#Colin getting scammed once more

[lovelyo]

Live in Reality: You Would Not Want a Friend Like Penelope

I can’t with people talking bout Cressida is meaner than Penelope or that Cressida is a bully and Eloise is a bad person for befriending Cressida. The difference is Cressida is upfront with her mean girl attitude. She isn’t two-faced and would let you know upfront that she doesn’t fuck with you, totally opposite from Penelope who would write the muddiest of shit about you behind your back and feel absolutely no remorse, while on top of that gaslighting into believing she’s the victim.

Unless you’re a masochist, who would want a friend who smiles in your face but has secretly been resenting you and your family for years, has been tricking and lying to you for years; the friend has been disrespecting your family behind your back, gaslights you, is jealous of you every waking moment, always singing the same “woe is me, life is unfair” song to you but accuses you of being a bad friend, betrays your trust, thinking that hurting you even is a viable option, throws you under the bus to save their own neck and tries to manipulate it as they were trying to “help” or “save” you.

Anyone with a well-adjusted mind who has a friend or who sees a love one have a friend such as that will immediately take the action of cutting them off, despite any history, despite the memories, we would clearly think that a friend as toxic as that is not a good friend or rather a good person to be around.

So why does the individual who has been dealt with such a friend has to apologize or accept the toxic’s friend past and current bullshit. Does it make sense that that individual who has been treated like that by the toxic friend apologize to the toxic friend?

That’s y’all’ logic when it comes to Eloise and Penelope.

When you holler your chewbacca war cry in defense of Penelope, you are rooting for that toxic friend I have explained earlier knowing damn well that if someone like that was in your life or in the life of someone you deeply care for, you would NOT be associating with them or advise others not to.

But Eloise mustn’t be upset and must accept Pen’s hollow apology despite all the things that she has objectively done because…🤷🏾‍♂️ we’re not allowed to be mad at the plus size character cause she’s plus size, that’s the reason people are mainly giving me.

Who cares about size? A toxic person is A TOXIC PERSON: short, tall, small, curvy, a person’s character isn’t defined or should be given a free pass because of their appearance. That’s what you guys are doing with Penelope and it’s insane dawg ����. You can’t attack people for focusing on her size when YOU FOCUS ON IT! I hope people noticed that, Penelope defenders always bringing up fatphobia and the girl’s size while the Pen critics don’t mention are size at all.

P.S. Given from the spoilers, Pen apologizes to Eloise about the betrayal and being LW but goes back to the same schtick, talking shit bout her brother so ask yourself how genuine she really was

P.S.S Even Colin thinks what LW did was wicked and unnecessary, especially since in season 2 he said if Marina had told him bout the pregnancy, he would’ve still went with the marriage. Plus his sister got dunked on….but hooray for Penelope getting a HEA and being a part of a family she disparages.

[rainybraindays]

The conversation about Portia is once again making me rip my hair out.

"She loves her daughters! Shes just practical!"

"She tries to understand them more than violet does!"

"Shes so ooc during the end of ep 2 why wouldn't she whould be ecstatic Penelopes finally looking for suitors."

None of you have payed attention to this character in s1 and 2 huh? She is not a good mother or guardian, she's not someone you're meant to biew as a good person.

From her fist scene in s1 we see her, shes showing abusive tendencies. Having Prudences corset laced so tight she can't breath, the other girls are standing away watching in horror, Penelope even comments on it. Portias waves it off, saying at her age she had hers laved until her waist was the size of "an orange and half".

Prudence is also generally the one Portia is the worst to. She views her as stupid, a d seemingly resents her for not having been the heir she as meant to be. When she pits the girls against each other its always pitting Prudence against them.

"Do you want to be like Penelope and have no suitors?" She asks while trying to manipulate her into marrying Jack. Ignoring the fact that like her younger sister shes also had no prospects.

"Don't you want to beat Phillipa in getting the estate?" She says when Prudence expresses her discomfort about sex.

She never goes to one of the other girls and says something of the same ilk, its always Prudence who is being forced to see her younger sisters as competition. To the point where Phillipa the younger of the two is given the bigger room while Prudence is kept in a smaller one, and Prudences debut it pushed back until Penelope is old enough to as well making her 21 when she comes out. Which is absolutely detrimental to her chances when you can be considered a spinster as young as 24.

She's also so fucking reckless with her reputation. She has her caught alone with Jack, claims scandle, and holds very little care for how that makes Prudence look. All because she wants to have control over the estate and she knows she can get Prudence to do as she pleases because this girl is desperate for her mother's love. While also considering being his mistress as if that wouldn't get out.

And thats just one daughter. Lets talk about Phillipa who she let go into a marriage knowing nothing about sex? Like say what you will aout Violets sex ed but at least she tried whereas Portia fully allowed Phillipa to go in blind. If she had a husband less kind than the one she has that could have been a horrifically traumatizing experience for her.

Phillipa is arguably the favorite just because was able to snag a husband so fast, but shes also ignored. Portias favoritism is not paying really any attention to this daughter, and the attention she does pay is to not so subtly jab at her for being stupid.

Then we have Penelope who oh my god this woman doesn't care about?? In s1 we see her try and get Prudence and Phillipa suitors but never Pen. She introduces them to the duke abandoning Penelope who they had literally been standing with. When the drawing room is full for Marina she urges the men to talk to the girls, even if just in passing as they leave, and tacks Pen on as an afterthought. S2 she barely acknowledges Penelopes existence far more concerned with trapping Jack and scamming people. The two interactions between them of any worth is her irritation at th fact that Jack and Pen seem to be getting along, and mocking her for daring to think Colin considers her a friend.

If Portia paid any attention to her youngest she would have been at least somewhat aware of the meetings between her and Colin, but instead at the age of 19, younger than Prudence was during her debut, shes given up on her. Though really is it giving up if you never believed in them in the first place? In ep 1 shes already saying how pleased she is Penelope will always be there to take care of her. When she yells at and berates Penelope for thinking she could get married its entirely because shes being entirely honest. She doesn't think Pen is good enough for marriage, she can't imagine anyone wanting the daughter she barely wants. Her comforting her is only because, for the first time we see Pen break in front of her.

It makes Portia feel the tiniest bit guilty. Because Penelope is usually able to hold her feelings in whn Portia attacks her like this, even in s2 when Portia tells her Colins not her friend she gets frustrated but she doesn't cry like she does in s3. Her "comfort" is telling her shes better off without a man which actively goes against everything Portia preaches to her girls.

Its not genuine.

Even when it comes to Debling and his proposal, she cares less for Pens happiness- and Penelope is clearly not happy she looks so distressed the entire time- and more about the influence she gains from having her daughter marry up. When Debling leaves with proposing, she immediately puts the fault at Penelope because she can't imagine anyway its not her fault. And lets be honest shes not upset Penelopes not going with the "practical" option shes upset Penelopes not helping her gain greater influence.

Theres also ALL the shit with Marina, forging a letter, the slapping her, trying to force a man old enough to be her grandfather on her, that entire situation is entirely crafted by Portia.

She is not a good mother, shes not a good person. Portia is abusive, shes both controlling and neglectful, her daughters only matter in how much she can mold them to be like her and what they gain her through their marriages. Her being mean to Penelope isn't ooc.

The "I am a mother" speech was never about how much she cares about her girls, if it was the focus wouldn't be on how good of a mom she is and how caring and kind she is, it would be focused on her actual love of her daughters. Just because a character says they're good doesn't make them good.

[eva-knits12]

Fluff, and a little rant.

I think with everything going on right now, we could all use fluff right now. I'm thinking of doin g Andy Barber, Colin Shea, or Ransom Drysdale. Please let me know. I think everyone is just exhausted and pissed off with recent events. Please leave your answer in the comment section, or send me an ask.

Like I said, no publicist in their right mind would let anything get this far without putting a stop to it, but here we are. Why? All because another party wants some attention because thar party wants attention any way they can it. For her, she had used another person to get it, and Chris blindly went along with it from day one. His good standing in Hollywood is getting more tarnished by the hour, and I think he may be blacklisted because of all this. Megan and Chris were too lazy to stop this.

She's a Nazi, racist, narcissist, porn troll, IG stripper, prostitute, escort who's Hollywood career is over well before it began.

I think this wiki war and tag war will be over in the next few weeks once it's discovered that this is BS. I hope a statement is released saying that all this is false, and his publicist and him let this slide, and a retraction needs to happen. His team removed the wiki blurb once, and the tags referring to her and this "marriage" several times already in as many days. His team is just trying to do their jobs while trying to erase this. To me, the fact that the wiki was edited once, and that the tags were removed once told me that this is BS. Right now, I think they're carefully planning how to do this without having it blow up again.

Megan needed to be fired from day one when this started happening. Several dog videos of Chris and dogs won't cut it. I would love to see a statement saying, "I let fans down. I got into something that I was trying my hardest to get out of. I messed up, and I know better now." I know Chris and Meg let a lot of things slide here.

Chris is human, just like us. We mess up, we make mistakes, we get into scams because we're in a bad place or are having a bad day, we get involved with bad people. Do people learn and move on? Yes. Will Chris move on after all is said and done.? Yes. I think Jinx is going to be okay. ASP may be dark for a while while this gets straightened out, or it may shut down.

Everything is up in the air right now, so let's just give everything the time it needs right now.

I'm going to stop, because she who shall not be named makes me exhausted and physically ill when I see her name. I'm not feeling good today due to sinus issues that are giving me a headache right now.

[silverhallow]

I've been watching Kaleidoscope on Netflix and it's made me think more about the Bridgerton 11 AU...

The Bridgerton's are a well respected and well known family and no one suspects their criminal(ish) behaviour.

they don't ever do anything unless it is for a good cause... Robin Hood Esque... righting wrongs so to speak, the wrongs that the justice system aren't able to right...

Anthony being the planner, he's the one who organises everything but he's not the one who gets the jobs... he is also a Lawyer in his own right, like his father was before him.

Simon is the money man and fence. he comes into the family organisation much to Anthony's unhappiness when he gets involved with Daphne... and she can't help but let him in. He is an accountant in his normal life

Kate is a bit of muscle and the main brains behind everything (think Rusty in Ocean's 11) like Anthony she is a Lawyer and she's only involved after she hired the group to help sort out an issue with her step-mother's family who were hiding their inheritance and after arguing with Anthony they end up together...

Daphne is the fence and source of things, she's got a knack of befriending people and getting information from some people, she's able to meddle her way into situations and get information. she gets involved less once she starts having babies and is a "stay at home mum" and she's the one who sets up the adverts and monitors for the requests for help

Benedict artist/forger/master thief/Scout... he is able to make almost perfect recreations of art work, even down to the strokes of the brushes so any insurance and curator wouldn't be able to tell the difference... its a skill he learned from his Grandmother. he is a photographer and artist in his own right.

Eloise hacker... she gets information from places that Anthony doesn't want to know about. she's able to get through firewalls' and is a tech genius... until Hyacinth outshines her and locks her out of her own computers at the age of 16 and Eloise finally relents and agrees that Hyacinth's skills out shine hers but Eloise is still a better information source from people and she's GREAT at creating a diversion and a fast driver...

Fran Fran is the least criminally minded of the family but like Daphne she has people skills, she's able to blend into a background or simper and smile her way into getting information... she is a great fence as she's got a contact in India... She is able to blend in and often changes her appearance to help the family out on jobs...

Colin works as a fence, he gets goods in and out of the country on his travels, he is the person who goes to the meets to do the exchanges and on the occasions they have to negotiate, he is often sent in due to his charm, though after he gets scammed himself, they stop asking him to do the negations so much... Colin is learning to be a bit more of a thief, picking locks and the likes (think Matt Damon's character Linus... he wants to do more and is eager but often makes a mess of it)

Greg mechanics expert, he loves building things as a kid so tinkering with cars and making electronics becomes second nature...

Hyacinth becomes a tech expert and lets be honest... the explosives expert. she can make controlled ones that leave no trace and ones that cause diversions... she scares Anthony a little with her abilities...

Sophie after the team help her out with the Silver Swans painting... and she starts going out with Benedict she becomes part of the team, she has the ability to change her appearance like Fran and become a face in the crowd, her life as a "maid" allows her to be blend in but because she so little and light, and has a gymnastic background, she's their acrobat and grease woman... she can crawl through the smallest of spaces...

VIOLET: Is basically like M. she oversees it all, she ensures that there is a good cover for her children and in-laws when they are working jobs and because of her connections (i.e the Rokesby's) they are never suspected or caught...

[petalsmooth]

I can't watch awkward well. Nicola plays it well, but I have to mute the missteps in flirting. I don't self insert on many things but I feel those types of moments too strongly.

Now awkward cute/angst against willow tree is fine

Oh and Eloise? Pen doesn't make things up and you know it. Back to my hatred of her in part 1 with Cressida. DO NOT put those two together again Bridgerton. Even if you do redeem her in future, they have NO chemistry as friends only adversaries.

Going to be honest...I don't mind Pen in green but I am not in love with this dress. When they unveiled in the trailer I thought for sure not THE dress ala Daphne in white but apparently it was. She just wore much better gowns later on, just didn't like the design on this one although I do grant in certain light almost deceptively revealing so maybe that's why they liked it.

