#{ answered ask: sirius black }

[saintsenara]

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

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

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

so here we are then...

the snack manifesto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[poolpvrty]

Sirius Black as Dionysus; the god of wine, insanity, fertility, festivity, and theatre!

[hedgehog-troops]

Headcannon that Monty loved regulus more and effie lived Sirius more. James was just in the middle.

i feel like this has so much oitential for angst, where james grew up loved by both his parents because he had some traits from them both and never understood the mommy's/daddy's kid stereotype because he loved them both equally.

and then come sirius and regulus and he watches the way montys eyes light up talking to regulus about potions, how they can talk for hours, how they always disappear together for ages.

he watches effie and sirius bond over the randomist things and watching them do make-up together, doing everything together, making hot chocolate together, gossiping together and james is just there.

he isnt the favroite, he isnt the one thats be willingly sought out, hes just loved.

he knows he shoukdnt but he misses the way his parents would have unlimited time for him, how he could randomly think if smthng and just come downstairs and tell them, unlike now when he comes, Monty is doing expiraments with regulus and sirius and effie are engaged in conversation whikst playing chess.

he consideres himself the worst person for being jealous of them, but he knows that they deserve it more than him.

[potentialbreakupscng]

💋/for sirius from james !! - @wizardingsouls

the past months since his release have felt like a fever dream -- unsure if he can trust his mind and how it's seeing things. he can't remember the last time his hair has been this short -- last he remembers it hit to his lower back even with the mats and knots from twelve years of neglect. he doesn't remember shaving the hair off of his face that he could barely even call a beard -- and vaguely remembers a familiar voice teasing him about finally being able to grow something. he remembers the conversations he had in azkaban, the ones with his friends that were gone. mad mumblings to himself, james, lily, and remus. he escaped when he saw peter on the front of the prophet, swore that he would seek revenge against the man that they had trusted more than anything -- but ended back up in a cell.

he's not sure where the madness stopped and the man begun -- what was real and what wasn't, especially after narrowly escaping a demetors kiss when all of his past had been brought up. his parents abuse, the way he'd almost torn their friends apart the first time, james and lily dying. he thought he'd been broken before -- but he's a shell of the man he used to be. the boisterous, confident and obnxious man is a shell of himself. barely speaking sentences, trying to understand why -- how his mind has crafted such a beautiful place for him to be in. with remus and james -- older than he remembers them, which is even more odd. prongs and moony were always young when he'd talked to them before, and lily had always been there, too. eventually he allows the façade to win, cracking jokes and feeling himself relax for the first time in over twelve years. the madness even allows harry to visit -- to see him again and to see the emerald green eyes that match his mothers attached to the face of a young james. in the evenings he allows himself to feel the false warmth of the two men that sirius has loved most in this world, finds comfort that he remembers how warm they are.

maybe if he'd allowed himself to allow the madness take over from the start, he would have been better off.

it's odd, he thinks as the façade has the three of them together for an evening, that remus isn't drinking. between the three of them, he'd always been the one to hold his liquor the best -- and was one of the few things the otherwise insecure person had almost prided himself with. their conversation shifts to hermione -- when had hermione been here to have a conversation with them? he barely knows her. only met her briefly in the shack -- why would the madness add her to this conversation? a chuckle is shared between them about how clever she is for having figured them out. a silence follows, until james is the one to ask the question that's been lingering in the air between them since their reunion.

"together forever, remember?" he speaks up, silver eyes landing on the mirage of an older james potter than he can remember -- a gentle smile on his lips. he sets his drink down and watches as james moves toward him, head tilting back to look up at him -- a best friend, lover, and a soulmate wrapped into one person peering down at him. almost too real feeling hands move to cup his cheeks -- and silver eyes flutter closed when he's brought closer and for the first time in over a decade their lips meet. sirius finds himself melting into him, tattooed hands gently resting over the hands that rest on his cheeks. he gets lost in the warmth, in the feeling of kissing james potter again. silver eyes open as they pull away, landing on james's and for a moment letting himself feel the warmth that always came from him. a gentle smile graces his lips, his free hand reaching up to brush some of the other man's curls from his forehead -- always the most unruly hair. the crinkles in the corners of his eye, the warmth of his skin under his fingers as they brush along his forehead to move his hair away from his face. james's lips are upon his again, and he eagerly responds -- clinging desperately to him because it all feels real.

too real.

sirius's hands jerk away from the mirage of james potter in front of him, abruptly pulling away as silver eyes open wide to stare at the mirage that even when shoved away doesn't seem to go away. "no," he mutters to himself, jolting away from the hands that reach out for him, "don't -- don't fucking touch me." he's let this go on for too long. none of this is real -- none of this can be real. heels of his hand press into silver eyes, rubbing violently at them as if it would erase the false images in front of him -- but even that doesn't erase the two sets of concerned eyes that stare at him. "this isn't -- this isn't real. you're" he points to james with a trembling hand, "not real. this isn't real. you're dead."

eyes snap over to remus when he speaks, and he feels both of them approaching as if they're corning and trying to catch a scared creature. "shut the fuck up, you're not real either," he snaps and the glass in his hand goes flying toward the mirage to prove that this whole thing isn't real. the sound of the shattering glass fills the room as remus skillfully dodges the projectile and it shatters on the wall behind them. sirius lunges grabbing anything to throw and destroy to prove that this isn't real. that they aren't real. blinded by images of finding james potter -- screaming to find his glasses because of how blind he is without them -- sirius barely hears the sound of harry's voice as he peers around the corner. harry, living with him? with them? it has to be a dream. he watches as remus darts across the room and guides harry up the stairs -- flinging anything he can in their direction and they disappear up the stairs. a glass shatters in his hand from gripping onto it too tightly, blood dripping down from the palm of his hand onto his wrist -- he doesn't feel the pain, because why would he? it's all not real. this isn't real. nothing he's experienced is real. he's still in azkaban. he has to be. he knows james potter is dead -- and has been for so long. tears stream down his cheeks as he screams over and over again that this isn't real. that james is dead. he's too far gone. he let the façade win and now he can't get back. magic seems to surge through him, sending furniture and other objects flying through the air -- much like when a child first discovers magic and can't control it. being years out of practice, rotting in a jail cell. suddenly, there's a pain in his skull, sharp and skull splitting. . something that's happened since his sixth year at hogwarts -- after his parents tortured him over and over again with the cruciatus curse until he finally decided to run away. he crumbles to the ground, covered in glass shards. bloodied hands move to grip onto the side of his head -- then pound over and over again into his temples as if trying to get the voices that are telling him that this is real out of it. as if it's going to stop the tearing sensation caused by years of abuse. he lets out a heart breaking scream, asking everything to just stop.

and it does. finally. the sharp pain in his head, the tightness in his chest.

tattooed fingers grip onto his hair at the base as the silence is broken when sobs fall past his lips when his entire body trembles. he shakes his heat, tears streaming down his cheeks and when he feels strong arms wrap around him he doesn't try to push them away, and instead collapses into the man that he swears is still a mirage. "this isn't real," his voice is soft and whispered, trembling as bloodied hands move to grip onto the arms that are holding onto him, "you're not real, prongs. i let this go for too long."

[where-is-vivian]

Viv !! I’m now the biggest North African James fan !!!!! I NEED FICS AND HCS NOW !!!!!

@reverie-darling see what we have created...

I don't have any fics in storage with north African James right now 🤔 we need to change that (I'm thinking about writing him with another hc than Hindi on the next long fic I have planned so maybe that)... if anyone has fics like this, feel free to share!

for the headcanons, well I'm not north African myself, so I only know some bits of the culture from my friends and from the internet, but here's a few that I think fit for james:

1. He'd be from Morocco. He's getting the Moroccan genes from his mother, and he often went back to his mother's parents home during holidays as a kid. He has good memories of running around and having fun with his cousins and the beautiful view when they'd be high enough to see the whole qsur.

2. He's also spoiled rotten by his grandma. No further explanation x)

3. He'd do tricks when serving the tea. oh my. James would show off every time there were guests (and especially if at some point he invites lily or regulus). He trained for years for that, burning himself several times (and Euphemia giving him healing ointments after while scolding him lightly (it's her love language)). He'd just show off. Oh also he'd love mint tea.

