.

“You know very well [who I am], your majesty; why do you say that you don’t, lying like a common man? Your heart knows the truth, and knows your lie. A man who does something wrong thinks, ‘No one knows me,’ but the gods know. If you do not do what I ask, your head will burst into a hundred pieces.” She discoursed at length on the reasons why a man should honor his wife, quoting the dharma texts.

(from The Ring of Truth: And Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry by Wendy Doniger)

Perhaps, among the traveling bards and indulgent grandmas who told the Mahabharata over centuries, there were some who identified or empathized with the pain of oppression and through whom otherwise-marginalized voices could ring out into the millennia.

The many Mahabharatas, along with the many conversations inside the Mahabharata, illustrate how the human imagination is prolific and messy, not content with merely absorbing information but impelled to remake, to take inspiration, to create, create, create. Isn’t that what happens when we read? We see the world we are reading about in our own way. We make up something in our own head as we go along, and that’s where the entertainment lies. The book itself is but a wonderful tool.

Perhaps if I had a right-wing patron who paid me to tell stories, I would tell the Mahabharata a little differently from how I do here, focusing on how the Pandavas were self-made men or how the ethnic minorities they killed were thieving encroachers. Or if I were telling the story to children, I might leave out anything particularly frightening. In the telling of a story, the will and whims of the teller have influence, as do those of the listener (or reader) and the financial benefactor (or publishing house).

What remains inevitable, however, is that rarely is a story told the same way twice. Even in our post-printing press, post-internet world, where stories are replicated identically again and again, we continue to dissect, analyze, and change them, whether it be through everyday conversations, online forums, or the prestige lens of a critic’s review. (A perfect example is the adaptation of works from one medium into another, be it from literature to film or from film to theater.) Sometimes the authors themselves continue to tweak and interpret their work – Virginia Wolf was known to make changes to her books prior to reprinting, and we all know that JK Rowling can’t leave the Potter universe well enough alone (love you Jo!).

For me, fan fiction is a grand storytelling and textual tradition not entirely unlike the Mahabharata. Fan fiction not only illustrates the malleable, generative nature of stories, it also provides a rare space, in our capitalist global economy, for storytelling to be that malleable, generative thing it has always been. It allows for democratic engagement in the storytelling traditions of our time, free from the boxes of profit and ownership. It lets us expand the possibilities of our collective imagination. Importantly, it allows voices from the margins into the story, where our canonical texts routinely fail us.

I’m also thankful to fan fiction for being a rare space, outside overpriced college English classes, where literary discussion can thrive. When I say discussion, I don’t mean mere binary criticism – like book reviews, or the Goodreads star rating-aggregates that help determine book sales. I mean questions about how a text makes you feel, what it reflects or critiques about our world, the things that literary characters, beloved and abhorred, may teach us about our shared humanity and flawed choices. And yes, some of these conversations involve Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy as co-Heads of Hogwarts, using the same bathroom.

Are you a reader or writer of fan fiction? Have you you dabbled in fan art? Or do you engage in a non-online form of fandom, like a book club? Please share!

Thanks for reading.

[under-the-lake]

Shape-Shifting Part 1: Transfiguration and Creatures in the Harry Potter Books and European Lore

Animagi, werewolves, Transfiguration… all those shape-shifting forms appear in the Harry Potter series. They can be voluntary or not, linked to a spell, a curse/disease or to the sheer will of the shape-shifter, but they are always quite spectacular. Werewolves are part of the folklore in the northern hemisphere. But what about Animagi? Are shape-shifters a mere figment of Rowling’s imagination or are there shape-shifter stories in different cultures around the world? The answer is definitely the second option, and here are some examples (I can’t promise this paper to be short, I’m afraid :( … However, I can safely promise I won’t take examples from Cursed Child. )

I’ll start with a review of what shape-shifting means in Rowling’s novels, before going for a little tour of some cultures I want to explore regarding shape-shifting.

In the Harry Potter books and Fantastic Beasts-the film

To start with, let’s consider the types of shape-shifting appearing in Rowling’s books: Werewolves, Animagi, Metamorphmagi, Transfigured people, Boggarts, Kelpies, Veela. For the creatures, I’ll try and give a short -snorts- account of the image Muggles have of them, in their folklore.