So I am just going to say it. I don't know when Colin fell in love with Pen because the show simply says he may have had feelings for her for quite some time just didn't recognize them for what they were but I absolutely will say he was in love with her at time he made those comments on her family's ball. Completely oblivious to it and drunk and trying to fit in with the "boys" when he said but the way he checked her out that line and took it so personally about Jack Featherington scamming them? Then the way he is upset about her not writing him to point changes his whole personality? Then on getting home tests drives it out on everyone before attempting to approach her? The way he is devastated when he realizes she heard the comments and is not impressed by his act and comes up with a desperate plan to convince her to spend time with him again?

Personally I think he fell in love with her between season 1 and 2 because it's the only way I can explain his look at her when arrives home. I think he had started having feelings before then, small embers but I'm convinced he fell in love through her letters. That he still carries those letters with him everywhere and very obviously read more than once? This isn't platonic. He brought those letters with him the second trip. He couldn't have known she wouldn't write him back on that trip at the time he did that.

[faiseuse-d-histoires]

In fact what is more to him? We see a mama's boy, that had been so indulged he does his things without consulting anyone. He declares his intention to marry not once, but twice without talking about it to anyone. He uses his family's money for his travels, for scams he gets caught in. He is even so sure of himself that he is ready to get money from Benedict under false pretense. There is also this speech to Cressida, that clearly shows not only is he unaware of how abusive some families are (or maybe only Penelope's mother seems abusive to him?), but he also takes very much his family for granted.

He supposedly is the most sensitive, the one to forget himself, and yet his behavior seems more like that of a golden child that just does what he wants. He is not the outcast.

Even Portia considers him a pigeon, says he has "infinite amount of money" (well, his family has... not him who has done nothing for it)

Even his writing is only seen through Penelope's gaze, and it is clearly said she worked to correct it, so one might question the quality of it. Poor Colin can't seem to be able to do anything by himself... even with the women he laid with, who seemed to do all the work.

Even though Anthony frustrated me throughout season one and kept making mistakes in season two, when all was said and done I felt like I understood him and his character really well. I thought we were headed towards that with Colin after the end of season two, but after watching I don't really feel like I know Colin.

He likes to help people and he's a sucker for a damsel in distress, but why? Did Violet's depression after having Hyacinth make him feel helpless? What was his relationship with Edmund like? Why does he like traveling so much? I shouldn't be left wondering about all this. I'll admit that treating the male lead like a prize for the female lead is subversive, but it's a little sad that Colin doesn't really matter outside of what he means for Penelope's happiness.

[viscountess-sharma]

You’ve probably answered this but what did you think of season 2? Highs and lows? Would love to know your view!

I'm starting from the lows,,,

I didn't like the lady Whistledown plot. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse she ruined Eloise.

The featheringtons plot was somewhat interesting at the beginning but it was very boring after half way.

Colin was once again scammed by the featheringtons and I'm glad he got back to his senses in the end.

I liked the queen this season, especially after how she saved kathony and blackmailed everyone lol.

Eloise and Theo are my loves. I was so invested in their plot. I'd like to see more of them.

Benedict was such a delight to watch. I'm glad he got more screen time. I loved that they made him Anthony's wingman. Also the way how they ended things with him would be a great start for his own season next.

Lady D and Kate's dynamics is one of my faves.

Apart from kathony my other favourite this season is Violet. She had really amazing scenes with Anthony. The scenes with the two of them are so powerful and very emotional. Loved how she was always there for him when he needed her the most (in 1814).

All the family scenes with the Bridgertons are just chefs kiss. Daphne though she had less screentime her scenes had huge impact.

I just loved kate and Edwina. Their dynamics is the best. I'm glad we got to see "the kathony shipper" Edwina during the last episode. I'm hoping she'd return for next season.

I Loved every second when kathony's on the screen either together or individually. Their chemistry is top tier. I wish they got more screentime. I'm really glad that they didn't rush in the end and give them a baby. Now they'd have a lot to explore next season. Domestic Kathony, Pregnant Kate, Anthony being a mother hen, baby Ed, I'd like to see them all next season!

To me season 2 is perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything more!!!

[chuwannism]

I just finished season 2 of Bridgerton and I have many a thought. I don't know if I can put them eloquently into words, but I will try.

Spoilers below

I knew from bee scene that this season was not going to live up to my expectations. Now, I was prepared for me having set my hopes too high for Kateanthony, but I wasn't prepared to be this disappointed. But even as I watched the bee scene I thought, "No, there is still time to save this.". I was wrong. Once Anthony proposed to Edwina at the end on episode 4 I felt the walls around my slowly dwindling hopes come falling down.

I am also extremely upset that Kate's trauma regarding her mother's death was just written out of the plot in that way. And not that it was worth anything, because Anthony's belief that he would die young like his father wasn't even mentioned when it was such a big part of why he acted the way he did in the book.

And don't get me started on Colin nearly being scammed twice in two season, effectively making him a person who would fall for a pyramid scheme.

I understand that the show couldn't do everything by the book, but was there even anything resembling the original plot? Penelope harming her best friend's reputation only for Eloise to later find out she was Lady W. The Sharmas living with Lady Danbury instead of their own rented house.

Not to say that there weren't parts I enjoyed, because there were. I loved the scenes Kate and Anthony shared. I'm just really sad that they were too little, too late to actually make the season Kateanthony enough for me. This season got lost in the plot of all the side characters and forgot that the main storyline should have been developed more instead of making Anthony spend over half of the episodes courting the wrong sister.

Maybe once I sleep on it I'll be able to see it in a better light but for now I'm too angry.

[killian-whump]

What's the whole NFT thing about? I am very confused. ❤

Okay. So. NFTs are a tech fad going around these days that some people claim is the "future of investing" or whatever and other people say is one giant crypto pyramid scheme of failure.

Obviously, I'm in the second group. Honestly, most people are either in that group or in the even more popular "I don't know - or care - what NFTs are, but folks seem pressed about them" group.

At any rate, people who are into NFTs tend to get REALLY into them. Like downright cultish levels of involvement. And a lot of their groups and communities and events end up sounding like cult shit, too. Like this snippet about the recent "Fireside Chat" the head Sync Report guy did the other day:

Like, TELL me that doesn't sound like a Scientology event, complete with "levels" and being open to others' (ie THEIR) views and private meetings after the meeting so you can meeting forever.

And remember: when they say "crypto" and "NFT" and "block-chain" and all of these other nifty trendy buzz words they're really talking about INVESTING and FINANCES and YOUR MONEY. This isn't a New Kids on the Block fan meeting. This is a meeting to try to encourage new people to join the "NFT Revolution" and eventually invest their money in the network.

A network that bears a striking resemblance to a pyramid scheme, in that the more people who join in the lower rungs and put their money into the pot, the more money the people on the higher rungs will make. These kinds of schemes work, but ONLY for the people on the highest rungs. The middle rungs break even, and the lower rungs... Well, they lose money. Sometimes lots of money. The trick is to not BE the bottom rung. In order to do that, everyone tries to get NEW people in on the scheme - those new people will form new lower rungs, thus raising the other rungs into the profit zone. It’s a never-ending hot potato game of “you risk your money so my money is safe”  and it turns every investor into a financial predator.

NFTs are also TERRIBLE for the environment. The whole cryptocurrency network (or whatever they call it; I don't care enough to keep up with their "lingo") runs on a metric shit-ton of computers running 24/7 to keep up with all the transactions and to generate more bits and bytes and currency and all that bullshit. Each and every time an NFT is bought/sold, the transaction uses the same amount of energy as a single family home uses in a month. Or the same as nine average US households use in one day. I've seen both figures used. Doesn't matter which you prefer. They're both terrible.

So while the rest of us sit here trying to measure how much carbon is in a cow fart and if that cheeseburger we just ate significantly contributed to global warming... NFT bros are just pissing energy into the wind and laughing about the windfall that will come their way once the plebians of the world join their network and fund their global pyramid scheme.

And as an added bonus, since digital art seems to be the favored medium of NFT brokers, the art scene has fallen prey to VAST amounts of art theft as brokers look for quality products to "sell" to new investors. The problem is that legitimate artists tend to want nothing to do with this shit. So the art being sold is either piss-poor... or it's stolen from talented artists who never gave permission for their art to be used to literally scam other people out of their money.

So now we come to Colin and his involvement in all of this.

A few weeks back, Colin started retweeting his brothers' NFT tweets and soon after, The Sync Report announced that they'd be coming out with some NFTs of the hosts' animated avatars, starting with Colin. These things kind of rankled some of Colin's fans - namely, the ones who know what NFTs are and don't like seeing their favorite guy get involved with them. Still, the involvement seemed incidental enough that those fans either quietly left or chose to politely look the other way and wait for it to pass.

Now we come to the other day, and the "Fireside Chat" I mentioned (and quoted from) above with Jason, the guy behind The Sync Report. This "chat" with a cryptocurrency community makes it clear that NO, this is NOT an incidental thing that will blow over. They're not going to sell a couple NFTs and move on. The Sync Report and its "metaverse" are going to continue down this "innovative" avenue and keep looking for fans to invest in cryptocurrency as a means of interacting with the show - and its hosts.

Mind you, this is all fine - in that the show is free to do whatever they like, and Colin is free to associate himself with whatever programs he likes and to use his fame to bring attention or legitimacy to whatever hare-brained schemes he wants to.

But his recent post about the Fireside Chat crossed a line that some of his fans are not comfortable with. In that tweet he said:

"Wanna know what I’ve been working on? Join Jason tonight for a fireside chat."

The VAST majority of Colin's fans, on Twitter and elsewhere, are following him and his social media accounts for news and updates on HIS ACTING CAREER. That is what people are interested in and he (and others) know this. When he says, "Wanna know what I've been working on?" it implies there's going to be news and talk about HIS career and HIS acting - NOT that it's going to be a cryptocurrency chat with a group focused on NFTs and cryptocurrency.

By making that post in that way, Colin literally presented a bait and switch to his fans. He knowingly lured HIS fans, fans of HIS ACTING CAREER, to attend a cryptocurrency meeting intended for those "keen on learning more" about NFTs and crypto investing.

THIS IS NOT OKAY. IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

A couple of fans spoke up. Some fans liked those comments (they're the most-liked comments on the post). Still more fans decided to simply steer clear of the entire situation - and Colin himself - until it all blows over. Some even went so far as to unfollow Colin on social media. I, myself, unfollowed The Sync Report and will no longer interact at all with any of Colin's further tweets on it (nor any future tweets involving NFTs or cryptocurrency in any way). And if he EVER attempts to lure unsuspecting fans into cryptochats or any other bullshit nonsense again... I'M GONE.

And I will damn well let him know that and tell him WHY.

I honestly cannot express fully the height and depth of my anger and disappointment in Colin right now. Again, it's not the NFTs, it's not the cryptobullshit... It's the willful use of his fame to lure his own fans into attending a cryptocurrency pow-wow that had little/nothing to do with his acting career at all. It's certainly not something I would've ever expected him to do, and it really upsets me that I seem to have mis-judged the kind of person he is. I honestly don't know where to go from here as a fan.

[secondgenerationnerd]

Queen Fox, Kathaya, and Omega squad: What was the weirdest/most awkward mission you’ve been on with your S/O, and what was the most fun mission?

Sorry this took so long. i had some writers block. answering generally for all the couples!

SuperStar:

Most Awkward/Weirdest-- These two have had to dive headfirst into an alien to destroy it, ending with them both covered in a thick layer of goo that would not wash away. Having to strip down to you underwear to be powerwashed next to your SO is awkward

Most Fun-- Going undercover at an alien bar. Legally the bar doesn’t exist so they were able to drink and all. Jon had a lot of fun watching Mar’i scam different aliens playing pool and drinking whiskey.

Kathaya:

Most Awkward/Weirdest-- There was a mission that Kathy ended up having to do alone because it required an alien. It was weird because all epsilon, including Maya, forgot Kathy’s not from earth. She’s just so...human. It was the first time they all understood what she meant when she said, “Bless your hearts.”

Most Fun-- They had a mission in Paris at some point, which didn’t go as long as they thought it would. Once it was over, Maya and Kathy explored the city.

Speeddemon:

Most Awkward/Weirdest-- more weird after the fact: them going undercover at the Lyons party (aka them pretending to be a couple while secretly dating.)

Most Fun-- Lyons party. Since they weren’t out as a couple, it was a lot of fun for them to play that part right in front of the others.

Queen Fox:

Small edit for these two as Tiffany doesn’t go in the field

Most Awkward/Weirdest-- They have flirted on the coms multiple times, which is just awkward for everyone else, especially when the flirts get reeeeeaaaal nerdy

Most Fun--First mission when Connor used the arrows they designed together. They were causing chaos and loved it

Speeding Arrow:

Most Awkward/Weirdest-- I think they passed that a long time ago. It’s probably just weird when they fight her mom because...that’s (hopefully) Jai’s future mother in law?

Most Fun-- (with the recent cc I posted with Lian) them going undercover with Lian as an up and coming crime boss ft. Jai as her bodyguard. Playing darker parts of themselves was a lot more fun than they should admit.