4. He's a cat person. Sirius feels betrayed but I'm sorry, that might be a cliché idk; if you've seen the guy on tiktok saying that all Arab people are cat people and all cats are Muslims, well. All of my Arab friends are cat people (no fr x)) so I say: James cat person (also he absolutely looooves Regulus in his Animagus form).

5. And last, but not least, he'd speak French. You probably come from this post already but I'm putting it here anyway x)

If you have any hcs for north African James, feel free to share!

[sofoulandfairaday]

Hcs about Sirius? Thanks

Let's see how many people come screaming in my inbox for these

Tall. Taller than James, definitely taller than Remus (ya know, like the text implies).

Tall and conventionally handsome. Not the skinny/androgynous/emo kind. I don't hate those hcs, they're just not how I picture him. He's very very conventionally handsome in quite a masculine way although I can see him not sporting a beard until after Hogwarts, maybe even after his escape from Azkaban.

You can have your makeup wearing, skirt sporting, femme Sirius but it's just not for me.

Also. Also. Also. Can I just say? Wizards wear robes. They all wear skirts.

Prefers animals to people (and animals prefer him).

Can fly a broom, and can do so very well, most likely since before he ever got to Hogwarts, but he wasn't on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He maybe played once or twice if someone was injured and James was begging him, and only exclusively against Slytherin to spite his Seeker brother. I can see him being in the Duelling Club, though.

Practice duels against the Slytherins got vicious.

An absolute prodigy in Transfiguration (he and James were Minerva's favourite students), also excels in Charms, DADA, and (what a shocker) Astronomy. He's very good in school in general though, and has very high grades. Considering how much time James must have ‘wasted’ being Quidditch Captain - time that Sirius probably spent studying in his last two years of school - he was probably the best, academically speaking, of the Marauders. He was also probably the most powerful wizard of the four.

Took Muggle Studies to annoy his family (he was mildly interested, but he wasn't passionate about the subject), and dropped it after his O.W.L.S. to better concentrate on the ‘important’ classes, especially since there was a war out there by 1978. Definitely got into a slight quarrel with Lily about this - more and more people were dropping out of Muggle Studies out of fear at this point and to her, it was about making a statement. Sirius's reply was ‘I think a curse right between the eyes is a better statement against the Death Eaters - I can only do that if I train’.

But Sirius- I've said this before, but I'm much more interested in all the ways Sirius is like his family than the ways he isn't. Definitely had to unlearn many of his biases.

Amongst which: his classism. Which he does display in the books, especially in the case of Snape.

I'm sure he would get into arguments with Remus (who was clearly hurt by some of these - which is precisely what prompted Sirius to reexamine some of his views more consciously), where Remus would say ‘But not all werewolves are like that, Sirius!’ when talking about, say, whether or not they should be allowed in certain jobs or whatever, and Sirius saying ‘well, yes, Remus but what if they do attack someone’ (Wolfsbane isn't a thing at this point in the canon).

I've said this before and I'll say it again: Remus was Sirius' exception, much like Lily's was Snape's. And this goes for many things.

Gradually, he unlearns many of his beliefs, especially when he goes back home as a teenager and sees his points of view reflected in the mouths of people like Rodolphus Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy - which disgusts him.

Sirius, in the books, has very famous lines (“The world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters...”) but he very famously does not live by that morality. He's a person, to me, with an extremely black-and-white view of the world. He can hex and curse students for fun and it's fine because he isn't using Dark Magic. On the other hand, most Slytherins suck because they are all racist evil gits who will end up as Death Eaters anyway.

He did not have Slytherin friends, that's probably one of my least favourite headcanons ever. He knew these people because he was a Black, which is why he can list them off to Harry in GoF, but he definitely did not hang out with them or like them in any way. Also, who were the Slytherins in his year and above/below anyways? Avery and Mulciber who played cruel (and maybe slightly illegal) jokes on Mary MacDonald? Evan Rosier (to me he actually wasn't, in my headcanons he's 4 years older than Bellatrix, which makes him about 13 years older than Sirius, but for the sake of argument) who was a Dark Wizard TM and blasted off half of Mad Eye's nose? Barty Voldemort Fanboy Crouch? Regulus??? Snape?????

Good at Potions, never top of the class (those were Lily and Snape)

Tactless at times, but not as much as James.

An asshole. A complete and utter arrogant toerag, and definitely more than a little immature. He was popular, like James, and I can see him having other friends outside the Marauders, but never establishing deep and meaningful relationships with them. He was definitely more unapproachable than James, much more intimidating.

(Definitely meaner jokes, too.)

James was the love of his life (platonically, but I can get behind them as a ship). He was loyal to James, first and foremost (which is also why he and Moony grew apart and suspicious of each other in the First War). Also, both of them were James' friends first. The Marauders were James' friend group.

He was definitely jealous when James first got together with Lily because she was stealing his best friend, his second, better brother. He liked Lily, but he was obsessed with James, who definitely grew up before Sirius did.

I've always headcanoned Sirius as straight/bi and Regulus as gay. But the point is more that while I can see Sirius experimenting a bit in Hogwarts (after all, he was full of girls who probably liked him) I can't really see him as either an arrogant/douchebag playboy. I also don't think he ever had a serious relationship. Ever. Especially in his Hogwarts days. If you're not worthy of his time, he won't look at you twice let alone give you a chance.

Any partner of Sirius' would have to be quite exceptional anyways (brilliant, intelligent, talented, funny - he was all of these things after all - and maybe even a bit mean). I can't see why a girl like that would put up with Sirius' arrogance.

Loved McGonagall, lowkey hated Slughorn. He was definitely invited to the Slug Club and I can see him turning down meetings. That particular brand of cunning weaselling cowardice is quite literally the opposite of what Sirius was and it drove him up the wall.

My boy Sirius never worked a day in his life, especially after Uncle Alphard left him gold.

Also: it's very likely that given his nature (he doesn't open up to strangers easily), his vaguely intimidating aura, his less-than-perfect track record in school (I know this fandom likes to ignore that he cursed students for fun, but. like. he did.), the fact that he probably didn't have a job and spent his post-Hogwarts years in secret missions for the Order, and general ruthlessness- people knew him mostly as just another Black. It wasn't that unthinkable then that he might have been seen as Voldemort's number two.

(This enrages Bellatrix by the way lol)

And speaking of Bella. Sirius likes to go around saying Andromeda was his favourite cousin. Nu-uh. He wishes that was truly the case. These two have history, and I find it hilarious that what they hate in the other is precisely what they love in themselves (their respective loyalties).

Saw each other/could hear each other in Azkaban. Bellatrix's taunts of ‘See? We were right. You betrayed our family for these traitors and this is how they repaid you’ made the whole stay that much worse.

More likely than not had promised each other that they would be the ones to kill the other.

Bellatrix didn't mean to kill him though, I am convinced of this. In the books, she hits him with a Stunner and probably yells because she won the duel. Then, it's only after it's sunk in (after her run from the DoM to the Atrium) and when Voldemort is getting closer that she taunts Harry about it.

Personal headcanon: the last time Sirius saw his cousins was at Narcissa's wedding (nice parallel, because I believe that the last event Andromeda ever attended was Bellatrix's wedding). Now, it happened around his 5th/6th year and guess who was also there? Yup. Snivellus (as Lucius' guest). The two almost got into a brawl. Bellatrix was not happy with them almost spoiling Cissy's big day.

Once tried to beat up Rodolphus during a skirmish in which they had both lost their wands, in the First War. It did not go well for him.

I'll stop this now, but I def have more. Don't even get me started on Walburga and Orion and how this fandom does not understand abuse at all.

[lilithofpenandbook]

I heard someone say that the Malfoys were the best parents, what are your thoughts on this? And could you make a rank from the best parents to the worst?

Hmm, I'd actually say yes. There's a difference between being a good parent and being a good person. Someone could be incredibly accepting of those with impure blood yet be absolutely terrible parents, and vice versa.