Werewolves were already discussed a bit in other papers on this blog, so let’s leave them out of this one. For the rest, here goes:

1. Use of a Spell or a Potion

Transfiguration allows the wizard to change the shape of a fellow human into that of another animal, like Moody did with Draco when he turned the latter into a ferret, or into that of another human being. This is a means of shape-shifting using a spell, obviously. The first ever dated record of human Transfiguration was the one happening during a Quidditch match in 1473, when a Chaser was turned into a polecat. Of course, that kind of transformation had happened before. Take Circe, for instance, who was famous for turning sailors into pigs. She lived thousands of years ago. Some examples are more recent, like the one of Gellert Grindelwald, who was superskilled at Transfiguration, and lived as MACUSA Auror Percival Graves in 1926 New York. Transfiguring someone into an animal would cause that person to become an animal fully, not retaining one ounce of humanity, meaning that they could perform no magic of their own, and would need the mediation of another wizard to get back to their human form (I wonder what happens to their clothes and especially to their wand during that time, and also if the one who transfigured the wizard would then become master of the wand, since it sort of defeated its owner…).

Transfiguration in the case of Animagi is going to be dealt with later, because it’s a different form of Transfiguration than just casting a spell. Transfiguration spells are numerous, according to various sources. However, the books don’t mention the spells per se, so I won’t list them here.

There are also examples of humans transforming themselves into humans, by means of Polyjuice Potion. Harry, Ron and Hermione used it in Chamber of Secrets to sneak into the Slytherin Common Room, and they also did use it in Deathly Hallows to enter the Ministry of Magic while trying to retrieve Slytherin’s locket from Umbridge, while trying to get food when they were on the run and finally when breaking into Gringotts to get Hufflepuff’s cup from Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault. In Goblet of Fire, Barty Crouch Jr. drank it all year round to impersonate Alastor Moody, whom he kept secured in a trunk all the time to get hair for his potion. We also know that Draco Malfoy made Crabbe and Goyle drink it and turned them into girls while they were keeping watch outside the Room of Requirement in Half-Blood Prince. Finally, at the beginning of Deathly Hallows, six people turn into Harries so as to keep danger -relatively- at bay while moving Harry from Privet Drive to the Burrow. Rowling made quite a use of Polyjuice. And as far as I know, I might have forgotten occurrences.

I have no recollection of any other potion in the books that would allow the drinker to change form. Since it’s considered Dark Magic, it’s only consistent it would be so. After all, the recipe for the Polyjuice Potion is found in a book called Moste Potente Potions, that is kept in the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts Library, because of all the gruesome stuff it contains, according to Hermione. Shape-shifting is not legal in the wizarding world, unless you’re a registered Animagus (see next paper). I can understand why there’s no more potions about that.

The use of a spell or a potion to change someone’s appearance is not common in cultures around the world - at least not to my knowledge; if you know something, tell me. It’s a pretty artificial way of achieving shape-shifting, and it is restricted to myths and legends.

2.Creatures

Form-changing creatures are more common, even outside the wizarding world. According to Newt Scamander (and I’m sticking to book canon here), there aren’t many shape-shifters among the Magical Creatures. In Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them, Scamander mentions only the Kelpie. In the Harry Potter series we come across a couple of other creatures, namely the Boggart and the Veela. It’s strange that they aren’t mentioned in Fantastic Beasts, at least for the Boggart, since it’s definitely a beast (maybe it’s because nobody knows its true shape). As for the Veela, it’s a Being, which accounts for its being left out of the book.

Reminder: the Ministry of Magic has a classification for Creatures. It goes from X (boring) to XXXXX (known wizard-killer and impossible to domesticate).

a. Kelpies

According to Newt Scamander, the Kelpie is a British and Irish water-demon, classified as XXXX by the Ministry of Magic. That means a skilled and trained wizard could deal with a Kelpie. It can change its shape to lure its preys into water, and the shape it takes the most often is that of a horse. It doesn’t take much to differentiate that horse from a regular Equus sp. because the mane of the horse-Kelpie is made of bulrushes. According to Muggle folklore, the hooves of the horse-kelpie are inverted compared to those of a regular Equus sp, and in Aberdeenshire, the mane is made of snakes. It is also said that if a Kelpie takes the shape of a human, then it’s betrayed by his hair being mixed with seaweed.

In his book, Scamander describes the festine that takes place at the bottom of the waters as quite gruesome because the entrails of the victim end up floating on the surface, or, according to legend, are thrown on the shore. Very nice. Sounds like the Kelpie’s Burp.

Still according to Scamander, you can render the horse-Kelpie tame by using and bridle jointly with a Placement Charm. However, it requires skill.