Colin X Milagro:

Most Awkward/Weirdest-- They’ve gone on a mission with Jaime and Bart before. The mission required them to camp for the night and Mil was getting really tired of Jaime’s “Protective big brother” act

Most Fun-- The undercover mission where Mil got to punch Sinestro in the nose. She had been holding back and Colin was thrilled to see her knock him down.

[leverage-ot3]

notable moments from The Two Live Crew Job

leverage 2.07

Sophie: I love the symbolists.

- - - - -

🥰 I love when the ot3 are together in one frame 🥰

- - - - -

the dogs playing poker painting tho

- - - - -

Eliot: Any sudden movement's gonna cause displacement of the water. It'll set it off.

Parker: Is that C-4?

Sophie: Oh!

(Nate grabs Parker’s hand before she can touch the vase)

Sophie: Parker... please don't poke at the motion-sensitive bomb.

Nate: So, uh... secret admirer?

Sophie: Well, it's no secret they want me dead.

Hardison: What do you think, man?

Eliot: I'd have to reach into the vase to disarm it. It'd go off.

eliot’s lips quivered when he said that bc he’s so nervous for her im-

- - - - -

Parker: Do you have any instant pudding?

(everyone looks at Parker in surprise. Cut to Parker pouring pudding into the vase)

Parker: The powder hardens the liquid, tricks the bomb into thinking it's not moving.

Eliot: Should give you a little wiggle room. Very little

MASTERMIND PARKER

- - - - -

(mourners are gathered around a casket with a line of black cars parked nearby. An open casket shows Sophie lying inside. Eliot is standing at a podium)

Eliot: She had a way of taking care of people, you know? She was a sister... she was best friend, all rolled into one. I'm gonna miss you, Soph-- So-O-O-O-O much, Katherine.

(Eliot leaves the podium. Hardison stands to let Parker walk by and she approaches the podium. Nate stands at the back of the crowd, Eliot joins him)

Parker: Katherine and I have known each other forever. Almost two years. Yeah, I know that probably doesn't sound like a lot to you, but it is to me. I never really had many friends. Which is why losing her is so hard. (sighs) It's so creepy. I mean, she's really dead. I was just talking to her and now she's just laying there. She was just laying there.

(Nate coughs and Hardison gets up to go to Parker)

Parker: Can you hear me?

Hardison: Parker. I'm -- I'm sorry. I'm sorry, y'all. What – What she really means is just, um, Katherine was like family. And sometimes, friends are all the family that you have. So... you -- you good? Come on. Just – let -- just keep going. You got all hysterical and emotional

- - - - -

btw there is at least one door from behind the briefing monitors which means they have at least one extra room (most likely more) from the adjacent apartment eliot knocked the wall down from

they have guest rooms or something back there for if anyone needs a place to crash

- - - - -

Sophie: We used to work together. We did the Copenhagen job in '97, the Berlin Polytech job in '98, and, Nate, remember – Remember that great run in Moscow?

Nate: "That great run"? I chased you for three months.

Sophie: Well, uh, technically, y-you chased us. Sorry.

Hardison: Are you saying that you saw other teams before us?

Parker: Really just another Nate before Nate.

Eliot: Let me ask you a question -- what bugs you more, is it the fact that he was with Sophie first or that he outsmarted you?

Nate: Moving on

eliot puts his arms over the couch and behind parker and I’ll take it + them grinning at each other seeing nate’s discomfort

- - - - -

mikel is wearing flannel in this one and you can now take bisexual mikel from my cold, dead hands

- - - - -

Sophie: Wrong place, wrong time. Starke must have seen me, and now that I’m one of the good guys, decided to get rid of me, because...why? Because... Because I know his scams. Because... I know his favorite scam.

[Warehouse]

(Stark’s team is sitting on crates looking at monitors as he goes over the job)

Starke: Cafe and a moonlit terrace.

Sophie (voice over): The Mona Lisa variant.

[Briefing Area]

Parker: Oo! (claps) That was the first one I learned!

- - - - -

(Hardison is drinking orange soda and working on a computer as Sophie watches)

Sophie: I'm not dead. I'm right here, Parker. So, this is, um, it's what you do, right? You take footage of us on cons and you -- you -- you -- download it into that?

Hardison: Yeah, I analyze it, I monitor comms, I scan for a police frequencies, I -- You had no idea I do all this, did you? Well – d-does nobody respect the van? The van is important. What -- What is that?

Sophie: It's lemon-Zest tea. I got to tell you, it's -- It's a little bit -- It's a little bit whiffy in here.

Hardison: It smells like hard work. That's what it smells like. D-- Whiffy

sophie has no idea what hardison does and does not like the van smell. hardison is ready to go off

- - - - -

Sophie: That was some nice things you said at my funeral.

Hardison: Wait. We -- We trust Nate to make sure the plan works. We trust you to make sure we’re all okay.

- - - - -

Starke: Word is on the street that you run the nastiest crew this side of the Atlantic.

Nate: Well… what?

Starke: Come on. Everybody knows. You robbed a bank and you -- you framed a judge. You rigged a jury to steal a million-Dollar settlement. I hear that you even conned the Irish mob out of a couple of million dollars just this year. Now, that's style.

Nate: That's one way of looking at it.

Sophie: Listen, Nate, if you tell him the truth about us, we're blown

- - - - -

Hardison: I know this style. This is Chaos.

(computer screen flashes signal found. Hardison grabs his keyboard and heads for the back door of the van)

[Parking Lot]

(Hardison exits his van and a little ways down the parking lot, Chaos exits his van with a laptop in his hands. They square off like an old west gun fight)

Hardison: Chaos. I heard you were in jail. Guess I was wrong.

Chaos: Hardison. I heard you sucked. Guess I was right.

(they eye each other across the lot, their fingers twitching. Abruptly they raise their keyboard and laptop and begin typing while car alarms start going off)

this wild wild west showdown tho

- - - - -

Nate: Okay, now, we know Starke. This guy goes by the name Apollo. I've chased him a couple of times -- infiltration, physical security.

Parker: People in that line of high-risk work tend to be very unstable. We could use that. Write that down.

(the rest of the team exchange glances)

🥰 she’s sitting next to eliot with popcorn between them 🥰

- - - - -

Hardison: Now, this person here's ex-Mossad, sealed records. Mikel Dayan used to work both sides as a mercenary.

Eliot: Mikel Dayan. I know that name.

Hardison: You were scared to fight a girl.

Eliot: She'd mop the floor with you, Hardison.

Hardison: I don't care.

Eliot: Seriously. She actually killed a guy once with a mop. It's a funny story, actually. (starts gesturing time parker) She broke the mop and took --

Hardison: Eliot. Eliot. (turns back to monitors) Now, this here's Colin Mason, otherwise known by his hacker handle as "Chaos." As... whatever. Hacked the pentagon, the NSA. The CIA computer guys call him the Kobayashi Maru.

Eliot: What the hell is that?

Hardison: None of y'all got that? Seriously?

Parker: Star Trek.

Hardison: Thank you

parker’s reluctant fistbumb I love them + it’s officially canon that she’s seen at least some of the movies

- - - - -

Nate: I tried to say to her I’m sorry, you know, and I don't –

Security: Because, as men, we're taught to hide our emotions. You share or you pay the price.

Nate: Yeah

- - - - -

Mikel: You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?

(Eliot walks forward, taking off his jacket and hanging it on some pipe)

Eliot (in Hebrew): Not unless she hits me first.

(they approach each other and begin to fight, blocking each other until Mikel hits Eliot in the chest, knocking him back. He touches where her blow hit.)

Eliot (in Hebrew): That counts

let me just say I LOVE that they had a woman hitter

- - - - -

Starke: What is going on, guys?

Guard: Motion sensors went off, sir.

Starke: I already checked that out. Everything's secure. And who's this?

Guard: Uh... he just got lost. No problem.

Starke: Sir, you okay?

Nate: Yeah, I’m fine.

Starke: I'm Nathan Ford. I'm with the insurance company.

(Nate gives Starke an irritated look)

- - - - -

Parker: What kind of bird did you use?

Apollo: North American Kestrel. It's small-Bodied, but its wingspan is expansive enough that it sets off the motion detectors.

Parker: I would've gone with the Scarlet Tanager. Similar wingspan, but the brighter colors are more distracting.

Apollo: Yeah. That was my second choice.

(Apollo scrambles forward in the ductwork. Parker also scrambles forward, headed another way)

- - - - -

eliot taking off his shirt too? equal rights

- - - - -

Starke: Now, why would you want to kill Sophie?

Chaos: Come on, Starke. (gathering equipment) I had set up the perfect double-cross, and then you want to go and bring in a new player at the last minute? "Oh, and by the way, guys, that new player is gonna be Sophie Devereaux." There's no way I’m gonna try to out-con Sophie Devereaux! And I hate to break it to you, Starke, but she was the one that everybody was always scared of. It was never you.

- - - - -

[McRory’s Bar]

(Parker and Apollo sit at a table with locks)

Parker: Go.

(they begin picking locks to see who is fastest. Across the room, Eliot and Mikel sit at a table)

Mikel: I can top that. (pulls her shirt aside to show a scar on her shoulder) Frag grenade, Somalia.

Eliot (pulls up his sleeve to show scar on his arm): Myanmar. Sniper.

Mikel: I was a sniper in Myanmar for a while.

Eliot: When?

Mikel: 2003.

(Eliot looks surprised. Mikel holds up the handcuffs and Eliot quickly pulls her hand down)

Eliot: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We can't have that.

Hardison (walking by): Handcuffs. Y'all nasty

(eliot has a handcuff kink and was probably pegged within an inch of his life that night. I said what I said.)

- - - - -

(Sophie stands looking down at her grave. The headstone for Katherine has been replaced with one for Sophie Devereaux. Nate approaches and stands next to the grave)

Sophie: Starke was right. I'm not Sophie Devereaux anymore. I haven't been for ages. I... you killed her, you and your silly crusade.

Nate: It's just a name.

Sophie: No, they're not just names, not to me. All my aliases, every one of them, I -- I know when their parents died. I know when they had their first kiss.

[edyacouky]

Journey to the Past (5/10)

What can I say except : I am sorry It's been month since I have the motivation to write again and I could find a way to write this chapter that make me happy. Until now ! Hope you will like it. Have a nice day.

                                                       ~*~

Since Bruce lost his son during this terrible attack three years ago, nothing in his life was the same.

How can it be?

Jason wasn’t there anymore at the breakfast. His favorite spot in the library is empty; no one dare sit on it since the King’s burst of anger once . His room became also a mausoleum. At first, each day some claimant came to him to demand the place of his son. Then once in a week. Now once in a few months.

But each time a part of him is destroyed when an investigation proves that they were just some liar, some from the poor, some were distant cousin of member of his own Council.

He punishes every person that act this way by malice, make sure the one they act because of some psychological trouble were taking care of.

After he lost Jason, he also had to deal with the horrible rumor about his older son, Dick. Everybody seems to give some credit to the rumor that Dick pays Joker to attack. And every time, he taken his defense people thinks that he is a stupid naive or that he is guilty too.

Not even six month later, the couple Drake, goods friends of him, dies too roughly. Their son, Tim Drake is also godson of Bruce, came to live in the Palace. Since the fortune of the Drake rival with the Royals Family’s, the Council was even shocked that the King “takes so long” to demand to adopt him. They know very well that now the Drake fortune belong to the Royal Family, to the “country” and they will do all they can so they can use this fortune like they want.

And if only it was the only thing that the Council waste.

Before the attack, Selina finally agree to marry Bruce. The Council gives their agreement because they realize that it was the only way to gain an heir that is biologically related to their King.

They have decided to hide it to Jason. He was so impatient about the diplomat mission, and they knew that Jason would have say in every way possible “I told you so”.

But after the attack, they were a mess and can’t imagine marry without Jason and his cocky grin with them, so they wanted to cancel it.

The Council refuses to accept that, they do make sure that everyone knew that this wedding was planned; they lie telling that everything was already paid; they spread rumor about Selina’s pregnancy. At the end, if they cancel or postpone the wedding th e n Selina’s carreer would be over and Bruce will lose many support.

So the wedding happened. But nobody of the Royal Family was happy, no one succeed catch a photo where they smile. Some of the Council suddenly fears that maybe it would bring bad luck. It was a relief for them when two years later; the little Princess Helena was born in good health.

But the Royal Family became even bigger when Bruce meet some kids at one of the Centers Jason helped to created.

Stephanie Brown, Harper and Cullen Row, and Duke Thomas.

Because of their origin, the Council didn’t even want them as pupil but they can only oppose to the adoption.

Despite everything that can help him to find peace and happiness, Bruce couldn’t forget his son, Jason. Neither he can forget his expression when he forces Jason to leave him, when they finally found each other in the mob, when he was getting shot and when Joker catches him.

These memories haunted him every hour of every day.

He found a way to endure it with alcohol. It was the only way he found to, not forget but, soothe the memories.

It would have become out of control if Alfred, Selina and Dick weren’t here. But he, that never loved to drink, still can’t help himself some time to time.

Another thing that changes is, since the King Wayne welcome Cassandra Cain in his family, first as a pupil then as a daughter, he becomes a regular of the Great Ballet.

Every time they do a spectacle, the Royal family attends it for the delight of Cassandra.