When it comes to the Malfoys, yes, Lucius did influence Draco in the wrong way, yes, he did raise Draco to be a Death Eater, and we don't know how Draco would have been treated if he rejected Lucius's ideology. However, there is no indication that Draco was forced into believing what he did. He just was a product of his environment- not forced into believing it but also not wanting to not believe in it. In a way, it was Draco's normal. Additionally, while Draco was forced to be a Death Eater (I believe), it wasn't because he didn't want to be one, it's because Voldemort wanted to use him despite being too young, primarily to punish Lucius (and that to me speaks volumes about Lucius's love for his son- if Voldemort recognised it enough to know it would hurt Lucius then it must have been clear Lucius put Draco before Voldemort deep inside). I also believe Draco, once exposed to the actual reality of his beliefs and what they do to people, regretted believing them and hated it all, and wanted out, and ended up a good person, but that's another topic.

As for the ranking, in no particular order (aside from me remembering them):

The Riddles/ The Gaunts. As parents, I can't talk about Merope or Tom, however as people all I can say is that Tom is a victim of SA by Merope and that action of hers was absolutely horrific. However, I can also empathise with Merope because her father? The worst. Actually, I'm going to put him as the ultimate worst parent, simply because his actions are what led to Merope being so unstable that she seriously thought love potioning a man was a good idea. I am not condoning Merope's actions, however I do understand that she was very unwell and unstable as a result of the abuse she suffered, and if not for that then she probably would not have married Tom 1 and conceived her son under a love potion, which is the canonical reason for Tom being Voldemort, and therefore the reason for almost everything wrong. Almost.

I say almost because regardless of Voldemort, both Tobias Snape and the Black parents would have absolutely sucked and so regardless of Voldemort, both Severus Snape and Sirius Black would have experienced trauma (although not as horrifically as it was due to the war).

Tobias is worse than Walburga and Orion Black in my opinion, as it's heavily implied at least that he physically beat Snape and definitely beat Eileen. He's only above Merope's dad because I do think he wasn't as bad as him, and because part of Snape's childhood struggles is due to poverty. Him wearing ill-fitting old clothes and being bullied and ostracized has less to do with Tobias's treatment and more to the inherit poverty, however Tobias did nothing to help Snape, and was definitely an abusive husband. As a parent, he was neglectful and abrasive at best.

The Black parents are better than him, as parents. Yes, this is separate to their morals- I am judging them based on their treatment of their children. And when it comes to them, firstly there was Regulus, who was favoured and loved by them, even if they didn't raise him correctly. Then there's Sirius. And here's the thing, while I don't deny Walburga at least was abusive, the abusive itself was only confirmed to be abusive, which is horrible, yes, but not as horrible as the previously mentioned parents (wow, the bar is low). And another key element is the fact that Sirius was the one who left, rather than he being kicked out too. So while verbally abusive, I don't believe Walburga and Orion completely neglected Sirius.

However, a very similar set of parents yet miles worse are Petunia and Vernon. One of their kids was incredibly spoilt to the point of being incredibly stupid, the other was completely and fully abused. They beat the Blacks but are still only a little better than Tobias and the Gaunts.

As for Harry's actual parents, James and Lily Potter, they both loved Harry, but they didn't live long enough to decide whether they would be good at actual parenting or if they'd spoil Harry.

And I'm gonna mention the Evans parents too. I don't think they were good parents. Not as bad as a lot of these people, but not good. How else do you raise someone like Petunia, so jealous of her sister she abused a little boy? Yeah, no.

Now, Molly and Arthur Weasley are rather polarising. Some say they're good, some say they were bad. I'm going to say that they weren't perfect, but not bad at all. Yes, Ron wasn't always given the best treatment, yes, Molly favoured certain children, but at the same time she was the mother to seven very strong minded individuals, and still took care of Harry despite their poverty. And I do count them as "poor". Although they aren't as poor as some of the others, they're still not rich at all. The reason they don't struggle is because they save money with the hand me downs and everything. So I'd say that actually, they weren't bad at all. I personally don't like how much Molly yells, however that's probably because of my own issues, not because she's actually being harsh. Her family is loud. She had to be louder.

I'm also gonna mention the Dumbledore parents. The father definitely made a bad decision, however it was to protect his daughter. That doesn't however change how bad that idea was. As for the mother, again, maybe not the best decision at the time to isolate Ariana, especially because it resulted in her boys suffering. However I will cut them some slack because they weren't in any normal situation and that would affect their judgement. So not abusive by any means, but not the best parents either.

Hermione's parents. Where were they and why didn't they seem concerned over their only child? That's all I can say (perhaps they figured her being magical made her invulnerable?)

The last parents I can think of are Andromeda and Ted Tonks. And actually they're probably the best parents in the series. Nymphadora grows up to be a good, happy young woman, and they clearly love her even if they don't agree with her choices. I honestly can't remember anything wrong with them.

That's my "ranking" of the worst to best parents, out of all the people I can remember. Honestly, there's a very high number of bad parents here (the bar is so low that Not Smacking Your Child is enough to give Walburga a higher ranking, dear god).

Oh, actually I forgot!

James Potter's parents. Maybe one of the WORST up there with the Gaunts because how do you raise such a little psychopath? I can see where Sirius gets it but his family is known to be bad, so what was with the Potters? James was well cared for and adored (the words used in the book!) yet he spent 7 years bullying Snape. Just how? What kind of parents were his?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this! Thanks for the ask!

[neverenoughmarauders]

I wanna share with you my idea of Remus and the marauders as a group of friends. I don't think Remus was as close to them as it seems like he was. Remus was an isolated, possibly lonely boy who didn't have friends till Hogwarts. I imagine his first ever friendship was with Peter or James. He was lonely so he took even small amount of love as a big thing. He wanted to fit in so bad yet was so scared that people will reject him. And when James and Sirius accepted him despite knowing about his lycantrophy I imagine it felt unreal to Remus. So whilst James might have thought Remus was a kind and funny guy and downplayed his lycantrophy as something cool or fun and Sirius thought the same, Remus on the other hand started idolizing James for it and viewed their friendship as something deeper than it was. I think they were definitely friends but I cannot help but think that James and Sirius considered Remus as a fun and interesting person to have around that will kind of fuel their ego to think they are these great people who accepted a werewolf and that they enjoy having around for the exciting aspect of it. I'm not saying that was the only reason they were friends with Remus just saying that it was a strong reason and one of the main reasons for it. Peter served a purpose as well. He was the hero worshipper who also fuelled their egos and made them feel better, superior, smarter, funnier and more powerful. With Remus they felt like better people, they felt mysterious for having this type of secret that also made them feel superior to others around them. Idk just my interpretation. After all James definitely felt like he was a good person for accepting muggleborns, so accepting a werewolf also fuelled that thought, despite hexing and bullying people. Sirius came from a very prejudiced household so I genuinely think my interpretation for him in this way is correct. And Remus is a person who downplayed his friend's faults multiple times and was afraid of calling them out on their bullshit for the possibility of losing them. To me James and Sirius seem like the type of people who seek excitement, something that makes them feel better than others, something that makes them feel like they are the kings in the room. Both Remus and Peter definitely fuelled that desire, Remus for his secret lycantrophy and Peter for his worship. I think this was the main reason they kept them as friends but over time I believe they genuinely started caring for them and they definitely believed they were close friends. Peter betraying them supports my idea too.

James and Sirius weren't entirely good or bad, they were flawed and I think this was one of their flaws.

What do you think?

Hi anon,

Sorry for a very late reply!

I think the older I get the more I think this sort of interpretation is very true, albeit quite painful. The marauders were NOT an equal friendship, and everything in canon supports this power imbalance between the four friends.

While we have the account of the teachers, with Sirius and James being described as "ringleaders of their little gang" in POA, my favourite portrayal of the Marauders happens in DH (bold for emphasis):

With a leap of pleasure, Harry recognized his father; his untidy black hair stuck up at the back like Harry’s, and he too wore glasses. Beside him was Sirius, carelessly handsome, his slightly arrogant face so much younger and happier than Harry had ever seen it alive. To Sirius’s right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter, plump and watery-eyed, flushed with pleasure at his inclusion in this coolest of gangs, with the much-admired rebels that James and Sirius had been. On James’s left was Lupin, even then a little shabby-looking, but he had the same air of delighted surprise at finding himself liked and included ... or was it simply because Harry knew how it had been, that he saw these things in the picture? 

As much as I want to scream from the rooftops that James and Sirius became animagi for Remus, I also think they viewed it as a fun and interesting challenge - something that gave extra excitement and gave them a secret that set them apart from the rest. As Sirius observes in OOTP: 'the risk would’ve been what made it fun for James.' I loath to admit it, but I am pretty sure that the two boys didn't see it as a huge sacrifice to become animagi, but rather something cool and exciting which would also help their friend.