The world’s most famous Kelpie is the so-called-by-Muggles Loch Ness Monster. It was discovered to be a Kelpie when it was witnessed to turn into an otter to escape a crowd of Muggles. Every Scottish bit of water has a kelpie story attached to it. :)

Kelpies aren’t an invention of Rowling’s. They are part of the British lore. In Scotland, where the word originates from (first written records of the name back in the second half of the 17th century), Kelpies are apparently small, roundish, shape-shifting water fairies. They are said to usually appear as grey horses who lure their preys onto their backs, dive deep into the waters and devour their preys. Those creatures - or similar ones -  appear all over the British Isles, with various names according to the region they are in: Each-Uisge in Ireland, Cabbyl-Ushtey on the Isle of Man, Shoney in Cornwall, Ceffyl Dwr in Wales, Nuggies in the Shetlands and Tangies on the Orkneys. Moreover, similar creatures are observed in Scandinavia, for instance (the Swedish Backhäst), or even as far as Southern America and Australia.

The Scottish Kelpie was said to lure people by crying for help, which led people to deny rescue to people drowning or trapped on islands if they thought they were kelpies crying. That, of course, led to the actual people dying. Near Fife, Scotland, the Kelpie is said to make a dreadful roaring before a boat was lost at sea.

In Scotland, apparently, the most usual transformations of the Kelpie are into a horse or a handsome young lad (rarely a lass). Yet Nessie is a Sea-Serpent :P

Lord I just found out something in a book called ‘The Fabled Coast’ (references below, naturally): Newt Scamander wasn’t an old loony when telling about bits of guts floating after the Kelpie’s repast. Actually, a paragraph about Lochboisdale, Western Islands, Scotland, tells the reader that exact gory bit of the legend. Kelpie-researchers go so far as to make a difference between sea-water demons, which they call Water-Horses, and fresh-water demons, which they call Kelpies. This apparently was a huge debate involving famous writers like Sir Walter Scott in the 19th century. The dispute is still not closed today… In that paragraph about Lochboisdale, the author also says that most people don’t give a bit of toast about that and call all those creatures Kelpies. I’ll also summarize the tale told in that chapter about the Kelpie. The narrative frame is the usual one, but still…

In Lochboisdale lived a widowed man and his daughter. The man married again and the stepmother and stepdaughter moved in. As usual, the stepmother was a mean old hag who gave all the dirty work to her husband’s daughter and let hers flirt all day. One day that the girl was fishing at sea and catching nothing to save her life, the Kelpie appeared in front of her as a good-looking young man. He offered her help and they filled the boat with fish, because, he said, he knew about her misfortunes and had fallen in love with her. However, when the lass found out that her rescuer was a Water-Horse, she didn’t want anything to do with him anymore and he had to go back to his underwater realm. Some time later, an assembly was held in the village and the Water-horse told his fellow kelpies he was going to bring a mortal amongst them. So he went to the dance, richly attired, looking handsomer than ever. Seeing him, the stepdaughter was so besotted that she clung to him all night, to the great pleasure of the Water-horse. He then lured her to the beach, and before she was aware the stepdaughter was invited to yet another ball, of which she was the main guest. Nobody heard anything about her on the land anymore. Romantics believe it was a way for the Water-horse to help his beloved have a better life. Realists think he wanted food.

Other tales include children, who try and mount the Kelpie, but as soon as their hand touches the creature, it gets stuck. If the kid cuts off his fingers or hand he might escape. Otherwise, it’s death and guts on the water edge. In some tales the Kelpie actually chooses a mortal life and marries the belle he loved, after trials and all that such a tale requires, naturally. Yet in other accounts, the Kelpies are reckoned to have great strength and when tamed they are used to carry milestones and plough fields. When released, though, they sometime issue a curse and some families are believed to have died out following such a malediction.

In Wales there’s part of the tale Newt Scamander relates in his book, namely the bit about the taming of the Horse-kelpie. There are several tales about Ceffyl-Dwr (see picture above; source: https://imgur.com/gallery/r5NYu ) being caught and used as farm-horses, and inevitably at some point the bridle falls and the Ceffyl-Dwr returns to the sea, sometimes dragging plough and farmer behind him. The Ceffyl-Dwr was sometimes seen plunging up and down into the sea like a dolphin, which makes it more an elemental beast than a water-demon. That’s a difference between the Scottish Kelpie and the Welsh Ceffyl-Dwr, and goes against Scamander’s putting all those shape-shifting water-horse creatures under the same name.