She wasn’t educated to understand the words and to express herself with them either. She was supposed to be a weapon. She learns to read the body of everyone around her to anticipate their action. So watch a story only tell by music and movement is perfect enjoyment for her.

She stills as many difficulties with her education as heir and learning of the protocol.

In fact if she doesn’t look exactly like the kind of young girl that a monarch of a neighboring country love despite the difference of forty years old, the Council would have refuse her adoption like they did for her others siblings.

Bruce is aware of their reason and even if he is against it, he doesn’t tell them ou t loud. For the moment this deviant monarch doesn’t dare make any proposition so it is easy to ignore Council plan.

Tonight, being in the show with his wife and children, it’s easy to forget the Council and his worries.

To ignore other’s worries.

                                                         ~*~

Roy and Jay still don’t really understand why Duchess Kate accept to arrange a meeting without asking them too much question.

No matter what Dinah wrote it must have been very persuasive.

Duchess Kate has decided to make the meeting the nigh of their arrival to Gotham.

At first, they were expecting to meet King Wayne before the show or be seated near him, but Duchess Kate contradicted them. They are seated in another lodge, hidden from King Wayne’s eyes, and she will bring Jay to him during the interval.

Everything was going too fast since they meet her. Jay can’t believe he will finally bring Damian to his father, that they may gain ally to rejoin Talia against Ra’s.

He should be happy, relieved, but the true will be known and he hasn’t any second to spoke with Roy alone. He is so anxious imagining all the way he may react when he will learn that Jay lie to him since the beginning and put his children in a danger bigger than he though.

He wants to come clean to him but doesn’t want to compromise Damian’s meeting with his father, neither his safety in case one of Ra’s spies is near them.

All this situation put his nerves in though test.

One of his legs keeps shaking since he is sitting and he destroys the poor program piece by piece.

At a moment, Roy takes his hand gently and smiles at him lovingly.

“Everything will be alright.” He reassures him

Jay takes a deep breath and look at Roy. Despite wanting to scam a Royal Family, this man is caring and kind and Jay doesn’t want to hurt him.

He has to come clean now, after it would be too late.

It may be too late now.

“I wasn’t honest with you. He whisper so Kate doesn’t hear them

-What do you mean?” Roy asks worried

Is that some kind of trap? A way to catch people wanting to scam the Royal Family. It’s the first thought of Roy but h e can’t believe that. It’s so absurd.

Maybe Jay lies about his feeling for him because he was worried that Roy may abandon him.

Roy feels bad to making Jay feel he have to lie to him about that. No means no. Roy can understand and accept that.

Of course the rejection will hurt but he can deal with that.

Roy prepare himself to assure Jay that he will accept only be a friend, if Jay agree to let him be.

But he doesn’t expect the next sentence of Jay.

“I lie about who I am. Jay say, now all his body is shaking and his headaches don’t help him

-I don’t understand.

-I …”

Jay swallow his saliva, licks his lips and take a deep breath.

And he explains everything.

He is heart broken when Roy let go his hand and when horror is see in his eyes when he realize to whom Jay and Dami … No! Prince Damian was hidden.

It was one thing for Roy to have to hide and protect his family against some rich family of 'Eth Alth'eban, but it is a completely another thing to hide and protect his family again the King Ra’s Al Ghul. One way or another Roy doesn’t have the choice but beg King Bruce to protect him.

All the affection he feels for Jay and Dami … Prince Damian turns into betray and rancor. How could Jay sacrifice Colin and Lian like that, not telling before the real risk of their adventure?

Before Roy could give to Jay a piece of his mind , the light turn on. It’s already the interval.

“Now it’s the time young man. Duchess Kate says standing up. It’s now or never.”

Jay stands to follow her but Roy catch his hand.

“How could you? He shivers with furry.

-I am so sorry . I promise. Jay whispers frankly. Just … All I did was for Damian. I’m sorry.”

Duchess Kate calls again Jay and this time he takes back his hand and follows her.

Roy wants to argue with him, ask him: “what now?”. Did Jay will tell that he play Roy to lie for the reward. It will doom him and his children.

He wants to run after Jay but then it would let the children alone. So he turns to the only person present that may be as guilty as Jay .

Dami.

Or is he Prince Damian?

                                                        ~*~

During the interval, Bruce isolates himself as his cousin Kate’s early demand.

She was pretty vague about what matter she wants to talk. But Bruce loves his cousin and always glad to see her.

And it gave him the opportunity to serve himself a glass.

He doesn’t look at the door when it opens. No matter what Duchess Kate wants, she won’t beat about the bush.

If she judges him for his glass, she doesn’t say.

“There is someone that has something to tell you. And you should listen him.”

Curiously now, Bruce looks at the unknown figure that approaches him.

“Maybe a spy who have information about one of his neighboring country.” He thinks taking a slip while Kate sit down and invite her guest to do the same.

Bruce stop counting long ago how many claimant come to him, so one more isn’t really a surprise or unusual. But it’s the first time one is brought by a close member family, and he can’t believe that his cousin would be that cruel.

The boy is young, but his Jason was just a boy during the attack.

The same smart green-blue eyes. There is a gleam that Bruce sees in his eyes but no recognition. Jason never looked at him like that.

“I’m listening, boy. What do you have to tell me?”

The same pointy nose still down as this boy doesn’t dare keep his head up.

The same pouty lips that answer to Bruce but says something he never anticipates.

“My companions and I did a long journey from 'Eth Alth'eban.

-Some came from far away from that.” Bruce retorts but his blood freezes in his veins

No news from 'Eth Alth'eban can be good. Not since a long time ago.

“I’m servant of my Princess Talia Al Ghul. I come here, following her order.”

Bruce inhale deeply while glancing at his cousin. But she stays impassible. At this game she can be better than him.

“What did your Mistress want from me?

-A few weeks ago, the men of my King Ra’s Al Ghul attacked the Azraq Palace. They attacked my Princess Talia Al Ghul.

-How is she now?

-I don’t know. I escaped without her and follow her last order since.

-And what is her last order? Bruce asks noting mentally to order to his spies to gain information about Talia’s situation

-To bring your son.”

Bruce could have jump for his seat, taking this young boy in his arms, imploring him to show him an indisputable proof that he is his Lost Son and so they can finally be together again.

“Which is also her son. Jay keeps saying without knowing what trouble perturbed Bruce. Damian Al Ghul. He did all this travel with me, avoiding as much as we could attack from men of Ra’s. And he is impatient to meet you.”

For a moment, Bruce is sure that he didn’t hear well what this man is.

It was clearly not what he was expected to hear tonight or ever day ever.

“For what I know, Bruce says coldly not being amused by this lie, Talia was pregnant only once. A girl stillborn…

-Ten years ago. Jay defends himself. Athanasia Al Ghul, twin sister of Damian. She is buried in Azraq Palace. Look, even if you don’t believe that Damian is related to you. He is to Princess Talia. And if you can accept him as a political exile despite your … tense relationship with my country …

-Did you know?”

This time Bruce doesn’t talk to the boy, he doesn’t even look at him. All his attention is on his cousin.

“Dinah and I had our suspicion when we saw the kid. But I didn’t expect that.

-Dinah is involved?

-She is the one who recommended them to me.” She answers giving him Dinah’s letter

He takes it and start reading it, pacing while doing so.

Jay doesn’t know how he suc c eeds explain calmly everything to the King.

He had such a shock when he saw him.

At first he doesn’t realize why. After all he saw picture of the King. He knew how he look like. Maybe it was seeing him in bones and flesh, Jay says to himself.

Then he realizes that the man in his dream on the boat was the King. Suddenly he remember the man of his dream being killed so violently in front of him.

Even knowing that everything wasn’t real, it doesn’t help the tumult of emotion clashing in his soul.

But he succeed say what he have to say and he is even surprise by their reaction.

Can’t believe they were so sure they were subtle and success to lie to this two ladies; then it seems like Dinah and Duchess Kate knew the real intention of Jay all along. And they accept to help him without hesitate.

It is too good to be true. Jay would love nothing more than to thankfully kiss their hand and promise to always be in debt with them.

But it is too good to be true. There must have so trap somewhere.

Jay tries to read Duchess Kate emotion to know if he had condemned his Prince or if his Princess was right to trust this King, but the way she looks at him is really frightening. She scrutinizes him, maybe waiting for him to make a mistake, maybe he already made a mistake and she wait for his punishment.

His head hurts so much.

He is glad that his Princess isn’t here to see him like that. She taken care of him, she educated him to being Damian’s Shadow for three years and now that he can prove himself, he doesn’t feel up to the scratch.

“Don’t you have anything more to tell me? Bruce finally says to Jay

-Well … If I may dare … Never Prince Damian or I would have come this far without Roy Harper and his children. If … you’re kind enough to accept Prince Damian as political exile, can you take them under your care too?

-Is that really all you have to tell me?” Bruce insist

Jason blushes furiously at what he thinks is an accusation.

“Neither the Prince and I are beggar. We don’t want your money or any title. We may face a difficult situation but my Prince will take back what is his and we will pay our debt.”

Bruce looks at him with a deep sadness but finally whispers:

“Go. Bring me your Prince and your friends.”

Jason nods and stands up, thanking the King and the Duchess before leaving.

And one time more during this meeting, Bruce’s heart is again broken.

The same untamable curly hair with the same tuft in the back as his head is throwing at Bruce’s face when Jay lets to bring back Damian, Roy, Colin and Lian

                                                       ~*~

Despite his anger, once Roy sees fear and anticipation as much as hope, he can’t bring himself to be mad at the kid.

Even if Jay was saying the true and that Dami is really the Prince Damian heir of the Al Ghul, he is still a ten years old boy that will met his father for the first time, days after he may have lost his mother forever.

And the kids hear what Jay told to Roy and now grill Dami … Damian so he have to explains to them the situation.

Colin decides that he should have know, because only a Prince could have such a broom stuck in their ass. Well not fair for Roy but he never consider himself as a prince so he says nothing.

Lian sights with disappointment telling Dami… Damian that he really doesn’t look much as the kind of prince that her books sell to her.

There is a little justice.

He tries to calm his anger, keeping saying to himself that he didn’t tell to Jay who Roy really is after all. And that he suppose, despite their … reciprocate attraction, they aren’t close. They were simply a mean to an end for each other.

He can force himself see the situation as far away as he can, as logical that possible, his heart doesn’t beat like it was before Jay’s revelation.

At a moment, he was dreaming that he and Jay could have something real and beautiful together. But he was just played along and now he is terrified about what could happen to his children.

What if Jay tell the real motivation of Roy to the fudging King of Gotham? What if Roy is imprisoned? What would happen to his children? They won’t be keep together, that’s for sure. They may never found a happy family that love that at least tenth as much as Roy loves them.

Sob are blocked in his throat. He keeps a reassuring smile to them, playing with their hair.

Should he leaves?

Abandon Dami … Prince Damian here. Take his kids away from this place. He takes care of them without any King’s money for three years. He can still do it.

But which doctor will agree treat Lian?

And King Ra’s men must already told him that Roy help Jay to escape him. He has no hope to have his family safe again now.

Roy jumps when he suddenly feels a hand on his shoulder.

Jay is back.

“The King want to meet all of us. Jay tells him then add more insecure, he knows how much you help us.”

So Jay didn’t tell the true, at least not all the true.

Roy start to breath again more easily. Maybe he still have a little luck after all.

He still refuses to acknowledge Jay’s tentative smile. He can’t forgive being play like that in a war against an enemy as dangerous as Ra’s Al Ghul. Now, there is nowhere on this world where they could be safe.

                                                           ~*~

Damian really doesn’t know what he should expect from his meeting with his father.

When he was old enough to realize that he should have a father, his mother answered him that he was dead long ago. So all Damian had his imagination to fill the void.

Then suddenly, his father is safe and sound. He is a king, the King of Gotham. He is the enemy of his family, but also the man his mother send to him for help.

This man that Damian never met had to compete a chimera that Damian created long ago. The father in his head is everything that was missing in his life, and if this father take some characteristic to Jay, Damian will never admit it.

In his heart, in his head, Damian know that he will be disappointed. How can he be different? He really just hope that he won’t be hurt that’s all. He really just hope that this man will help him find his mother.

When they enter in the room where the King and his cousin are, Damian let all the other enter before him even if it’s not really appropriate. He really needs some more minutes.

He heard the deep voice of the King greeting and thanking Roy and his children with some kindness, even if he seems on the edge.

Damian thinks of a million of things he could say to his father. First impression matter.

But when he is finally in front of him.

When he have to deal with deep blue eyes full of surprise and suspicion, Damian couldn’t think even to save his life.

“Father, I imagine you taller.”

Thankfully his voice is neutral.

He could have bear if it has broke with all the emotion he feels right now.

If the man was the father Damian liked to imagine, no doubt Damian would have broke in tears right now and throw himself in their arms. But this man isn’t.

Roy and Jay exchange a look, unsure about the way they should react.

Duchess Kate, with Colin and Lian, laughs with delight.

“I told you, didn’t I? No need of some DNA test with him, he is definitely your and Talia’s spitting image.

-The similarity are truly impressive.” The King admit with a smirk visibly not annoyed by Damian’s remark.