I also think two things can be true at once, like you say I think they genuinely liked and appreciated Remus and as with all friendships that stand the test of time, they grow deeper. But the two boys' ability to always show empathy is not there - the way they throw around Remus' condition after the O.W.Ls and Sirius wants it to be the full moon shows that their ability to set aside their own fun for their friends is limited... At least at 16.

I don't necessarily think it's anything but natural for James especially, but also in my view Sirius, to not judge Remus for being a werewolf or to think themselves on an equal footing with muggle-borns. James' family were considered blood traitors, and despite the horrible way Sirius treats Kreacher, Sirius often shows compassion towards those the wizarding world think inferior. I absolutely think they thought themselves morally superior at this ability to see past what most purebloods didn't, but I really don't think they went around congratulating themselves for not being blood purists or prejudice - I often think it frustrated them that the wizarding world wasn't filled with more enlightened people (like themselves, naturally).

One thing that frustrates me more and more as I grow older is that the fandom come at understanding the marauders from Remus' POV (probably because he's easier to like than two school bullies or a traitor), but JKR created the marauders from the POV of James and Sirius (their friendship is the undercurrent in POA) - as well as how the marauders affected dynamics between James, Severus and Lily. That is not to say that Remus, who is the reason they become animagi, or Peter, who ultimately betrays James and Sirius, aren't CRITICAL to the marauders, but they aren't the core of it the same way. A great example is the prank, which when viewed from Remus' POV becomes such a story of betrayal, but as we see from the book series, Remus never expresses it as such, nor does any other character. It's not really about Remus. It's almost always talked about in relation to James and Severus, and sometimes Sirius as evidence for the brutality that might or might not have been there in Sirius as a teen.

[remus-poopin]

What are your top HP fics based on writing? Like things that are just beautiful to read

Wow I think I’m answering this 3 months late sorry aghh. Again, I don’t read as many fics as I would like to, but I’ve been changing that recently and these are 4 that have really stood out to me in terms of writing!

Savour the Moment by - @evesaintyves

This fic made me both sad and hungry

This is a truly beautiful portrait of Molly and her relationship with Ginny. I really love how effortlessly this weaves in the food and cooking imagery with the emotions of the characters. The descriptions are so detailed and vivid that you can practically taste the cakes and pies off of the words alone.

Grief is hanging over this fic heavy, grief from Molly with her brothers and grief yet to come from Ginny. These two very different women, who also feel things very differently, have an extremely engaging back and forth of attempted connections. Both of them want it but aren’t able to easily get there with each other, and that struggle was very compelling to me.

Really such a great fic, I always find myself coming back to it

Favorite quotes:

“Molly has always tasted her memories. Perhaps that's why she's always been a bit thick round the middle: food relishes the good times, is the physical stuff of love. Ever since she was a little girl: plum pudding was Christmas and summers were cherry ice cream and chocolate flake. The time she broke her ankle jumping down from a tree, to this day, is the chalk flavor of Skele-Gro and a limp cucumber sandwich from the St Mungo's cafeteria. Her mother is sweet milky tea and her father is cottage pie with mushrooms, his favourite, flavoured with the smoke of his pipe in the air.”

“She learned to cook at her own mother's elbow and she is full of warm, creamy, ginger-flavoured memories of it. But Ginny's never liked being in the kitchen with her mum. She wants to be out with the boys, flying on broomsticks, getting jostled and scraped and braying coarse laughter through a mouthful of blood. That's why, when she thinks about Ginny, it's not the cream tea and swiss roll flavours she expected when she learned she was finally having a girl. It's rain-drenched popcorn at the Quidditch match and the salt of a kiss on Ginny's sweaty, gritty forehead.”

Sparkling Cyanide - @saintsenara

The house elf plot-line in the hp books leaves MUCH to be desired when it comes to fully and unequivocally condemning slavery. Due to this, you might find that me and my black ass are, shockingly, not its biggest fans.

However this fic is a brilliant look into elves’ oppression and enslavement AND their culture and agency.

This fic focuses on the death of Hepzibah Smith and the conditions surrounding and leading up to it. Specifically the subjugation of Elves and how that system encourages the idea of them as docile, unintelligent, and submissive (And how this perception can be wielded against the wizards that enslave them).

What I find so striking about this fic is how language is centered as a tool to illustrate the functions of colonial mindsets. I think this does a fantastic job at subverting the trope of “improper English = stupidity” that HP uses so frequently.

This was an extremely satisfying and moving read!

Favorite quotes:

“Come quickly and stop faffing,’ Mes Ebhsebbá says to Eokhí. She is clicking her fingers at Eokhí, like there is magic in her fingers. There is magic in Eokhí’s fingers. She is able to make the whole house fall to the ground if she is wanting to.”

“They is not knowing that we is knowing how to take the lives we is wanting from them. And that is why they is not thinking about how many weapons they is putting in kitchens.”

The Seven names of Mrs Zabini - @artemisia-black

And if I said that she did nothing wrong then what?

I’ve mentioned this fic several times before but I don’t think I’ll ever be over it. The way this is written is actually masterful; the attention to details, the poetic language, the characterization. I’m going to scream.

There is just something about this fic that entrances me. This is actually my favorite genre of story, the “good for her!” category, and whenever I read/watch these I go temporarily insane.

Because this is in first person we’re really getting into Mrs. Zabini’s mindset and the traumas that inform it, and this is extremely effective/convincing in making you stay on her side even while she is committing cold blooded murder.

Another thing I love about this is how the actual murders are so casually placed in the story, in comparison with how rich the rest of the imagery that Mrs. Zabini is describing. It’s almost like an afterthought. It makes her sound so much colder and more calculating than if there was a long depiction of each individual killing, so I thought that was a really brilliant writing choice.

If you love Gone Girl definitely give this a read!

Favorite quotes:

“There is a reason that Venus herself emerges from her half shell as a fully formed woman, blinking naively into existence. This is what men actually desire, a goddess who knows nothing of the world and so is more easily amused by the trinkets he throws at her. A divine being who is blissfully unaware of her own divinity. A being who had no thought but him and who cannot function outside of him.”

“I had gone to my wedding bed expecting a transformative experience where his penis would alchemise me from a girl into a woman. An expectation I had imbibed from a society that exalts the wonder of the male member. Instead, as I lay there shivering with his rotten seed running down my leg, I felt used and disgusted at the man I had been condemned to spend the rest of my life servicing”

“And as I rattled around our isolated country house, I believed him. Hiding myself from mirrors, starving my body in order to obtain the concave stomach and taut thighs that he so desired. But when I corrected one perceived flaw, he would find another. Peppering his insults with crumbs of tenderness that lured and trapped me in reality of his making.”

The Secret in the Heart of the Forest by @myrskytuuli

This one has it all: accidental cannibalism, ancient rituals, Snape sass, feral Lily, elf politics, generational trauma, fairy induced psychosis, and most importantly the Marauders + Sev and Lily + Regulus and Narcissa all teamed up. Oh yeah I’m eating this up

This one is longer than the others so I’m really going to try to make this as brief as I can but this fic is actually insane because it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a hp fic and I think I could talk about it forever.

I was genuinely so giddy reading this. There were so many twists and turns and it remained gripping the whole time. This is a psychedelic fever dream, introspective character study, horror adventure and a beautiful tale of friendship all wrapped in one. I absolutely loved everyone’s characterization here, they’re all so beautifully flawed and you can really understand where they are coming from on a personal level but also on a sociological level, I think the author did a MASTERFUL job at this.

The worldbuilding is INSANELY good (the interlude chapters revolving around each of their mothers made me cry repeatedly. And Elieens chapter is just incredible, I have no words). And the pacing is just excellent, I never felt like any of the growth was forced or unearned.

This storytelling is also amazing, whenever there was a theme or reference brought up before in the story that got tied back in again, my mouth would physically drop because it was so seamless yet so meaningful and impactful.

(Sorry but I just need to talk about characterization for a brief minute because this has some of my favorite characterizations that I’ve ever read of some of these characters:

This is my absolute favorite Lily. Like ever. She feels so real here with her anger and flaws and quirks. She is neither villainized nor deified but a full fleshed out character. I just love her!