Naturally, Christian religion has taken the Kelpie as a satanic creature, and according to them, carrying a Bible or using a cross to tame the Kelpie works, as well as shooting it with a silver bullet. (strange how the Christian ways to get rid of ‘demons’ is always the same :P )

b. Boggarts:  be good or the bogeyman will get you!

In the Harry Potter series, Boggarts first appear in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Professor Lupin introduces them in the first decent Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson Harry and his classmates have had in the two years they’ve been at Hogwarts. Lupin has stored a Boggart in the staffroom wardrobe and intends the students to practice on it to get the grip of the Boggart-Banishing-Spell Riddikulus.

If the spell is Riddikulus, which is a mere spelling twist on the English ridiculous, then it might mean ridicule has something to do with banishing a Boggart. Sure enough, the only way to get rid of a Boggart is making it turn into something so ludicrous you’ll laugh your head off and it’ll blast off. You could ask why you need to do such a thing, though. Well, the answer is easy: the Boggart is a shape-shifting non being that will turn into whatever frightens people the most when they face them. Of course, that means nobody but one that wouldn’t fear anything would know what a Boggart looks like when they hide in dark corners and other confined spaces. Naturally, the more people are tackling the Boggart at the same time, the easier it is to finish it off. If two or more people are in front of it, the Boggart will get confused because it won’t know what to turn into. Lupin says, in Prisoner of Azkaban, that he ‘once saw a Boggart make that very mistake - tried to frighten two people at once and turned himself into half a slug. Not remotely frightening.’ (Chapter Seven)

According to Rowling in her writings for Pottermore, Boggarts’ presence can be felt by Muggles, yet they wouldn’t dare believe that there’s actually something there, and would merely believe it’s their imagination playing a trick on them.

Boggarts are non beings, like Poltergeists or Dementors. Not truly alive, yet not dead. They seem, like Dementors, to feed on human emotions. We don’t know how they breed, but apparently the fuel they use is fear (while remember, Dementors feed not only on fear, but also despair, sadness and all ‘negative’ emotions).

The particularity of Boggarts among shape-shifting creatures is that what they are going to turn into is unknown until it does so, and the variety of shapes it can assume is as wide as the pictures of fear in humankind.

I don’t think I’ve come across anything like a Harry-Potter-style-Boggart in any culture I’ve been reading about. However, since that could be the case, if you know anything of the sort, please comment below the article or on our fb page! I’d love to know more! Here’s what I found, though. Some traits are similar to Rowling’s boggarts, but not many.

Apparently, in Muggle Scotland, a Boggart is a male fairy who will create havoc in your house with great pleasure. Sounds like Peeves to me, but Peeves is a Poltergeist. It also loves frightening travellers (that’s one of the closest trait to a HP-Boggart). Across the British Isles, the Boggart goes by many names: Padfoot or Hobgoblin in Northern England (Hobgoblin is also a nice ale :P ), or even Boogey Man, and all the nicknames such a name can induce people to think of, naturally.

There are two kinds of boggarts, the household ones, and the outdoors ones, the latter living on bogs and marshes. While the household boggarts are more like Peeves, causing mischief and not living you in peace, the outdoor ones are accused of crimes of a more serious nature, like abducting children.

About household boggarts, if they are anyway like Peeves, I can very well imagine that people would want to get rid of them as soon as possible. However, that proves tricky, as this story shows: A man and his family were living in a house where a boggart had decided to establish his residence. It caused so much havoc that at some point the family decided to pack their things and move out. At the gate, the neighbour coming towards the family asked if they were leaving. From the suitcase came that happy cry: ‘Yes, we are!’. The man and his family turned back and went home. There’s no escaping a household boggart.

There are no specific kind of habitat for Boggarts. Of course bogs and marshes, but those are wetlands in general, that, since they are treacherous to wander on, are believed to be home to treacherous and maligne creatures. There are also reports of them living on dangerous slopes over roads, which could suggest that these are made up locations by muggles, because it’s just avoiding to say nature has her own ways and sometimes the stones and trees move on slopes and come down, causing accidents. Caves are also among the favourites, apparently, and that is closer to what Rowling says about Boggarts living in closed dark spaces. There’s a cave in Yorkshire, near Giggleswick, called Cave Ha, that is said to be haunted by a Boggart. Cave Ha, with its unusual name, is a huge shelter cave, and there has been human and animal bones found there, buried, but some also smashed to remove the marrow apparently, which might link the site to a ritual sacrificial place. There’s evidence of Cave Ha being used since the Neolithic period. The local legends around Giggleswick say that around that particular shelter cries and weird noises are often heard, and that a bogard roams around it. 