He invites everyone to sit down, he makes Damian sit right next to him and ask them all to explain what happen.

They talk during all the second act. Kate has to leave them to inform the Royal Family that Bruce won’t come back anytime soon.

Hearing about the Royal Family provokes in Damian some uneasy feeling. This people are his family after all, but he can’t help seeing them as stranger, as enemy of his real family. But he needs his father’s support, a man he was learned to hate, so he tries as best as he can to hide the discomfort he had to heard about people he can’t help himself but despise more than anything.

Why his mother decide that this people are the good people to help them is beyond Damian’s comprehension. But his mother is a smart woman that is rarely wrong so he trust her and give her plan a chance.

It won’t be that hard to find another ally if the Wayne prove to be unworthy ally, Damian though without a doubt.

Facing now Bruce is really hard for Roy, especially because of the languish look he keeps sending to Jay. Obviously, he can’t help but hope that Jay is Jason.

Roy can’t remember which justification he choose to exploit the man’s pain. Nothing can explain or justify why Roy decide to reopen the wound of a father. Roy can imagine too well how Bruce must feel. And just for some money, Roy prevent the man to grieve and purposely hurt him with hope.

Maybe Roy deserve some punishment after all.

“Some verification would be made of course. Especially to be sure there is a need for my country to help Princess Talia. The King finally says. In the meantime, you will all be staying at the Summer Castle away from the Council and the press until a decision is made.”

J ay and Damian want to argue that they don’t have the time for that.

But the door violently open cut them.

“Selina wait! Duchess Kate calls in the background. You didn’t let me explain …

-Kate just told me you found your son.” The Queen says to the King

Jay want to cry. This woman was in his dream too. She was the woman that called him …

“Kitten.” She sights coming near him with a palpable eagerness, tears in her eyes as she caress Jay’s cheeks

Jay wants to tell her that she is wrong. But the adoration in her eyes, her joy, it makes Jay cry uncontrollably.

He’s so ashamed of his behavior, never Talia would have make him Shadow of her son if she knew how weak he really is.

Firmly but gently, Bruce takes his wife in his arms. He is shaken with emotion too but forces himself to stay imperturbable.

“Selina, you know that I had a romantic relationship with Talia Al Ghul.” He says

She nods with confusion clear in her eyes.

What does it have to do with this miracle?

“This is her son. Bruce adds showing her Damian. This is my son, Damian.”

If at first, Selina wasn’t really listening, wanting only looking at her Kitten, the comprehension darken her face.

“Oh.”

There is a long silence when Kate forces Jay to go out so he can calm down under her supervision.

Suddenly, Selina forces a laugh to leave her throat.

“How can I be so stupid? She jokes and then really look at Damian. He is your spitting image. I should have know right away. What kind of first impression did I make?

-Selina …”

Selina doesn’t let Bruce pamper her more. She leaves his arms and asks where Talia is, saying she doesn’t remember they were supposed to meet with the Al Ghul anytime soon.

Bruce keeping his voice low explain everything to Selina.

“Oh, Dear! You hate surprise so much. But you have to admit with one is a good one. So we will go to the Summer Castle. I have to make some preparation but I’m sure we can all be here in a few days.

-You don’t have to …

-What are you telling me here? Don’t you think that I and the kids don’t want to know more about Damian? And we have to properly congratulate Prince Harper, his children and the poor boy I didn’t ask his name, for bring him to us. Alfred will agree with me.

-I suppose.

-Good. I will see you in a few days, I suppose you will leave immediately with them.

-Indeed.

-Well since we agree. I will leave you and inform the children.”

As sudden as she appears she leaves.

She ignores the young boy that dry his tears. She can’t acknowledge him now, even if she knows she must apologies.

Something in his eyes make her believe that …

But who care about that?

She need to inform the family not only of Damian but also prepare himself seeing someone looking exactly like their Jason.

Oh! But how are we suppose to be prepare to something as painful as that?

Away of the dark though of Selina, Damian looks at Roy with perplexity.

“Wait. Does she just call you Prince Harper?”

[ask-some-retired-teachers]

Colin if you would like I can try and get you to the top of tower of hell I’ve made it more then once before :>

Colin: Yes, please help me with tha- Sarah, what are you doing- SARAH NO- THOSE FREE ROBUX SITES ARE A SCAM-

[con-rcthschild]

Biography

Hey everyone! It’s Rai with my new bb Connor. Here he is inviting you guys to plot:

And here he is making sure you follow: 

Read more about him below the cut! 💖

If luck were a currency, Connor would have it in spades. (Unfortunately, like all currency, if you spend it too quickly it’ll all run out.)

Connor was the third son of Jacqueline Rothschild, heiress to the Rothschild empire, and Gideon Burne, a nobody who lucked it out when he ran into Jacqueline one chilly winter night. Though his father had left his family when he turned seven years old - for reasons his mother remained entirely tight-lipped about - he never wanted for anything, surrounded by the warmth of his two older brothers and his stern but beloved mother.

In fact, there was no one Connor adored or admired more than her. Jacqueline Rothschild was a powerhouse of a woman, intelligent, tireless, and driven, bringing her late father’s company to new heights under her steadfast leadership. Though she spent most of her waking hours at work, for Connor, that only made the moments he spent with her more precious and treasured. Jacqueline may not have been the most effusive or expressive of mothers, but she cared for all her children deeply. She was also not a traditional rich heiress in any sense - she did not wish to shackle her children and pressure them into inheriting the family business. In the end, her eldest Colin became a federal agent. Her second son Callum became a pediatrician. And her youngest, her sweet Connor, lived his carefree days as a concert pianist and composer.

Connor first met Delphine when he was 14 years old, at a lavish dinner party hosted by her parents. He caught her sneaking out with a bottle of vodka, and a few tipsy laughs and some drunken tottering later, she and him were being scolded by Delphine’s mother in front of an entire room of adults.

It was totally worth it.

They were as thick as thieves from that day forth. If Delphine was getting into some trouble, Connor was not that far behind, and vice versa. They were attached at the hip all throughout high school, and they even had plans to share an apartment once they entered university.

Then Connor’s entire world shattered when Delphine ran away.

He knew Delphine wasn’t happy with her home life, he knew she hated her adoptive parents, that she never truly felt like she fit in. He knew that, and yet he hoped him and his family (who treated Delphine as if she was one of their own) would be enough to get her to stay. He remembered the day she left vividly - the way her mouth trembled as she attempted to smile at him, her hand reaching out for his, before falling limply to the side when he said, regretfully, painfully:

I can’t, I’m sorry.

For his first year at university, Connor was an absolute mess. Oversleeping, constantly tardy for every class, spending his evenings jumping from bar to bar (and from bed to bed.) He wondered if he could have done something more to make her stay, sleeping fitfully at night as he dreamt of the lengths she had to go to when she ran away. Oh, he heard the rumors alright but he refused to believe them - a pair of thieving, criminal parents, a juvie record, and a secret side of her she kept bottled up and hidden away. Connor often wondered if he ever even knew her at all.

It took the combined efforts of Jacqueline, Colin, and Callum to get him out of his rut. He was just beginning to get his life back in order when he ran into her one warm summer evening - his soon to be fiancee, Elena Masters. Elena was a soft-spoken English Literature major from a humble background. Unlike Delphine, she was quiet, restrained, but just like her she was kind and utterly thoughtful. He loved her, without control or moderation, whole-heartedly.

And she took him for everything.

Connor remembered when he first discovered that his money had gone missing. As the son of a business mogul, he knew how to handle his own finances, how to invest and reap interest in return. He already knew he couldn’t make much of a living on a music career, so he used his trust money sparingly, trying to earn his own income with gigs and teaching music lessons on the side. They were already engaged by then, they had even purchased an apartment together and were planning to get married by June of next year.

Then Elena, like his father, like Delphine, just vanished.

His mother was furious, one of the first times she’d ever been so truly angry at him. It was then he learned the truth of his father’s departure - that he was a con man, just like Elena, and he scammed his mother for her money. Suddenly, unerringly, Connor couldn’t stand living there anymore. Every inch of his apartment reminded him of Elena’s betrayal. Seeing his brothers’ disappointment, his mother’s frustrations, just reminded him everyday of his failures. He felt like he was drowning, and ironically the only solution he could think of was to run away.

[halothenthehorns]

THE DUELING CLUB

  THE DUELING CLUB

Remus was still puzzling, and knowing better than to interrupt him Sirius instead said, "I think he's thinking it's no longer a Gorgon."

"Why?" Lily asked, it was the only reasonable explanation to her.

"Something Binn's said," Remus said, going cross eyed a bit as he continued to categorize everything he knew about this situation so far. "I'm just wondering, well of course it would suite Slytherin... but how could it be..." and he trailed off into more mutterings.

Harry took a leaf out of Ron's book and said, "If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know?" He couldn't deny how eager he felt to hear another answer, since he was so

sure the Gorgon one was wrong.

"Not going to happen Harry," James said sadly, "he's going to be like this until he works it out in his own way."

"Are we supposed to wait for him?" Lily asked as she got up and took the book from Remus herself.

Lily's actions startled Remus out of his reverie, and he looked about himself before smiling weakly and saying, "Just puzzling out some things. Nothing still makes enough sense though."

"At least tell us why you think it isn't a gorgon," Harry asked.

"Because if it was, there are several actions the teachers could take to prevent that. I'm sure they would have after Mrs. Norris, so how did this happen again?"

"But what else could petrify people, and cat's, like this?" Sirius asked.

"I'm working on that," Remus reassured, "and I will let you know, before the month's up," he finished grinning at Harry.

Harry blushed, not realizing Remus had even been listening, while his friends laughed at the pair.

Lily read on sadly, very scared and upset now. If Remus, the guy who seemed to know everything there was to know about magical creatures, didn't know right away what was running around the school, she was honestly terrified to hear the answer.

Harry woke up the next day with his arm stiff, but all bones in place. He glanced over at Colin's bed, but found some curtains had been put in place to block his view.

"That's hardly going to stop the rest of the school from figuring it out," Sirius said in disbelief.

"Appreciate the thought though," Remus said.

Madam Pomfrey came over and gave him some breakfast, telling him he could leave when he was done. Harry got dressed and left, going up to Gryffindor tower, but finding they weren't there. He began wondering where his friends could be so he could fill them in on Dobby and Colin.

"Huh?" All five of them muttered.

"Wonder where they got to?" James said in surprise.

"Surprised they weren't down there to check on Harry," Sirius corrected.

"I'm sure they, ah," Remus said, not able to come up with a good reason.

Harry frowned, trying not to feel hurt his friends didn't seem to care about whether his arm had grown back.

Lily felt bad for Harry, clearly having a good guess at what he was thinking, and knowing full well his friends would have a good reason, so decided to read.

Harry came across Percy first, asking if he'd seen his brother. Percy said he hadn't, then made the joke that he wasn't so bothered so long as he wasn't hanging around in a girl's loo again.

"He makes that seem like such a bad thing," James said, grinning brightly, "personally I'm offended none of us ever thought of that."

"Of course," Lily said, ignoring her husband, "they went to go check on the Polyjuice Potion. They might have thought you would get out later, so they went there first."

Harry smiled, looking far more relaxed now.

"What makes you think they would brew the Polyjuice Potion in there?" Sirius asked.

"They've already established it's a secluded place no one goes in," she shrugged, "as good a place as any really."

"I can think of some better ones," Remus disagreed.

"And they've already been caught in there, by Filch and Percy," James added.

"Well, let's just see then," she said.

Harry tried to laugh it off, but now went down to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Percy was right, when Harry pushed the door open he startled Hermione who asked at once how his arm was. Harry told them it was fine now and spotted the cauldron resting on a toilet.

"Okay fine," Sirius sighed, speaking for the boys, "but our points still stand."

"We hadn't explored as much as you guys seemed to," Harry said with a shrug, "so it seemed like a good idea to us."

Harry began telling them about Colin, and Ron said that they already knew, they'd heard McGonagall telling Flitwick that morning.

"Subtle," James snorted.

"Explains why they got a start on the potion all the more though," Remus said, "now students really are getting attacked, it would freak them out all the more."

"Freaks me out," Lily agreed.

Ron was insisting this framed Malfoy all the more, how he'd been so upset over his loss of the game he'd taken it out on Colin.

"Would make a good motive if Malfoy could pull it off," Sirius said sadly.

Harry also told them what Dobby had been up to, and Hermione caught on the part where he mentioned that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened before? Ron said this made sense, if Draco's father had been here before and done this.

"Again, applaud the logic he's trying," James said sadly, "but as there's never been another reported instance of a student being petrified like this, I don't see it happening."

Then he said it was a bummer Dobby had said who was doing this. He also pointed out, how was this monster getting around the school without getting caught?

"Can't even begin to figure that out," Remus agreed with a huff.

Hermione offered that it might be able to turn itself invisible.

"No," Lily said slowly, "the times Harry's heard it, he heard it going up. Invisible doesn't equal intangibility."

Then she offered it could be a Chameleon Ghoul.

"Which don't petrify," Remus sighed, "which is what I'm mostly stuck on."

Ron turned back to Harry and said that if Dobby didn't stop trying to save Harry, he was going to kill him.