This is also my favorite James! James is usually a tough character for me to stay engaged with but this fic does an excellent job at balancing his strengths and flaws while keeping him compelling.

This Snape is PERFECT!!! I actually don’t think I can describe how much I love this depiction, all I can say is if you’re a Snape lover who enjoys him being a lil shit you should read this.

Also Peter is just incredible here, too often is he forgotten but this fic really does him justice.

Ok I’ll stop but just know that I could go on and on about all of these characters)

And seeing these characters who would normally hate each other come together to build meaningful bonds while they grow with their own issues is actually cathartic.

If you are a Marauder and Snape fan this is required reading, I really can’t recommend this enough!

Favorite quotes (there were way too many omg):

“Sirius had been angry for a long time now. Sometimes Sirius wondered if he had been born angry, if his first cry had never truly ended”

“Remus had said nothing after that. He was becoming a champion of saying nothing.”

“‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

‘I won’t forgive what you did to me.’ Severus said back with conviction.

‘Good.’ Sirius said with equal conviction.”

“At this point, Lily had arrived like the loyal shadow she tended to be around Snape, spitting out an angry ‘What the fuck?’”

“Sometimes he burned with the need to yank himself free of Lily and the blade of love hanging between them. To hurt her when she stepped over Severus' abused body like an avenging angel that looked down at him and made him look small, dirty, used and worthless. A worm crawling in the mud.”

Ok that’s all for now! I definitely think you should give all these a read!!

[saintsenara]

Do you think Sirius’s parents were ever physically abusive? I see a lot of different takes in the fandom, and sometimes it reads well, and sometimes it feels like tragedy-piling. In one hand, if they were not physically abusive, it makes Sirius’s break-off somewhat even more impressive - he had everything, but still couldn’t stomach his parent’s political views and life of pretences. In another hand, maybe his parents would do anything to keep their wayward son in line. Whaddya think?

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

unsurprisingly, i've popped the answer to this below the cut, since it comes with a trigger warning for discussion of the emotional and physical abuse of a child.

to start with, the answer to this requires us to be specific about what we understand the term "physically abusive" to mean.

because - yes - i certainly think orion and walburga would have smacked [spanked, for american readers] sirius as a form of punishment.

indeed, i think this inarguable, since sirius was born in 1959.

in britain and ireland, as in many places worldwide, the social acceptability of physically punishing your children by smacking them is something which has shifted massively in the past twenty-or-so years.

[and with good reason! i'm definitely not about to start defending it!]

but the extent of this shift means it's easy to overlook just how normal it used to be. until really quite recently, smacking was considered a "good" way to instil discipline in children, poorly behaved children were considered to be suffering from a lack of physical discipline, and a parent smacking a child in public was unlikely to raise any eyebrows.

indeed, canon - the original editions of the books, at least - reflect the fact that this was a social norm in the nineties. the weasley children - for example - are noted to have been smacked on multiple occasions, and the text isn't treating this as evidence that molly and arthur are cruel or abusive, it's treating it as evidence that they're normal parents.

and so if - as is increasingly the modern norm - one regards any sort of physical discipline as abuse, then yes, i think orion and walburga were physically abusive towards sirius.

but the real question is do i think orion and walburga were abusive by the standards of their own time?

because - of course - smacking being socially acceptable historically doesn't mean that all uses of physical force against a child were. indeed, the reason that smacking is still legal in england and northern ireland [wales, scotland, and the republic of ireland have all got their acts together and banned it] is based in this - smacking was and is considered "reasonable chastisement". that is, it was and is considered to fall below a threshold which would transform it from punishment into abuse.

this threshold is based in intensity - smacking your children is legal if they're not left with marks, a smack which leaves bruises or which breaks the skin meets the threshold for common assault, and is a legal offence - in frequency - sustained or repeated force is more likely to leave injuries which meet the threshold for assault or other offences - in type - punching a child in the face is always assault, if not a greater charge such as actual bodily harm - and in the context of the act and the parent's broader behaviour surrounding it - a parent who smacks a child once as a knee-jerk response to a dangerous situation [the child trying to dash out into oncoming traffic, for example] and then collects themselves and speaks calmly to the child is going to be understood very differently from a parent who smacks a child for an unclear reason, who is ranting and raving, and who exclusively shouts at the child.

the problem with this threshold - which makes some physical punishments acceptable and others unacceptable - is that it's imprecise. children's experiences of being smacked are subjective - some might tolerate the occasional smacking with no adverse mental effects, but this is irrelevant, given that many others will not. outlawing it entirely is good because it removes this imprecision.

when it comes to sirius, then, we have to think about whether orion and walburga would have used physical force against him in a way that crossed whatever threshold existed in the norms of wizarding society between legitimate and unacceptable punishment.

and i think the answer to this is both yes and no.

because i think it's inarguable that sirius was subjected to physical punishments in contexts which were inappropriate.

his dynamic with his family, as he himself tells us, is a classic golden child versus scapegoat one. and so his parents undoubtedly smacked him in response to things he didn't do intentionally - for example, accidentally knocking over a glass and breaking it - or didn't do at all - for example, regulus breaking the glass and claiming it happened because sirius "distracted" him.

if we imagine that wizarding norms - like muggle ones - justify physical punishment when it's "reasonable", then it follows that this idea of reasonableness presupposes that the child is being punished for an intentional and undeniable act of forbidden behaviour. and, therefore, it follows that punishing a child who has not behaved in such a way is unreasonable, and therefore abusive.

connected to this, it's also plausible that sirius was subjected to non-physical punishments - such as being grounded or having his possessions confiscated - in similarly inappropriate contexts. and this again changes the meaning of these punishments - temporarily grounding a child in response to them intentionally doing a specific thing which they know will result in them being grounded is acceptable; grounding them indefinitely and arbitrarily is not.

it's also inarguable that sirius was subjected to non-physical punishments which were excessive within the context of wizarding norms. the way walburga's portrait speaks to him - which he tells us in order of the phoenix reflects the way she spoke to him when she was alive - is something harry finds utterly shocking. and - since we know that harry isn't shocked by shouting alone [molly shouts at her sons, for example, and harry doesn't consider this unacceptable] we can suppose that walburga's language, tone, and level of vitriol is so extreme as to have crossed the threshold between reasonable and unreasonable behaviour, and is, therefore, abusive. while we don't know how orion spoke to him, we have no reason to believe it wasn't similar.

but i don't think that sirius was subjected to physical punishments which were excessive in terms of their violence - rather than inappropriate in terms of their context.

and this is because he's clear that what he hated the most about living with his family was that they didn't deviate from social norms. he hated the mainstream political views they held, he hated that they considered themselves "practically royal" despite not being impressive or special at all, and he hated that regulus became the golden child for adhering to convention and he became the scapegoat for rejecting it.

if he understood himself as someone who had been physically abused, the thing he would hate about his family would be their deviance. he would abhor the fact that they'd transgressed the social norms which governed what was or wasn't "reasonable" in terms of physical punishment and - in doing so - had transgressed the relationship parents are supposed to have with their children.

and i think he would be able to acknowledge this - it's not just something he doesn't bring up in canon because he's not psychologically ready - not only because he has the experience of how james' parents treated both him and their own son to contrast against his parents' behaviour, but because he's able to recognise - without feeling ashamed of or like he was at fault for it, which is very impressive - that he is someone who was emotionally abused.

and this emotional abuse is bad enough.

there is - as you say - something which can get a bit torture-porny about the way sirius' early life is often written as a cycle of unrelenting physical abuse. and the reason this feels so unnecessary is because the experience he describes on the canon page is sufficiently horrible without anything else being added to it. i don't think we need to debate whether him breaking with his family is more impressive if they weren't physically abusive than it would be if they were - or vice versa. there's no hierarchy. abuse is abuse.

it wouldn't matter if orion and walburga had never laid a hand on him. given what we know of their emotional treatment of him, sirius is an abused child. and leaving an abusive situation - regardless of the exact form the abuse takes - is impressive without qualification.

[whoopsiesnodaisies]

your favorite jegulily headcanons plsssss

Yes! An ask! I am thrilled!

Boy oh boy do I have oh so many!!! Here’s 10 from my brain palace!