The pictures of boggarts we can find in literature or on the internet often resemble a sort of oldish dwarfish creature with crooked nose and fingers, not unlike the Goblins in the HP-films (see pic above; source:

https://lancashirefolk.com/2017/04/19/a-boggart-did-it-proved-in-court/ )

It looks like in folklore, Boggarts aren’t shape-shifters. The closest to shape-shifting I found is the fact that benevolent household creatures like brownies can turn into boggarts if ill-treated or offended. HA! No way. In Harland and Wilkinson, 1867, there’s a few paragraphs about Boggarts in Lancashire, which, as everyone knows, is a land of witchcraft. Here’s a summary of what they say:

Boggart is a name that might mean two things: bar-gheist, which is literally gate-ghost (bar means gate in the North, and ghast is Anglo-Saxon for spirit, anima), or buhr-gast, wich means town-sprite (buhr being the Anglo-Saxon for town, and gast for ghost). The spirits standing on gates or walls were known to frighten people - that’s consistent with the general fear-thing associated with boggarts. They also say that those boggarts can TAKE VARIOUS FORMS, or, as they put it, strange appearances.  So those particular boggarts would be shape-shifters. There’s even a list of creatures the boggart could turn into: ‘a rabbit, dog, bear, or still more fearful form’. Those were recorded east of Manchester. Of course, those boggarts were cleaned off by churchmen at first, and industrialisation next, and in the end, rationality took over and people said that ‘fact'ry folk havin' summat else t'mind nur wanderin' ghosts un' rollickin' sperrits’ and ‘There's no Boggarts neaw, un' iv ther' were, folk han grown so wacken, they'd soon catch 'em.’ That last bit of course makes me think that rationality hadn’t completely won over old ideas, and so much the better, in my opinion. Rationalism alone is not the solution :P

The more I read the book, the more similarities I find with Rowling’s Boggarts. So as seen just before, some boggarts can change shape. It is also widely believed that some enjoy frightening people. However, it was never mentioned to what extent they did that. Rowling of course makes her Boggarts impersonate the worst fear of the person who encounters the Boggart. Tradition makes it a tad different, as Harland and Wilkinson tell (this quote is straight from their book):

‘Having fallen into conversation with a working man on our road to Holme Chapel, we asked him if people in those parts were now ever annoyed by beings of another world. Affecting the esprit fort, he boldly answered, "Noa! the country's too full o' folk;" while his whole manner, and especially his countenance, as plainly said "Yes!" A boy who stood near was more honest. "O, yes!" he exclaimed, turning pale; "the Boggart has driven William Clarke out of his house; he flitted last Friday." "Why," I asked; "what did the Boggart do?" "O, he wouldn't let 'em sleep; he stripp'd off the clothes." "Was that all?" "I canna' say," answered the lad, in a tone which showed he was afraid to repeat all he had heard; "but they're gone, and the house is empty. You can go and see for yoursel', if you loike. Will's a plasterer, and the house is in Burnley Wood, on Brown Hills."’

However, even if there are some tales about shape-shifting boggarts and boggarts that would frighten people so much they’d leave the premises, the usual accounts are those of pesky pests, mostly household creatures who’d play pranks on the inhabitants. Sometimes being helpful, mostly being just nasty things.

Still, whatever the role of industrialisation and almighty priests in getting rid of boggarts, there are places that retain the history of their being in the names they bear. Those I found were mostly in Lancashire and Yorkshire, UK. For instance, Harland and Wilkinson mention a place north of Manchester, called Blackley, where there is a clough in which boggarts are said to live. Today it’s a park complete with stadium and pond, but records of people disappearing have given credit to the existence of a mean spirit in there, and for centuries the bottom of the clough has been called Boggarts Hole… so…

And just to end up on a funny note: I just read a paper while foraging for pictures and found this. In 1869 a boggart was accused by law of breaking windows in a building. The man who was the first suspect claimed his innocence and gave proof of it, ending his tirade with ‘it must have been a boggart’. The court, then had not choice but to convict the boggart and release the man.