"My sentiments exactly," James sighed, unable to decide which he was more annoyed by right now, Harry's 'saviour' this year or this mysterious monster.

Time passed in the school with even more worry than before, the story of Colin passing around like wildfire. The first years in particular seemed to take this fact hard, now moving around in herds and seeming to fear stragglers would be picked off.

"Those poor dears," Lily said sadly, "imagine you being a first year there, and even a muggle born to boot!"

"School never even got that bad for us," James agreed, and they had grown up in the epitome of Voldemort's reign.

Ginny had been seen looking very disturbed as well, since she sat next to Colin in one of her classes. Harry had seen her twin brothers trying to cheer her up, though in his opinion they weren't doing a very good job.

"Well this can't be good," Sirius said brightly.

The two were taking turns in covering up in disguises of fur and jumping out at her from behind corridors.

Sirius couldn't help but chuckle at those antics, it did seem like fun indeed.

"Honestly Sirius, even you never tried to scare first years," Lily snapped.

"No," he agreed, "but I would have done it to my baby brother. There's a difference."

"Why would that scare Regulus?" James asked.

"Why would that scare Ginny," Sirius countered.

"Alright you two," Remus cut in, "let Lily keep going."

They only stopped when Percy got onto them for it, telling them off for giving her nightmares.

Sirius winced slightly, he didn't think it would scare the poor kid that much.

Among the older students, illegal trades of protective amulets were going around.

Lily made a noise of scathing disgust, saying, "Probably Lockhart's fault as well. He was the one going on and telling people he made some magical amulet that protected people."

"It's ridiculous, we all agree," Remus nodded, "since I doubt a single thing those students could come up with would keep something like this away."

"You got any more ideas yet?" James asked.

"Nope," he muttered in annoyance.

Neville had been taken in by this, having bought what was told several protective charms, before being reminded that he was a pureblood. Neville argued back that Filch had been targeted, and Neville was considered almost a squib.

"That poor kid," Lily said miserably, she hated how down Neville seemed to be.

"There's no such thing as 'almost' a squib," Sirius scoffed, "you're either magical, or not. Someone ought to smack whoever convinced Neville to get that stuff."

December was starting to approach, and with it their head of house began listing names of who would be staying behind on holiday this year. Harry and his friends signed up, strangely along with Malfoy.

"Pity that," James said in disgust, knowing full well the little git would have more opportunities now to be a jerk with less people around.

"Good for us though," Harry reminded him, "since there would be less witnesses around for our Polyjuice Potion."

Lily sighed, still not happy about this. Harry had survived it without major side effects, which meant most likely his friends had to, but it still made her uncomfortable such a young student was attempting such a huge project without supervision.

Harry and his friends were pleased with the timing, as this meant they could use the Polyjuice Potion with less witnesses about. Still they were hitting the snag of how to get certain ingredients, and Harry decided he'd much rather face the monster prowling the school then steal from the Slytherin head of house.

"Thank you so much for that mental image," James said, trying to force a laugh.

Hermione pointed out that what they needed was a distraction so that someone could sneak into Snape's office.

"She makes it sound so simple," Remus scoffed.

"It can be," James offered, an old gleam appearing in his eyes again, "say they-"

"Don't," Lily said at once. "I'd be more than happy not knowing the details of how you can scam stuff away from a teacher. I'd rather see what Harry did."

James deflated but nodded his ascent, he was curious to that as well.

Then she decided she'd do the actual stealing herself, as she had never been in trouble before. So she told the boys all they had to do was cause a little problem in the next class for about five minutes or so.

"Oh is that all"? Sirius chuckled.

Harry couldn't help but laugh, as he felt causing trouble in Snape's class was about as safe as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye.

"Hey, that's the school motto," Remus chuckled.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus, which translated from Latin means never tickle a sleeping dragon," Remus said brightly.

"The things you know, honestly," James cackled.

"So Draco means Never?" Harry asked.

"No, it means Dragon," Sirius said, "Purebloods are often named after the stars, constellations, and galaxies. Sirius is the Dog, Draco is the Dragon, etcetera."

"So glad I got left out of that," James laughed.

"It's a rough translation, Latin is really hard to do properly," Remus said, trying to get back on topic.

"Can we move on?" Lily giggled at the lot of them, "before someone else comes up with a lecture worth of comments."

"Like you would if we kept going," James smirked.

Lily blushed, not willing to admit he was probably right.

There opportunity came up in the next class. It started as usual, with Malfoy flicking unknowns in Harry's direction. He knew better then to retaliate though, because if Snape caught Harry doing the same he'd be in detention before Harry could protest.

"Still a git then," James muttered, having privately enjoyed not having to deal with any of Snape's classes this year.

Hermione gave the signal, and Harry started the distraction by lighting up a firecracker,

"Oh, you're not," Lily began with trepidation.

watching it come to life,

"Oh he is," James disagreed, the opposite emotion playing across his face.

"That's dangerous," Lily moaned, "if he drops that in his own potion, we don't even know if Harry did it right, being runny could be caused-"

"Mum," Harry said quickly, "I didn't throw it in my potion."

Lily gave him a wary look, before nodding and reading, still fearful.

and chucking it across the room into Goyle's cauldron.

"That's ten times better," James cackled, "if I've noticed anything, he's an idiot who doesn't need help making his potion explode."

"It was even more dangerous that way!" Lily disagreed with annoyance, "because he could have done something really bad to his potion, and now it's going to get everywhere!"

"Good distraction though," Sirius grinned at Lily.

Lily strangled herself off, remembering her promise not to continue yelling about this. Though to be fair, she wasn't yelling about the stealing part, just the distraction part. Still, sucking in a deep breath she read.

It was certainly a good distraction. Goyle's potion went everywhere, splashing across everyone in the room who all started swelling in odd places. Malfoy got a face full himself, and his nose started swelling up.

All four boys were snickering like children now, while Lily blatantly ignored them. At least Goyle seemed to do his potion right, which was a miracle in itself.

Snape was quick to call attention, commanding everyone to the front of the room to get the problem taken care of, but not before ominously threatening he would find out who did this.

"Why does he think someone 'did it'?" Remus asked, a crazy smile still plastered on his face. "Like Prongs said, he's stupid enough to blow up his own potion."

"That's rich coming from you," James said with glee, now eyeing his friend and making Remus wince, "since I remember quite well when you-"

"Okay," Remus groaned, "sorry I mentioned it."

"What?" Harry said eagerly.

"I blew up a potion," Remus huffed, feeling it was obvious, but willing to explain for Harry. And only Harry. His friends were gits. "And they've never let me live it down."

"Well, since you did it like once a year," Lily said, "you can hardly blame them."

"Lily!" Remus yelped, looking at her in an almost betrayed way.

"That was for ratting me out about the cat," she smiled sweetly, "and it was for Harry's benefit."

Harry wasn't listening. He was too busy laughing at them. Remus trailed off into mutterings, his friends catching a few familiar excuses like 'not my fault I kept falling asleep' but Harry had

calmed down and Lily was ready to keep reading.

Harry attempted to hide his laughter as Malfoy tottered around, his nose now heavy enough he couldn't properly hold his head up. While the majority of the class went up front with all manner of expanded limbs,

"Wish I could be there to see that," Sirius said with glee.

"I love how Harry seems to come up with the best prank ideas, and he doesn't even try," James agreed.

Hermione managed to slip back into the classroom, the front of her robes now misshapen.

"Subtle," James snickered.

After the room calmed back down, Snape stalked over to the cauldron in question and dug out the remaining bits of the firework.

"Oops," Harry winced, having hoped Snape would go along with his father's line of thinking, and not investigate it too much.

"You don't get into trouble do you?" Lily asked in trepidation.

"Snape can't prove Harry did it," Sirius disagreed.

"When has that ever stopped him," James huffed.

Snape was not pleased, promising expulsion if he ever found out who had pulled this.

"That's harsh," Remus said, "it was dangerous and stupid, fine I'll agree, but that's only worth a few detentions."

"I will repeat," James said, "when has that ever stopped him from exaggerating."

As they were exiting the class, Harry was worrying that Snape knew it was him.

"That's creepy," Sirius shuddered, "I really wish you'd stop saying that kind of stuff Harry."

Harry shrugged, having a vague feeling his younger self was right, but he had no idea why.

Ron brushed it off, pointing out that Snape had no proof, and rhetorically asking what could he do about it? Harry said it would be something nasty.

"At least you'll be on your guard," James said brightly.

They dumped the ingredients into their potion, and nothing more eventful happened until a week later when they found a poster saying a Duelling Club would be started.

"That's an awful idea," Remus cackled.

"Why?" Lily said, puzzled, "I think it's a great idea. Honestly, why didn't we ever do that?"

"Think about it Lily," James said in a slow voice, "a large abundance of student's, all being encouraged to point their wands at each other, with minimal to no supervision."

Lily pursed her lips and said, "Well, when you put it like that, but I think students should understand how duelling works before they graduate at least-"

"Nah," Sirius said, still grinning with Remus at the potential for mayhem this could cause, then he put on a school teacher's voice as he said, "the students are too young to know how the real world works. Enjoy your youth while you can."

"Who was that?" Lily asked

"McGonagall," Sirius said, his face dropping slightly when she hadn't caught that right away. "We asked to start a duelling club at the end of our first year, and she said that to me."

"Personally," Remus said, still grinning, "I think she just said no to you, and anyone thereafter, because it was your idea. I told you I should have been the one to suggest it."

Sirius huffed and muttered something inarticulate.

"So why do you think it's allowed now?" James asked.

All of them shrugged, having no idea about this.

Claiming the first lesson would be that night. Ron laughed, asking if the teachers thought Slytherin's monster could duel or something, but he looked just as fascinated by the subject as anyone.

"That would be interesting," James snickered.

"No," Remus disagreed, "but the person who's supposedly Slytherin's heir, and doing this, most likely can."

"You really know how to kill the mood," Sirius grumbled.

At the designated time, most of the Hogwarts students appeared in the Great Hall, watching the setup stage eagerly.

"Oh," Lily said brightly, "perhaps it's just a demonstration purpose."

"Why would you demonstrate something, and expect them not to do it?" Remus disagreed.

The students were speculating who would be teaching the class, and one mentioned how they'd heard Flitwick was supposed to be some sort of duelling champion.

"Now that is a rumour we started," James grinned.

"We got sick of hearing people mock Flitwick behind his back, so we said that. Shut people right up." Sirius agreed.

"I'm surprised that's still circulating," Remus grinned.

Harry began to say he didn't care so long as it wasn't Lockhart, who showed up just then,

"Well we found our test dummy," Remus muttered, causing all of them to snicker.

followed by Snape.

"Now this I might actually enjoy," Sirius said, growing bright eyed.

"Most useful thing Snape's ever done, blown that idiot up," James agreed, leaning forward eagerly.

Lockhart began greeting the students, claiming that he had started this little thing to give them all a chance to learn to defend themselves as he had done on numerous occasions, then referenced a few of his books.

"Does he ever go a full hour without mentioning that?" Lily asked in disgust.

"If that's not the biggest load of rubbish," Remus sniffed.

Then he pointed out Snape as his assistant, Snape having claimed a minor bit of practice.

"Well he should," James grinned a bit, "otherwise he would have been the test dummy."

"That wasn't funny James," Lily snapped, flaring up at once.

He raised his hands in surrender, mentally thinking that wasn't the brightest thing to say in front of her.

Lockhart told the students not to worry though, he wouldn't maim Snape permanently.

"We're not," Sirius said vacantly, "I'm actually torn because I'm rooting for Snape to kill him. It's the weirdest thing ever!"

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," Remus said brightly.

"I'll take that," James shrugged.

Ron muttered it would be wonderful if they both just killed each other.

"We can only hope," Harry sighed, knowing he had just chuckled then when Ron said it.

Snape was not pleased at this speech, and Harry knew that if his teacher had been glaring at him like that, Harry would be running for his life.

"Aw Harry, you really do need this club," Sirius said sadly, "Snape's not that scary."

"Maybe to you four," Lily huffed "but he's how much older than Harry?"

That made the three boys fidget, while Harry smirked at his mom.

The teachers turn on each other then, beginning to demonstrate the proper way of acknowledging you were in a duel, and then saying how they would both do a spell on three, though neither would be aiming for death of course.

"Wouldn't count on that," James muttered, knowing full well Snape wasn't known for holding back.

Harry didn't buy that,

James beamed at Harry, more than pleased he had mimicked his son or vice a versa, which ever.

looking at Snape. Once the countdown was done, Snape used the spell Expelliarmus.

Harry startled a bit, he knew that spell for some reason. It meant something really important to him. Why this spell in particular though?

"Wow," Remus said in surprise, "he only tried to disarm him?"

"Nicest spell he's ever used I'm sure, " Sirius sniped.

There was a flash of red, and Lockhart was tossed off his feet, his wand flying away.

"Ha!" All five of them said with glee.

"This is one time in my life, I'm actually happy Snape cursed someone!" James crowed with glee.

Lily rolled her eyes at them again.

All of the Slytherins cheered him on for it.

"You mean you didn't join in?" Sirius asked.

"We weren't going to be cheering for Snape," Harry said, "but we were certainly clapping."

Which caused them to laugh again.