1. Regulus is both the most dominant and the littlest spoon

2. James pulls pranks on Lily who promptly hexes him each time without fail, he tried to prank Regulus one time and quickly learned his lesson

3. Lily walks out of the room whenever they mention quidditch

4. Harry calls James ‘Dad’, Regulus ‘Father’, and Lily ‘Mum’

5. Regulus has a stick up his ass and we love that for him

6. James is the fun parent, Lily is oh so paranoid, and Regulus is very stern

7. When they’re fighting James only refers to his partners as “Black” and “Evans”

8. James is a very heavy sleeper, Lily and Regulus are insomniacs

9. When they started dating they would have late night picnics in the Astronomy tower

10. Regulus did not realize all three of them were dating until a month into the throuple, he refuses to admit that he didn’t know what was happening but Barty ratted him out

[superfallingstars]

Hello superfallingstars - from one marauders fan to another, care to answer these too? Some will be repeated, but I want to know what you think!

- Which marauder likes a big city, and who prefers the countryside or a small town?

- Who got the most free drinks or pub snacks from Rosmerta?

- Who handled their drink the best?

- Who couldn’t handle their drink?

- Who gave the best romantic advice?

- Who learned the patronus charm first?

- Who swears the most?

- I suppose this excludes James, but we can swap him for Lily: who enjoyed watching Quidditch matches the most?

- Who had the coolest childhood bedroom? (This is very subjective, I know)

- Who’s the most likely to be a good cook?

- Who’s good at fixing things?

- Who was always getting caught and who never got caught?

- Most likely to be a vegetarian

That’s what I got for today! I hope you all don’t think I am a creep. I just like to come up with questions that dig a bit more into the personalities of my favourite characters.

Hi I would love to answer these!

Which marauder likes a big city, and who prefers the countryside or a small town?

I think James and Sirius would both prefer the big city (so much mischief to get into!), Peter would prefer the country (is overwhelmed by the city), and Remus would be somewhere in the middle. Maybe Remus would find the city more enjoyable, but he would feel safer and more at ease in the country (for obvious reasons).

Who got the most free drinks or pub snacks from Rosmerta?

James. For all his faults (of which there were MANY), I think he was probably very charming…

Who handled their drink the best?

I think Sirius. I imagine James could also drink a decent amount, but he would get sillay with it, whereas Sirius would just seem slightly less coordinated. It’s because one of them is drinking for fun and the other one is drinking to cope. Who said that. Speaking of, I think Remus would also partake in some self-destructive substance abuse post-Lily and James death

Who couldn’t handle their drink?

Boring answer but Peter. I think he would be such a lightweight, to the point that everyone thought he was faking it and that he was just trying to seem cool by acting drunker than he actually was, and everyone found it really annoying. And then like an hour into the party he would just fall asleep in the corner (and James and Sirius would write/draw profane things on his face)

Who gave the best romantic advice?

Remus but only by process of elimination. His advice was still not very good.

Who learned the patronus charm first?

I have to go with James… ugh. I think he is such a complicated character (as you may be able to tell from the fact that I write an essay every time he comes up). I have a really hard time reconciling how spoiled and nasty and cruel he was with the near-reverence with which Sirius and Remus speak of him, not to mention the fact that Lily eventually deemed him worthy of marriage, or that he died fighting honorably for the Order... He's a mess of contradictions. But because of all that, I imagine him as someone who was almost delusionally optimistic, with relentless confidence in himself to achieve the impossible (though this confidence was also kind of a cope, since I think his bullying of Snape points to some deep-seated insecurities). It takes an impressive amount of nerve to try to become an animagus at age twelve, and it takes an even more impressive amount of resolve to actually achieve it… Like, James was the type of guy to make impossible promises and then somehow manage to pull them off (at least, until he wasn’t). And I think this inability to be deterred was kind of infectious – deep down, all of the Marauders wanted to believe in themselves as much as James believed in himself (and to be fair, as much as James believed in them!) – and it was this magnetic personality that made him a such a big influence on his friends’ lives, even after his death. All that to say: I think James would be able to pull off the Patronus charm first out of sheer willpower alone

Who swears the most?

Sirius or James, I could go either way here... Sirius being super reserved and barely cursing as a result of his posh upbringing, or Sirius having a huge pottymouth because he’s rebelling against his posh upbringing... I could also see James swearing a lot, because my best explanation for his contradictory combination of awful personality + great politics is that Euphemia and Fleamont were rich old money hippies with overly lax parenting skills, and they would probably let their dearest baby boy curse up a storm at home. But I think the real answer to this question is Snape.

I suppose this excludes James, but we can swap him for Lily: who enjoyed watching Quidditch matches the most?

I think Peter. Though he would also be the most scared during Quidditch matches. Like he would be shrieking and ducking and covering his eyes and Sirius and Remus would be like “dude what’s wrong” and he’d be like “I thought James was gonna fall off his broom!” D: But his joy at Gryffindor winning, his pride in his talented Seeker friend who he looks up to (and let’s be real, likes being associated with), and perhaps most importantly, the feeling that he belongs to something larger than himself, a group of winners – yeah, he'd be into that. (Sidenote, this is why I think Remus wouldn’t really give a shit about Quidditch; he is incapable of seeing himself as someone who “belongs” to a group any larger than his close circle of friends. Not that he would never have moments of House pride, but they would most likely be brief and fleeting.) I could maybe see Sirius being into Quidditch too, if only for the competitive aspect, but I think it’s also possible that he could be rather indifferent about the whole affair. Maybe Sirius enjoyed Quidditch the most only if Gryffindor was beating the pants off of Slytherin (can I say that phrase or is it too similar to, well, you know…?). And Lily was probably just a casual Quidditch enjoyer imo, though I'm sure she enjoyed having an excuse to stare at James for a few hours when Gryffindor was playing.

Who had the coolest childhood bedroom? (This is very subjective, I know)

Honestly I don't think this is subjective at all because it's gotta be James, EASILY. Mommy and Daddy will buy him anything he asks for and they live in a gorgeous old manor. His room would have posters of famous Quidditch players flying nimbly through blue skies, hung up over ornate crimson wallpaper… a plush red and gold carpet over dark, lustrous wood floors… a huge window stretching almost to the tall ceiling, opening up to a lush garden, that he could leap out of on his broom whenever he pleased… oh my god, imagine his bedframe is gold and the headboard is like the three Quidditch hoops?! Yeah it’s James for sure

Who’s the most likely to be a good cook?

Maybe Sirius? Only because he canonically makes breakfast for the kids on Christmas morning? Hey, maybe he was cheffing it up for the Potters as a way to thank them for taking him in, who knows. I also like the idea of Lily being good at baking and bringing homemade cookies back to Hogwarts after every winter break (and of course, bringing some to Snape nearly every day of winter break).

Who’s good at fixing things?

I’m gonna go with Sirius because he’s a motorcycle guy. Idk, I could see him as someone who likes tinkering with things.

Who was always getting caught and who never got caught?

I mean, James was notorious for being a troublemaker, so I think he must have gotten caught a fair amount of times… And I think I have to say that it was Peter who never got caught, if only because it’s rather poetic.

Most likely to be a vegetarian?

I like to imagine Remus as a vegetarian because of my headcanon that one time as a kid he escaped from whatever werewolf containment he was in (I have sooo much more to say about the logistics of Remus’s parents dealing with his lycanthropy but hoo boy that’s another post) and in his excitement unknowingly killed a rabbit, and then he came to in the middle of the woods with blood all over his face and the taste of raw meat in his mouth and now he’s disgusted by meat <3. Though idk if that headcanon actually works because it still has to be true that werewolves don’t kill animals (otherwise that defeats the whole point of becoming animagi!). Idk werewolf lore is kind of fucked anyway (why does lycanthropy make Remus weak and ill but Greyback seems to be doing just fine?), so maybe I can chalk it up to erratic behavior as a result of being cooped up unnaturally, or because he was a baby werewolf so he was maybe just killing stuff out of curiosity, or maybe I don't even need a reason… idk. If this sounds bad just pretend I said James for hippie reasons and he’s always really annoying and pretentious about it

And no omg I do not think you are a creep, in fact I was watching some of my moots get these asks and I was like… sigh… I wonder if someone will send some to me… so thank you lol. Perhaps unsurprisingly I enjoy talking about the Thing I Like, and I am always happy to do so!!! (Even though sometimes it takes me awhile to respond.) And these questions in particular were really fun!