c. Veela

Veela appear for the first time in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, during the Quidditch World Cup, as the mascots of the Bulgarian Team. The description in the book when we first encounter those beings is as follows: ‘Veela were women… the most beautiful women Harry had ever seen …  except that they weren’t - they couldn’t be - human. [...] he tried to guess what exactly they could be; what could make their skin shine moon-bright like that, or their white-gold hair fan out behind them without wind… [...] The Veela started to dance, and Harry’s mind had gone completely blissful and blank. All that mattered in the world was that he kept watching the Veela, because if they stopped dancing, terrible things would happen… As the Veela danced faster and faster, wild, half-formed thoughts started chasing through Harry’s dazed mind. He wanted to do something very impressive, right now. Jumping from the box into the stadium seemed a good idea …  but would it be good enough?’ (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter Eight).

Harry is of course not the only one to be bewitched by Veela, and Ron is even more sensitive to their presence than Harry. He is so sensitive that he, like some other fellow Hogwartsians, is completely besotted when Fleur Delacour arrives for the Triwizard, and she’s only part-Veela, actually only 25%, since it’s from her grandma’s genes.

Veela in Harry Potter can change shape when infuriated, as they did at the Quidditch World Cup after the Irish Leprechauns had been rude to them: ‘They launched themselves across the pitch, and began throwing what seemed to be handfuls of fire at the leprechauns. Watching through his Omnioculars, Harry saw that they didn’t look remotely beautiful now. On the contrary, their faces were elongating into sharp, cruel-beaked bird heads, and long scaly wings were bursting from their shoulders.’ (Chapter Eight)

Veela hair is also considered to have magic enough to be used in wandlore. However, Ollivander wouldn’t use it, sticking to his three favourite, dragon heartstring, phoenix feather and unicorn tail hair. He thinks Veela hair makes temperamental wands (Chapter Eighteen), and honestly who would contradict him, given what happened at the World Cup :P  

Only female Veela are mentioned in the Harry Potter books. Apparently they also can breed with ordinary humans, since Fleur’s grandma was a Veela. There’s not much information in the HP books about details, nor is there any writing by Rowling about them. One thing can be said, though, and it’s the strange fact that Veela would submit to serve ordinary humans, in quality of pom pom girls. Honestly, after reading about them, I can’t imagine them doing that at all.

All right. I must admit I thought Veela were a creation of Rowling’s. Well, they aren’t. I always check my books and google everything just in case, and here I was surprised, and not for the worst. The only consequence is that if you’ve been reading that far you’ll be reading another couple of pages :p

Vila (or Wiła) are, according to what I read, the most important creatures of Slavic folklore and are present from the Baltic States to the Balkans as well as in Russia. Online there’s quite a lot about Serbian folklore, but not much else. That actually has an explanation, and thank you Kikimora for providing it :)

There's an important difference between the three groups of Slavic folklore, namely Balcanic on one side, Czech, Polish and Slovak on another, and Russian.

Balcanic Folklore

The Balcanic folklore was directly influenced by Ancient Greek traditions, and they base their documentation on Vila on a book by the famous Greek historian Procopius, who lived in the 6th century AD (I confess I didn’t read the book, so I trust the bloke who wrote the article).

In Serbian, the etymology of the world ‘vila’ would come from the word vel, which means ‘perish’. If you read what Vilas are, it’s a bit strange that the roots of the name would link the creature to death, while they actually are creatures that have the possibility of deciding the time of their own death and rebirth, and aren’t usually death omens. Rather the contrary. Maybe their fierce warrior reputation? However, it seems that many Slavic peoples have similar spirits of the death, or of unbaptized girls (that of course would be after Christianity had overtaken the world and decided that being unbaptized is some sort of death…) or girls condemned to float between life and death because of living a frivolous life or having been cursed by God because of their bad life (always the girls, right….).

According to Serbian folklore, Vila have been thought to be linked to storms and bad weather at first, and only later got linked with forest, water and mountain habitats. They are the equivalent of the Ancient Greek nymphs, can live in various environments and are shape-shifters, yet their usual form is that of a beautiful maiden. Those women can be either naked or dressed in white, but usually have long silvery hair. While unprovoked, Vila are benevolent and helpful, but turn into murderous creatures if molested or offended. It is also said that if seen bathing, or dancing, Vila would hunt the offending men down and shoot them with bow and arrow, sometimes to death, sometimes not. When not, the offender would lose a limb, for instance. That reminds me a bit of other parts of Greek mythology where offenders lost their sight for watching a goddess bathing. However, unlike Athena, Vila would sometimes lure men into dancing or watching them. That could turn into something good or bad for the men. This bit is sort of consistent with the bewitching power of Rowling’s Veela. Vila get their power from their hair, like many other heroes, and from another thing I can’t write the name of (only heard it and don’t want to misspell it), but it’s an element of dressing going down the back from the hair to the wings (when they have wings). If a man stole that bit of clothing while a Vila was bathing, he stole her powers and thus became her master. In other tales this happens if the man plucks a feather of the Vila’s wings. If a Vila’s hair was plucked, though, the Vila would die. So I must imagine that the hair from Fleur’s grandma, that ended up in Fleur’s wand, was collected on a brush or comb :P