Hermione seemed the only one upset, asking if Lockhart was okay? Together, Harry and Ron voiced that no one cared.

"Agreed," the three boys also said together.

Lockhart got to his feet and brushed the whole thing off, saying he could have stopped Snape if he wanted, as it was more than obvious what he'd been about to do.

"Exactly how many times can he pretend he knows what he's doing?" Remus asked in disbelief.

"Please let Snape cut his hair off, please let Snape cut his hair off!" Sirius started chanting.

Snape still looked livid, and Lockhart decided to change focus onto the students, telling them to go into pairs.

"Bummer," they all muttered, having rather enjoyed the spectacle.

Both teachers began going through the crowd and sorting them off, Snape reaching Harry and his friends first, and deciding Harry should pair off against Malfoy.

"Now he's just starting trouble," James said in disgust.

"Harry can beat him no problem," Sirius said at once.

"I'm not doubting that," James nodded in agreement, "but Snape's just lost any points I would have given him for that Lockhart stunt."

He also paired up Hermione with another Slytherin girl named Bulstrode. Harry didn't think much of her, as she strongly reminded him of the cover of Holidays with Hags.

The three boys made choking noises to hold back their laughter, something Lily noticed, though she smiled grimly pleased they had tried to hold back at all.

Lockhart was back on stage, declaring they should ready themselves. Harry and Malfoy did just this, never taking their eyes off the other.

"Smart pup," Sirius nodded.

Lockhart instructed the students were to disarm their opponents only!

"Right," James drew the word out in disbelief.

He began counting down, but Malfoy struck out on two.

"What a little cozener," Sirius muttered.

Using a spell that made Harry stagger as if he'd just been clubbed over the head with a frying pan.

Lily winced in disgust, that horrid mental image of her sister trying to do the same thing back at once, but she pushed past the hazy read vision so she could read how Harry reacted.

Harry gathered himself up quick enough, sending back the spell Rictusempra.

"That was being kind," Remus said, still grinning at Harry's brilliant reaction timing.

"You're a natural," James beamed.

Malfoy was now doubled over and laughing. The two boys weren't the only ones at this though, the whole hall was now casting any spell they wanted at the other. Harry was still watching Malfoy, feeling it would be poor sportsmanlike to attack him while he was incapable of doing the same.

"What?" Sirius yelped, "No! Now's the time to disarm him, like Snape did to Lockhart."

Harry said, "Sorry, it just didn't occur to me."

"Well, you've got potential, we'll work on it," James said, still grinning.

Malfoy wasn't out yet though, managing to get out in between giggles Tarantallegra.

"That's the best he's got," Remus scoffed.

"Honestly, all of you," Lily said, "can't you just be happy they're not trying to kill each other?"

The boys didn't even bother to look sheepish, they were enjoying this too much. As much of a prat as Malfoy had been all year, here they were in a sanctioned opportunity to get some payback.

They only wished Harry would take a little more advantage than this.

Lockhart was trying to get control back, but Snape stepped in and used the spell Finite Incantatem.

"Thank goodness there's one grown up around," Lily muttered.

At once all the spells in the room vanished. Harry glanced around and spotted Ron apologizing to his partner Seamus for whatever his broken wand had managed to do,

"I keep forgetting about that." Sirius snickered, "Did you ever find out what his wand had done?"

"Made some kind of foul smelling gas, Seamus was about to throw up before Snape did that," Harry said.

"I really hope he gets a new one, at least over the summer," Lily sighed, "he can't keep that thing for the rest of school."

"I want to know why another teacher hasn't said something by now," Remus puzzled. "That can't be allowed, or even safe."

"It's not really the teacher's job though," James said back with a frown, "after all, what can they do? Make the Weasleys buy him a new wand?"

Remus sighed, but agreed it couldn't really be helped.

but Hermione and Millicent Bulstrode were still at it. The Slytherin had Hermione in a headlock

"Oi!" Harry hooted in indignation.

"Now how did that happen?" Remus asked.

"Dean told us later," Harry grumbled, now remembering that vividly, "Hermione did disarm Millicent, and she charged at Hermione instead. Guess Hermione didn't react in time."

"Well, props for thinking on her feet anyways," Lily said weakly, speaking about both girls.

and Hermione was so much smaller she couldn't wiggle out. Ron and Harry leapt to her defence, both boys struggling to pull the other girl off, and when they managed she did not look happy about it. Lockhart was wandering around the hall, coaching students on how to fix their injuries,

"I really wish I could have been there to see that," Sirius sighed.

and then mentioning how he should probably teach how to block spells.

"Did that just occur to you?" James scoffed.

"I'll faint if he even knows how to," Remus griped.

Lockhart decided to call a pair up to the stage to demonstrate, at first calling on Neville and Justin, but Snape cut in by saying Neville would screw up.

"Dang, why does he seem to hate Neville as much as you?" Sirius asked with a scowl in place, hatting this nearly as much as if he'd said that about Harry.

Harry opened his mouth to answer, but it was gone as soon as he had tried to start. So he shrugged and slumped back, instead saying, "guess he just hates everyone."

Pointing out how Justin would probably be sent up to the hospital wing in pieces.

Lily muttered something indistinctly, she hated how rude Sev was being to a child, in public.

Then he voiced that Harry and Malfoy should be up there.

"I'm okay with this," James nodded, "Malfoy owes a few more curses sent his way."

Harry went up to the stage, and Lockhart began to demonstrate what Harry should do.

"Whatever he just showed you, do the opposite," Remus said.

Harry nodded in agreement, not even needing to remember what Lockhart said to know Remus knew better.

He raised his wand, did a complicated zigzag motion, and dropped it.

All five of them laughed meanly, Remus loudest of all. He hadn't realized his advice would be taken so literally.

Lockhart laughed it off, saying his wand was a little overexcited,

"Your mouth is a little overused," James grumbled.

all the while Snape was whispering something in Malfoy's ear that was making the younger boy grin in a way Harry did not like. Harry asked Professor Lockhart if he'd show him that blocking spell again,

"He never showed you anything to begin with," Sirius yelped.

"Snape really creeped me out just then," Harry defended.

"Lockhart doesn't deserve that title," Remus muttered to himself. Sirius heard him and gave his friend a sympathetic look, knowing exactly why Remus would feel so angry about this.

and Lockhart just told Harry to do what he did. Harry pointed out all he'd done was drop his wand.

"Like I said," Remus nodded, "the opposite of what he did."

"I still don't know how to counter though," Harry sighed.

"Then duck," Sirius shrugged.

Lockhart began counting down again, and Malfoy got off his spell first, Serpensortia.

"What?" they all yelped in shock.

"What's that going to do?" Harry asked uneasily.

"It conjures a snake!" Lily moaned in fear.

"From nothing?" Harry asked, "I thought you said that was seventh year magic?"

"Most likely, Snape had one nearby, which is what he was whispering to Malfoy," Sirius said uneasily. "The spell doesn't actually make a snake out of nothing, it summons the nearest one."

"Why would Snape even have a snake nearby?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"You can use their venom's in certain potions," Lily muttered.

"Oh," Harry deflated, that wasn't out of normal then, for a potions teacher to be using something like that. "So, how would I even get rid of that?"

"A banishing spell," James shrugged, looking as upset as the others, "but since you might not know that yet, Snape most likely told Malfoy to do that, just so he could scare you. Then he'll get rid of it himself."

At this explanation, they all still were giving each other very weary looks. Harry didn't understand what the big deal was, so he finally asked, "Okay, so why are you all looking like something really bad is about to happen?"

"Harry, don't you remember the last time you ran into a snake?" Remus asked cautiously.

Harry grinned, looking back that memory was hilarious, and so he agreed verbally, then he faltered at once as he also remembered how upset his family had been. He thought back to how scared and worried they were, and that feeling he'd gotten that many people had once looked at him in the same way. Because he was a Parselmouth. Now, a snake had appeared in front of most of the school, and if he started talking to it again, well that would explain his memory. Harry now grimaced, looking as upset as the rest of them.

"Did anybody ever figure out why I was a Parselmouth?" Harry asked. "You said it's only passed down from the family line."

"No," James said sadly, "I've no idea why you can."

"It doesn't mean anything to us though dear," Lily said as Harry's feelings were clearly sinking even lower.

Harry sighed before waving his mother on, deciding they may as well get this over with.

Harry froze up, and Snape seemed oddly pleased at having the opportunity to be able to get rid of it for Harry

"Jerk," James said with more heat than he normally would have, now fully blaming Snape for what he knew was about to happen to his son.

"You can't blame Severus for this," Lily said at once, "he didn't know-"

"He did this to mess with Harry," Sirius snarled, "and it's going to be awful. It doesn't matter what he intended."

"He's trying to help Filch's cat!" Lily spat, finally using that trump card, "he doesn't hold grudges like you seem to."

"Oh please," Remus scoffed. "He hates Harry because of James. If that isn't holding a grudge, I don't know what is."

Lily opened her mouth to continue arguing, but Harry cut in saying, "Please, I want to know what happened. Mom, Snape does hate me, you can't deny that. Dad, he didn't cause what was about to happen on purpose. Please, can't we just get past this?"

Both parents deflated, muttering their ascent. Sirius and Remus were eyeing Harry with shock, not having believed anything could get those two to stop arguing like that. Then again, they'd never tried very hard. Always having sided with James whenever Lily began her attack.

Lockhart said he would get rid of it first though.

"Bloody hell," Sirius hissed, switching his anger from Snape to Lockhart at once. "That twat's probably just going to summon another snake!"

He waved his wand at the snake, which just soared into the air and landed again with a hiss of protest.

"Nope," James shook his head sadly, "he's just going to make it unbanishable."

"Here I thought he couldn't get dumber," Remus muttered, hating to be proven wrong.

The snake then turned its attention on one of the students, Justin, poisonous fangs exposed.

All five of them winced, knowing full well what was about to happen. Harry would never stand by and allow that to happen. Whether he recognized his ability to talk to snakes or not, they had no doubt he would act on his previous experience with the scaled beasts.

Harry reacted without thinking, jumping forward and telling the snake to back off. Much to Harry's shock as anyone, the snake did just that, going and curling up at Harry's feet.

"Guess you never mentioned that boa constrictor to Ron then," James sighed, if he had Ron would have explained to Harry about what had just happened.

"Nope," Harry said sadly, "it never occurred to me. I thought it wasn't even a big deal."

Harry looked up and around, making sure Justin was okay, only to find the boy looked at Harry with fear.

"A common reaction, learning certain things about people," Remus winced.

Justin shouted at Harry that he was crazy and ran off. Snape came forward and did make the snake disappear then, leaving black smoke in its place.

'So he killed the snake?' Lily thought, thinking that was a little harsh, but unable to think what other effect could cause a snake, that was now unbanishable, to disappear in a puff of black smoke. Still, she was far more concerned with what was about to happen to her son, so she didn't bring it up.

Ron came up on stage then, grabbing the back of Harry's robes and trying to haul the stunned boy away.

"Guess Ron decided to get him out of there," Sirius nodded.

"Probably scared the crap out of him as well though," James said sadly.

He and Hermione dragged Harry to the nearest classroom, pushing him inside and demanding to know what had happened? Harry was still in shock himself, saying he'd just told the snake to stop. Ron was clearly surprised that's what Harry had said, which confused Harry all the more when Ron called him a parselmouth, saying it was a person who could talk to snakes. Harry admitted he knew he could, as he'd once met a boa constrictor and they had chatted,

"Well when you put it like that it sounds ridiculous," Harry said weakly, as his family was still looking rather scared. Lily sighed, she knew she wasn't going to like what was about to happen to Harry at school, but she forced herself to keep reading.

but Harry ended with what the big deal was. Ron explained that this was a very rare gift, and it was bad. Harry demanded to know what was so bad, if he hadn't told that snake not to attack Justin, and Ron cut him off in surprise that's what Harry had said.

"Can't they have heard?" Harry asked.

"No," James shook his head, "I've never heard a Parselmouth in action, but apparently all we can hear is hissing."

Harry went a little paler as he said, "I, didn't even realize, it didn't sound that way to me. I thought I was just talking to it, and it could understand me. How could I have..." he trailed off, looking even more upset than before now.

"We don't know Harry," Lily sighed, running a hand lovingly through his hair, "but I want you to remember that we don't care. Nor will your real friends. It's just, startling is all."

Harry nodded, leaning into her touch for a moment, before letting her go on. More annoyed than ever he didn't know the answer to this.

Harry said of course it was, hadn't they heard? Ron said all he'd heard was Harry speaking in the snake's language. Harry was flabbergasted now, saying how could he have spoken a language he didn't even know? Then he voiced what the big deal even was, he hadn't done anything wrong. Hermione pointed out that it was a very big deal, as Salazar Slytherin himself was a Parselmouth, that's why Slytherin's animal was a snake.

Harry did the same thing now. Great, if the whole school had been thinking it before, now they were going to be convinced he was the heir of Slytherin!

Sirius said loudly, "So why did the other symbols get picked!" Trying to distract Harry again.

Lily answered, "Lions are very proud creatures, known for their bravery. Eagles known for their sight, and Ravenclaw isn't always necessarily intelligence so much as learning to see. Badgers are homely animals, they protect their own and their home, but don't seek out fights. The fact that snakes are known as a cunning animal probably made Slytherin like the animal all the more."