Thank you for the ask!

[hedgehog-troops]

I saw you asking for hc's so here I am hehe

Sirius would befriend all of Hogwarts lesbians, which is why people thought he was straight for so long, and they (mainly Sirius and Marlene) would occasionally act out over the top dramatic breakups that had a really dumb reason behind it (like Sirius stole Marlene's cookie, or that Marlene became friends on Sirius a painting and Sirius had crowned his enemy) and all of their friends would just be so done with them.

James was absolutely oblivious to Remus and Sirius's relationship. Lily and Regulus would get the signs almost immediately (Like they would know that they were going to end up together in 2nd year or something), and then Peter, Dorcas, Marlene, and Mary a bit later (like 4th year or something), but James didn't know for the longest time. Remus would be telling everyone by saying "Me and Sirius are together" and James would think he met in a platonic way. They would kiss, and James would think it was some sort of joke that they kissed (because even though I do NOT ship prongsfoot, they have at least kissed once) and It would get so extreme they would be making their vows at their wedding (That James thought they were doing for financial reasons) and James would stand up and say "Wait, you two like each other? Romantically?" and Lily would just put her head in her hands and Mary would be grumpily sliding galleons to Regulus.

These are kind of long but I hope you liked them <3

WHOLEHEARTEDLY believe that james would either know from the moment their eyes met or hed find out the night of theur wedding when they want to get away to have sex and james is like why would you guys do that🤨 arent you guys just friends🤨 and then hed be like 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 when he finds out.

and in the background is peter getting rich from all the bets which were placed. like EVERYONE would be betting on it and NOBODY would just out right tell him that theyre both dating.

like when jegulus started dating, i can imagine james being incredibly confused like wait so we do all this, we're dating, but pads and moony are just mates. regulus would be rethinking his entire life choices as james would get to the confusion that they're just doing it cz theyre bored.

and he would talk to sirius like pads maybe you shouldnt kiss moony so much because otherwise youll never be able to properly date someoen, i understand you both like jokes but maybe you should steady on so you can find an actual partner. and whej they would try to explain themselves, peter would start gassing james up. like dont you guys understand how you're taling away from each other's potential partner possiblities? how you're sending the wring message across? and james is like, yes, thankyou peter, you get it, with an eye roll.

also peter would 100% gaslight him the moment james got close enough to find out and finally at the end he would be the won whod have won.

i imagine the day after the part regulus woukd organise a party and it would be "the opening of James Potter's eyes"

[loserboyfriendrjl]

Also bored😅, here we go:

What do you hc their clothing style to be like? (Marauders + anyone you have strong opinions about)

What do you think their favorite colors are?

Do you have a prongsfoot anthem? (I think you might have posted about that recently but I cannot find it)

Fashion:

i can’t describe their clothing style, to be honest, so i’ll just put some pictures and hope that those convey it enough 😅

james potter: james is all about being comfortable. he prefers lighter, sporty clothing, usually in the gryffindor colors; he likes to show off his house pride even when not necessary.

modern james era-accurate (ish) james

sirius black: sirius is all about leather and denim. even in modern times, he likes incorporating pieces of older fashion in his wardrobe. he prefers oversized fits and likes layering

modern sirius era-accurate (ish) sirius

remus lupin: remus prefers keeping a classy, gradfather-looking attire. he’s a fan of corduroy and earthy tones. jumpers are a classic for him, but he likes flannel as well

modern remus era-accurate (ish) remus

peter pettigrew: peter, too, is a fan of flannel. however, his wardrobe features more colours, and his style cannot be pinpointed and assigned to just one thing.

modern peter era-accurate (ish) peter

bonus! lily evans: lily evans is a classic of old-school preppy, especially the era-accurate lily. modern lily is a fan of maxi skirts and earthy tones. she will, however, always like scarves

modern lily era-accurate (ish) lily

Favourite colors:

james potter: two very specific shades; one of grey, and one of bright green (i think we all know what i mean when i say that)

sirius black: navy blue and a very specific shade of brown that means a lot for him

remus lupin: brown, but he also likes a dark, washed out blue; think old jeans. also, one certain shade of grey

peter pettigrew: bright, blood red; to him, that is the colour of belonging, of having a place in the world

bonus! lily evans: her favourite colours change, depending on the season and her fashion choices at that moment. however, red and brown are always included

Prongsfoot anthem:

my prongsfoot anthem are always you (depeche mode) and mind over matter (young the giant). however, if someone wants me to, i can make them a playlist!

[thedvilsinthedetails]

What’s fucking funny is when people draw regulus with longer hair or thin people complain about whine about how regulus is supposed to be masculine and blablabla but with Sirius no. I’ve seen people saying how Sirius is the only one allowed with long hair tf

tf??? Who are they? The hair police?

ppl need to calm tf down bc these characters r literally made up.

like THIS is canonical Regulus:

We went from that to Timothee chalamet (or whatever fan cast u have). My point is literally all of it is made up. Ppl need to stop acting like they have any kind of authority. Marauders fandom is an anarchist utopia and they’re tryna act like there’s laws. Like no there’s just us and the dead gay wizards vibing all together

Ppl need to chill icl

Also Sirius and Regulus are inbred brothers so it would make sense for them to look similar (same body type for example)

[sofoulandfairaday]

Actually very curious to hear your thoughts and head canons on Sirius + Walburga + Orion

Under the cut, because it's very long. But I'd love it if you read it all. I hope it succeeds in being eloquent, it's hard to put my thoughts into coherent writing for such a sensitive topic.

I don't think that the majority of this fandom actually understands the subtleties of abuse. Also, too many people weirdly like the idea of abused characters, and emphasize their torments, especially physical ones, as a way of... I don't know, evoking more sympathy for them? This happens all the time with Sirius Black.

@ sofoulandfairaday, was Sirius Black abused in your opinion?

Yes.

But not in the way people think.

I am fascinated with stories that explore generational trauma, the cycles of abuse that get repeated over and over. I think Sirius was abused in the way the Roy kids in Succession are abused, in the way that the people in The Crown are abused. It's not that the people in themselves are abusive it's that the family system is.

This doesn't excuse individual adult responsibility because, at a certain point, it becomes your duty not to pass on your traumas to your children. But traumatized adults raising traumatized children is something much more realistic, to me, than “The Blacks liked torturing their children for fun” (wtf?).

The Blacks were an upper-class family in the 1950s. To put this in perspective, my parents both got physically reprimanded as children (1970s), and my grandparents did too (1950s-1940s). It was just the way things were. It wouldn't have been seen as weird if they had been hit, at the time. Do you know when corporal punishment was abolished in UK schools? 1986. And people say Snape was abusive to his students. Bro, 1986. The world has changed a lot in the last 20/30 years but it's a little unfair, in my opinion, to judge their times entirely through our lenses.

And even in light of this... I don't think the Blacks were that physically violent. Maybe Orion clipped his sons behind the ear when they really misbehaved, or threatened physical punishment, but they most likely never truly hurt their kids. I also don't think they raised their hands like filthy Muggles, so maybe... Stinging Hexes? Going to bed without supper? They definitely did not use the fucking Cruciatus curse on their children. The torture curse. The one that scrambles people's brains if used for too long. Sometimes I think that authors don't put thought behind what they write, or exaggerate for the shock value, which... doesn't really sit right with me, to say the least. I don't really care for character bashing of any character. I don't care for painting Walburga & Orion as Disney villains who hurt their children because... they? like? hurting children?

With this being said, I'm pretty sure they were emotionally abusive, maybe psychologically abusive. Tons of families are like that, even nowadays.

Master always liked his little joke,” said Kreacher, bowing again, and continuing in an undertone, “Master was a nasty ungrateful swine who broke his mother’s heart — ” “My mother didn’t have a heart, Kreacher,” Sirius snapped. “She kept herself alive out of pure spite.” Kreacher bowed again and said, “Whatever Master says,” then muttered furiously, “Master is not fit to wipe slime from his mother’s boots, oh my poor Mistress, what would she say if she saw Kreacher serving him, how she hated him, what a disappointment he was — ”

According to Kreacher, Sirius broke his mother's heart when he left. That might have been a dramatic choice of words (Sirius definitely thinks it is because he replies in kind) but perhaps it wasn't.