Vilas are mostly female. Some claim there’s no male Vila, some that there’s a few, who became such because they came into contact with Vilas. In Serbian folklore, they would be called Vilenyak. Vila could also ‘adopt’ children and it is said a child breast-fed by a Vila would gain unusual strength from it. That happened for instance to the Serbian folklore hero Prince Marko.

Vila have a big responsibility in communities: formerly they would teach people how to sew, plough, irrigate their fields all kind of skills. Vilas are also believed to be learnt in healing with plants and divination or rather prophetisation, and are often mentioned as healers of the hero’s wounds in folk tales. In some tales, Vila go as far as to marry mortal men, putting the usual set of conditions (like not mentioning their decent) lest they would disappear forever. Apparently Fleur’s grandma didn’t come to that extremity with her husband.

North-Eastern European Wiłas 

(spelling adopted here: Polish, because I discussed the subject with Polish friends. The spelling differs a bit from one language to the next, but not the names).

We know much less of Vilas in the northern part of Eastern Europe. That's due to many things, amongst which the non-writing of legends is one part, and the fact that most of European Slavic peoples' history has been written by others than the actual peoples. Usually dominating countries or foreign explorers. Archaeologists and anthropology field scientists agree that they can't be sure about anything when it comes to Slavic traditions before Christianisation, and what happened after is of course strongly tainted by ideology.

Slavic peoples from the North-East part of Europe think of Vilas not as nymphs, but more as demons. The word Vila, Wiła in Polish, is not that much used in northern countries, apparently, where those beings are also called Rusałki.

In North-Eastern folklore, it is said that wiłas can shape-shift, namely turn into animals and winds. They are also fierce warriors, like their southern cousins, having that bare and raw natural force (we Finns would call it sisu I'd say) that can help you fulfil your dreams and carry on whatever the circumstances but that can turn against you should you be careless. As Kikimora puts it, it's something along the lines of 'watch out what you wish for, respect what you don't understand, you can't rule everywhere' (Kikimora, pers. comm.).

Unlike the southern folklore, northern Slavic tradition doesn't have male rusałki or wiła. In Slavic folklore, there are some traits or strengths (and weaknesses) that are more male or more female; Wiła and rusałki are female. The male counterpart to rusałki would be wodniki.

Like their southern counterparts, Wiła were demonised (in the clerical sense) once their countries were taken over by Christians, in whose beliefs anything female is dangerous and satanic and bad (remember Satan is a bloke - tries to find coherence - there's none). Before that, there were male and female demons, ghosts, energies... and there was a sort of balance.

So even if we consider both sides of Slavic folklore, we can see similarities between the traditional Vilas and Rusálki/Wiła. There's that shape-shifting, the luring people (both men and women, even if the latter very rarely, according to the internet), the demonish side, and the being careful with what you wish. Remember the things the boys at Hogwarts or at the World Cup did to try and get the Veela's attention...

Arts

Vila have been used by composers in operas, like Hungarian Ferenc Lehár in his Lustige Witwe (1905) and Antonin Dvořák in his Rusálka (1901), and Westerners as well, notably by poet Heinrich Heine and composers Giaccomo Puccini in Le Villi (1884) and Adolphe Adam (Ballet Giselle orLes Wilis, 1841).

4. Summary Comparison

Time to draw a small comparison. Rowling’s shape-shifting creatures are all loosely based on folklore. Whether she knew it or not, nobody can tell but her. However, the coincidences are too strong to leave much doubt.

Shape-shifting is a fairly common thing in the wizarding world, as in folklore.

Kelpies are designed straight from the Scottish folklore version, no doubt about that, even if Scamander doesn’t develop the subject much in his works. They aren’t mentioned often in the Harry Potter books either.