The problem with the Blacks' love for their children isn't that it wasn't there, it's that it seems very conditional. I fully believe that for a time, when he was a kid, Sirius was a little prince, a perfect pureblood heir. Given his temperament, he might have been the bad child, always in detention compared to Regulus, who was probably quieter, more shy, more poised. Except. Despite all of this or maybe because of all of this, he was probably the more respected out of the two: more handsome, more charismatic, more outspoken, stronger, quicker. Someone like Bellatrix (and Walburga too, I think) must have respected him much more than his brother, even though they probably said the opposite out loud. Sure, they liked Regulus more, but everyone knew he wasn't the brightest out of the two stars. I think the Blacks respected and praised strength.

Want proof of this? Sirius himself calls Regulus soft and an idiot. How many times do you think he heard that sentence as a child?

For these reasons, it's always been my headcanon that the two brothers grew up resenting each other subtly: Sirius probably envied that his brother was their mama's favourite, the one who was shown more affection, despite being not as bright as him, not as good. But children are petty and have very strong senses of pride. In stressful environments they latch onto the identities they create for themselves: if Sirius painted himself, in the family dynamics, as the strong one, the one who doesn't care, the one who rejects even his parents' rare moments of affection, he will most likely never be the one to go to them to beg for their love, or kisses or whatever. On the other hand, Regulus was probably babied by their parents, but never truly treated like the heir, like the competent, brilliant one. His mother might have been more tender with him and yelled at him less, but children are perceptive.

Also, Grimmauld Place has all the characteristics of the Haunted Hause trope, horror film style (which I cannot get into here lest this becomes a dissertation), but generational trauma likely permeates those walls. Merely being back in the house is enough to trigger Sirius' depression.

Sirius is my pride, but Regulus is my joy sort of dynamic for the Blacks and their parents, me thinks.

They love each other but are also constantly pitted against each other. They fight for their parents' love. They think the other had it easier.

Then, Sirius is sorted into Gryffindor. Now, he's already fighting back against his parents now (he's almost 12, the perfect age), but it's always been a little headcanon of mine that Sirius doesn't know how much this will damage him until it happens. We see, again and again and again, in-universe, how much stress the Sorting put kids through - what if I'm not in this house my parents were sorted into? From the way he appears in Snape's memories on the Hogwarts Express, I think Sirius must have thought it hilarious if he was sorted into Gryffindor, the first Black ever to be one. Truly a most rebellious act. This lasted about... seven seconds?

The next day, Walburga sends a Howler and she's the most displeased Sirius has ever heard her, this is not a joke, Sirius, how dare you? You are such a disappointment etc.

Disappointment. The family disappointment.

This becomes Sirius' new persona. The more he leans into it, the more his mother doubles down. Headcanon n°2: they have the same personality, Walburga and Sirius; Regulus takes after Orion.

Golden-child/scapegoat dynamic ensues, worse than ever. This is the abuse I was referring to: no matter how brilliant, how high his grades, how good Sirius is, it'll never be enough. He's the foil to Regulus - less good in school, less brilliant, less popular, less... So. He fraternizes with Mudbloods and werewolves and dissenters of our Lord and Saviour Voldemort, which is a disgrace. He comes back from his first year saying Muggleborn instead of Mudblood, puts up semi-naked Muggle girl posters in his room with a permanent sticking charm - every time Walburga is in there her stomach flips in disgust. He buys himself a Muggle motorbike.

He can never bring himself to tell his parents that he wants their love and approval and they think he wants everything but. Not just that, they think he's actively trying to drive them to an early grave with all of that rebelling.

This, by the way, puts an enormous amount of stress on Regulus. Now he has to step up, wants to step up, to prove himself as finally better, but also he doesn't want to lose his older brother, but also he can never live up to the comparison, but also why do his parents love him now that Sirius is gone, why couldn't they love him better, sooner? This breeds resentment. Desperate to prove himself, he joins the Death Eaters (whose ideas he fully embraced anyway, let's not forget that Reggie was a racist little arse).

Why did Sirius run away?

This fandom makes the MISTAKE of thinking that Sirius ran away because his parents were evil and mean. No. Nu-uh. That's not what happened.

“But… why did you…?” “Leave?” Sirius smiled bitterly and ran his fingers through his long, unkempt hair. “Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal… my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them… that’s him.” Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name Regulus Black. A date of death (some fifteen years previously) followed the date of birth. “He was younger than me,” said Sirius, “and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded.”

Sirius hated his parents and his brother, but he doesn't offer any indication that they were physically violent towards him - sure, they sound like dicks and they definitely created a situation of emotional abuse (why can't you be more like your brother?), which is still very scarring for a child/teenager, but no indication that they ever brutalized him.

I'm not saying this to argue that emotional or psychological abuse (lying, gaslighting, justifying treating your children horribly with oh, but I'm doing it for your own good, etc.) is less damaging than physical abuse. But I think that half the fandom just writes in a few rounds of Cruciatus to get out of writing the hard stuff - the complexities, subtleties, two-way pain of dysfunctional households.

When Sirius ran away from home, Orion and Walburga blasted him off the family tree. That means that he couldn't come back even if he tried to. He had no family any longer. Running away from home is something that a teenager in Sirius' situation and with his personality might conceivably do - and I'm sure it did hurt his family. But his betrayal was followed by their own betrayal.

Also, I want to contrast this with BELLATRIX and the way she speaks of Andromeda (because we all know that she's actually referring to Andromeda in that first quote):

“Cissy, your own sister? You wouldn’t — ” (HBP) “She is no niece of ours, my Lord,” she cried over the outpouring of mirth. “We — Narcissa and I — have never set eyes on our sister since she married the Mudblood. This brat has nothing to do with either of us, nor any beast she marries.” (DH)

and Walburga:

“- comes back from Azkaban ordering Kreacher around, oh, my poor mistress, what would she say if she saw the house now, scum living in it, her treasures thrown out, she swore he was no son of hers and he’s back, they say he’s a murderer too -”

Bella, even after 25 years, still calls Andromeda her sister. Sure, Ted and Dora can rot - nay, she wants to actively kill them -, but Andy is her sister. Walburga declares that Sirius is no son of hers. She cut ties with him just as much as he cut ties with them. He lived with the Potters until Alphard died and miraculously left him gold; he didn't have a Galleon to his name otherwise. This is incredibly hurtful for a child. He was sixteen.

So. Anyways. This is getting rambly, but I hope I got my point across.

As for pure headcanons, that have no actual basis in the text:

All the Blacks are hot, but Orion & Burgie were not the hottest of them. That title goes to Alphard & Lucretia and then Sirius & Bellatrix in the next generation.

Orion is like Regulus in nature, and Walburga is like Sirius. Ice and Fire. On the other hand, physically, Sirius looks like his dad and Reggie looks like his mum. (Which is not to say much because they are second cousins, and the Black genes are strong lol)

(By the way, they are second cousins guys, not first cousins, not brother and sister!)

Orion wears exclusively shades of black and grey.

He's a quiet man, likes to read, despises noise.

A heavy drinker since he was young, it became a coping mechanism after Sirius' turbulent teenage years, almost drank himself to death when Regulus died. That's not what got him in the end, but it could have very well been.

Walburga always had a temper on her, could scream like a banshee, but she wasn't insane until one son abandoned her for the lowliest of scum and she lost her youngest boy and her husband in the span of six? three? months.

Austere. I can imagine her with her hair pinned up, high necklines... always very proper, with a severe type of beauty. I really like that aesthetic for her.

Crack: Definitely involved in the infamous Love Triangle of '43 when Tom Riddle tried to ask her out (to get access to the Black Family library's Dark Arts books) and she rejected him (not my headcanon btw, I remember reading it on here but I can't remember who came up with it rn - if anyone knows, I'll give credit!). Guess who was smitten with him? Alphard. Chaos of the kind you're thinking ensues.

Theirs was a semi-arranged marriage (there were wink-wink, nudge-nudges from other members of the family and the two of them decided it would be advantageous). I don't think they loved each other but they had a good partnership, gave the House of Black two heirs. (lol, see how that turned out)

Walburga had pregnancy issues, which I headcanon for every single woman of the House of Black, except the only one who was-maybe-sorta-kinda relying on them: Andromeda.

That's all, folks!

(I think.)