Boggarts are loosely based on Lancashire and Yorkshire versions of the creatures, retaining only the fact that they like frightening people and can shape-shift for that purpose. Rowling takes that further, though, making the creatures Dark and rather close to Dementors in the way they use fear. However, as Boggarts in folklore play tricks on humans, humans in Harry Potter play tricks on Boggarts to get rid of them. The way Mrs Weasley sees the Boggart at 12 Grimmauld Place turn into many different dead people in turn is rather exceptional. I didn’t find anything similar in literature, but again, I didn’t read everything available, I suppose.

To write about Veela Rowling must have known about the Serbian Vila. There are too many similarities (the luring, the dancing, the beauty, the magical hair, the turning into harpie-like creatures) to leave much doubt, but there’s a lot of discrepancies as well, and since there’s no writing by Rowling about Veela anywhere, it’s hard to know to which extent she wanted her Veela to resemble Vila. It’s sure she knew they were from Slavic folklore though, since she attributed them to the Bulgarian Quidditch team as mascots. Now I don’t think Vila would have agreed to be used that way, particularly given the fact they punish people for watching them dance.

Fleur’s grandmother was one of the Veela who married a mortal man, but we know nothing more about that. One thing we can infer from the fact that one of her hair is used as a wand core, is that the magical power of the hair was known by Rowling, and that unless Veela gather their fallen hair it must be horribly difficult for wandmakers to come across that particular core.

Now you could ask me why I don’t mention Obscuri here. As you know, they are creatures generated by a form of transfiguration that is intrinsic to a wizard whose magic has been hindered through his own will or others’. The people who create Obscuri are usually children (they hardly ever live over the age of ten, and in 1926 there was no documented fact that any had lived over that age), according to Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the screenplay. In the film, Credence Barebone is an Obscurial, whose magical energy has been repressed for over twenty years and who unleashes a devastating monster when his emotions are triggered. It looks, in the film, that he has gained some mastery over the phenomenon over time, but there’s not much documentation about that. I didn’t include Obscurials in this paper because as far as I know, there’s no counterpart in the Muggle world and I like comparisons.

Next bit: Animagi :) Thank you for reading and commenting if you do!

Sources

Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Bloomsbury, London, 1998

Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury, London, 1999

Rowling, Joanne K., Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Bloomsbury, London, 2000

Rowling, Joanne K., The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Bloomsbury, London, 2007

Rowling, Joanne K., Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - The Original Screenplay. Bloomsbury, London, 2016.

Scamander Newt, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Obscurus Books, Diagon Alley, London, 2001

Wisp, Kennilworthy.  Quidditch Through the Ages, Bloomsbury, London, and WhizzHard Books, Diagon Alley, London. 2001.

Kelpies

Kelpies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelpie

Necks (water-spirits): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neck_(water_spirit)

Boggarts

http://caveburial.ubss.org.uk/northyorks/caveha.htm

http://oldfieldslimestone.blogspot.ch/2013/03/prehistoric-three-peaks-part-two-cave.html

http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/87393/7/bcra_cks124042.pdf (scientific paper about how the caves formed and what is left now)

http://www.haunted-yorkshire.co.uk/giggleswicksightings.htm (pretty bs paper, most of the text not written by one person and mostly copy-pasted from wikipedia, but has some local stories)

https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/boggart  

http://manchesterhistory.net/manchester/squares/boggart.html

https://lancashirefolk.com/2017/04/19/a-boggart-did-it-proved-in-court/

Vila and Wiła

Serbian video about Vila in Slavic culture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qrtiiOH4yc

http://folklorethursday.com/regional-folklore/serbian-folklore-his-majesty-the-zmaj-and-her-majesty-the-vila/#sthash.kgkk4MzK.dpbs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatural_beings_in_Slavic_religion#Vila

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Villi (opera by Puccini)

Knowledge base called Kikimora.

General Literature

Johnson, Paul. The Little People of The British Isles, Wooden Books, Glastonbury, 2008. 58 pp.

Kingshill, Sophia; Westwood, Jennifer. The Fabled Coast - Legends and Traditions from around the shores of Britain and Ireland. Arrow Books, 2014. 510 pp.

Kronzek, Allan Zola and Elizabeth, The Sorcerer’s Companion - A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter, Broadway Books, New York, 2001, 286 pp.

Harland, John., Wilkinson, Thomas T., Lancashire Folklore, Frederick Warne & Co., London, 1867 pp 50-62: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/41148/41148-h/41148-h.htm  (this book is a real treasure).