Harry was distracted, listening to his mother. The others knew Harry had been thinking exactly the same thing as them, but since they all knew it was preposterous, they didn't want Harry dwelling on it too much.

Remus also offered, "I've also heard rumor that those were their patronuses as well, which is why they favored those animals."

Harry was instantly distracted now, furrowing up his brow as he tried to remember why he might know what a patronus was? He didn't ask out loud though, deciding to deal with one thing at a

time.

Now that Harry seemed a little calmer again, Lily was willing to read.

Ron agreed that now people in the school were going to think Harry was directly descended from Slytherin himself.

"He's not," James began viciously, "he's as much related as Ron! Why doesn't Ron-"

"It's okay," Lily said at once, "Ron knows that to. He's just making jokes, like you lot always do."

James deflated, looking slightly apologetic. Harry smiled and told his dad he didn't blame him, and in fact thanked him for the defence.

Harry tried to protest he wasn't, but Hermione pointed out that as he'd lived so long ago, Harry could be.

Both James and Sirius huffed and muttered some things about 'all purebloods are' but Lily didn't stop to hear this again.

Harry couldn't sleep that night as he stayed up long into the night, thinking all of this over.

James made a pitiful noise somewhere in his throat. He hated this! Hated not being there for his son, not being able to comfort him when he clearly was upset about this. Harry didn't have anyone to turn to but him! Even Hagrid, and clearly not Ron, could comfort Harry about this matter.

Harry gave him a small, encouraging smile, and James forced himself to return it, though it quickly faded away as Lily kept going.

He couldn't help but wonder if he was that closely related to Slytherin? How would he know, as he knew nothing of his father's side of the family.

"I haven't been this depressed since Christmas of your last year," Sirius groaned, looking pale as snow himself. "What is it about you and holidays? All the worst stuff happens on the best days!"

Harry shrugged, saying weakly, "It wasn't quite Christmas yet."

No one looked very comforted.

Harry tried to say something in Parseltongue again, but it didn't seem to work. Harry wondered if he could only do it when he was looking at a snake.

Remus sighed, rather puzzled, since Harry didn't recognize the difference anyways, if that was true or not, and having no way to find out just let it go.

Harry tried to make a case for himself, pointing out he was in Gryffindor, Harry wondered if the hat had seen Salazar's blood in him?

"Not necessarily true," James said weakly, "your blood really doesn't have much to do with your house. It's more to do with your potential for learning."

"Oh," Lily said briskly, forcing a teasing tone into her voice, "so you're allowed to explain how the hat works, but when I do, it's not relevant."

"No," Sirius said, brightening at once at what looked like a new topic, "we said we didn't want to hear it then, because we wanted to know what house Harry's in. Now, go right ahead, educate us on hat magic."

Lily grinned at him but said innocently, "Surely you don't need me to tell you, you seem to know plenty on your own."

"You're right," Sirius nodded, "I do know. Plus, I still don't care."

Harry let out a burst of laughter at their vain attempt at cheering him up, which had clearly worked. Though, considering the friends he had, he seemed to be used to light bickering by now.

That only reminded him how the hat had wanted to put him in Slytherin most of all.

"It wanted to put you in all the houses," Lily reminded him, "you were just brave enough to say otherwise, hence Gryffindor."

Harry nodded, feeling far better now than he had then.

He also kept thinking about the look on Justin's face, and how Harry would explain to him tomorrow the obvious. That after Harry had spoken to it, the snake had backed off, Harry hadn't been telling it to attack him.

"I agree," Remus said at once, "I wasn't even there, and I realized after Harry spoke to it, the snake backed off."

"But you saw it from my point of view," Harry pointed out in a far calmer voice than they would have guessed. "To the rest of the school, it might have looked like that."

"Why are you arguing for the school now, but not then?" Sirius asked, waving at the book.

Harry shrugged and said, "I was mad then. Now, not so much. Guess I should thank you guys for that."

All four of them beamed, Harry had just openly admitted they had made him feel better, so they felt like they had at least done their job properly now, even if they couldn't then.

The problem came the next morning when Herbology class was cancelled due to a blizzard.

"Wow, wish we got that kind of luck," James said in surprise, "it didn't matter the weather, they never cancelled classes."

"Something about the Mandrakes," Harry said with a shrug, "we were still helping Sprout with them in class, but she didn't want our help with something..."

Lily simply read.

Professor Sprout had done this because she wanted to put socks and scarves on the Mandrakes herself.

"Ah," Harry and James both nodded in understanding.

Harry was left feeling upset in the common room, and Ron finally convinced Harry to just go find Justin if it was bothering him so much.

"Why is it so important to you?" Sirius sniffed. "I don't see why you care what he thinks, since your friends believe you."

"I didn't want someone walking around thinking I wanted them dead," Harry pointed out.

Sirius shrugged, admitting this.

Harry agreed, but then wondered where Justin would be?

James nodded, remembering that constant annoyance until they had finally made the map.

He began wandering the corridors, walking past a few instances of classroom mishaps, like hearing McGonagall telling off a student for turning someone else into a badger.

"Was it on purpose?" James asked innocently.

"Don't know," Harry shrugged, "I never got the full details."

Resisting the urge to take a look,

"You've got more restraint than I do," Sirius laughed.

Harry kept going and decided to try finding Justin in the library.

"Not a bad idea," Lily agreed.

"Though you're kind of out of luck if he's in his common room," Remus added.

Harry had a very bad feeling that he did find Justin that day, and then wondered why he would have a bad feeling about it. Did they have a fight about it and not make up?

He did come across a group of Hufflepuffs, but Justin didn't seem to be among them. Harry overheard a snippet of their conversation, and he froze behind the invisibility section to listen in.

"Pause for irony," James said, which Lily ignored, knowing full well that if it caught Harry's attention like that, she wasn't going to like this.

One boy was saying that he'd warned Justin to stay in his dormitory, since Harry had obviously marked him as his next victim.

"Marked him down?" James scoffed in disgust. "You think he's making a list?"

"Malfoy would be number one, not these random kids," Sirius grumbled.

Then he pointed out it was partly Justin's own fault, having slipped up and saying how he was Muggleborn to Harry's face in their first class.

"Let slip!" Remus yelped, "he said he was going to a muggle school, well before Mrs. Norris was even petrified!"

Harry was grinning at all of them for their obvious defence of him.

Pointing out that wasn't the kind of thing that should be said with Slytherin's monster running around.

"Slytherin's heir wasn't on the lose your first class," Lily snapped, she didn't usually condone these boys odd habits of correcting who was talking in the book, but this kid was annoying her as well.

A girl tried to argue back, saying she wasn't so sure it was Harry. The first boy, Ernie, argued back that of course it was Harry, only dark wizards knew how to speak Parseltongue, there had never been a decent wizard that could.

"Stereotyping," all three boys muttered, very much aware they would have agreed before they knew their little Harry was one himself.

He then began listing the victims, about how Filch had caught Harry, and so Harry must have turned on Mrs. Norris.

"Filch is everyone's enemy!" James snarled, "Is this kid trying to pretend otherwise."

Then Colin had annoyed Harry at the Quidditch game, then Colin was attacked.

Harry sighed miserably, they were some odd coincidences that the people that had annoyed him were the victims.

"Harry, you aren't really taking this kid to heart?" Remus asked in concern.

He admitted what he was just thinking, and that caused them all pause for a moment, not having made those links from victim to Harry. Sirius said, "that's ridiculous, it was those two who were out alone at the time, you knowing who they were doesn't mean a thing."

Harry nodded, looking very much like he wanted to believe him. He also wondered why he felt an odd pang about knowing the victims?

The girl named Hannah said Harry had always seemed like a nice guy though, and he had been the one to make You-Know-Who disappear. Ernie pointed out that was another odd thing, why had You-Know-How gone after Harry? Harry should have died that night after all,

Lily stuttered a bit at that awful mental image.

"You sure this kid is a Hufflepuff?" Sirius grumbled in disgust, "Cause that was about the rudest thing ever!"

and how only a powerful dark wizard could have survived.

"Is he saying Harry was born a dark wizard?" Remus asked dangerously, "Because that is ridiculous! Dark Wizard's aren't born, they become that way through some twisted events."

Then he went on to say this was probably what had caught You- Know-Who's attention.

Lily shivered in disgust at that sentence, while James grew angrier the longer this kid talked. The thing he wanted to know above all others, why Voldemort had gone after his family, and this little jerk was implying it was his son's own fault!

He obviously didn't want another dark wizard being about.

"That's it," Sirius raged, "I'm officially slapping this kid."

Lily quirked a brow at this, but resisted pointing out that they had no idea how old this kid was right now, so that sentence was useless. It made Sirius feel better, so she just kept reading.

Then he wondered what else Harry could be hiding?

"I can run pretty fast, pretty sure most students don't know that," Harry said weakly

"There's my prongslet," James said with glee, "showing some sarcasm in the face of this jerk."

Harry chuckled as James ruffled up his hair a bit.

Harry lost his temper then, rounding the bookcase and giving all of the students a fright, Ernie worst of all as he blanched in shock.

"Good," Lily huffed, "maybe next time they'll think about gossiping in such a public place."

Harry started politely enough, asking if they'd seen Justin? Ernie tried to keep up a brave face, demanding to know why Harry wanted to know.

"To knock some sense into him," Sirius muttered, "and you."

Harry said so that he could explain himself about last night, and Ernie jumped in with there was no need, they all saw it.

"Well then clearly you need your eyes checked," Remus snapped.

Harry pointed out that after Harry had spoken, the snake had stopped. Ernie protested that it had been a near miss.

"A miss?" James demanded, "the snake never even struck out!"

"Now he's just exaggerating his own facts," Sirius agreed with a growl.

Then he followed up with saying he himself was a pureblood, in case Harry was getting any ideas.

"Why would he care!" James grumbled, "I'd attack him just for his fat mouth."

Harry snapped he didn't give a damn about anyone's blood! Demanding to know why he'd even have a reason to attack muggle-borns? Ernie reminded that Harry hated those Muggles he lived with.

"So would you," all five of them muttered, not at all appreciating that reminder at this awful time.

Harry snapped back so would anyone who had to live with the Dursleys. Then he stomped out of the library, ignoring the annoyed look on the librarians face.

"I'm rather surprised she didn't step in," Lily said distantly, "you seemed to have gotten quite loud."

"She was probably about to," Harry shrugged, deciding he must have mistaken Justin for Ernie, and this was the bad feeling he'd had.

He was storming through the hallways, not paying any attention to where he was going, so ran straight into Hagrid.

"Hagrid in the castle again," Remus said, distracted at once, "well this can't be good. Last time we saw him in the castle, he had a dragon!"

"Please don't remind me of that," Sirius sighed.

Hagrid was carrying around a dead rooster.

"Ew," James wrinkled up his nose, "why was he walking around with that?"

"Well, it's a point of conversation anyways," Sirius shrugged.

Harry asked what Hagrid was doing, and Hagrid said that this was the second dead rooster he'd found this term, and speculated it was probably either a fox or a Blood-Sucking Bugbear.

"Well the fox thing is ridiculous," James said, "I've never seen a normal animal survive long enough on the grounds to do something like that twice. The Bugbear though, I don't know. It's not in many textbooks-"

Sirius gave a glance to Remus, and when it appeared he wasn't going to he himself said what he had learned back in his Care of Magical Creatures Class, "That's because Bugbears are a species

kind of boggart, more pesky then anything, but close enough most people don't make the distinction like Hagrid did. They're not known for killing random animals though, so it's just as

unlikely."

"What would kill them then?" James asked, also noting his friend's silence.

Remus wasn't listening. In fact, he seemed absent to his entire surroundings. It all added up... but how! The only magical creature he could work out wasn't capable of petrification...he huffed in frustration and focused on Lily again, then realized they were watching him curiously. He smiled grimly and said, "Sorry, just thinking, what was that?"

"We were trying to figure out what would kill Hagrid's roosters, since we don't like his two suggestions," James said.

Lily was shaking her head at the lot of them and scolded, "Hagrid, being Gamekeeper of the whole grounds, I don't understand why you're arguing the point at all. Just because you wandered the grounds every bloody night doesn't mean you have Hagrid's experience. If Hagrid says it could be either of those, it could be." Then she too turned to Remus to see what had kept him so quite.

"Oh," he shrugged, "a basic charm will protect them from most any kind of magical creatures, but he must have already had that up, so I've no idea." This was partially a lie, he had a vague idea why someone would want to kill a rooster, but he still didn't have proof of this theory yet, so he kept it quiet to himself until he did know. Lily, still suspicious, read.

Hagrid needed permission to put up a charm to protect the rest of his coop.

"Guess Hagrid didn't have that charm up," James shrugged.

"Well, now he can," Lily said, "guess nothing's ever bothered to attack the roosters before this, so he never had."

Then Hagrid asked Harry if he was alright, since he looked quite upset. Harry didn't want to say all of the horrible things he'd just heard from Ernie,

That caused the four of them deep frowns as Harry, once again, seemed reluctant to talk to anyone about something that was bothering him. The only thing stopping them from saying anything

about it was that they were sure he would speak to Ron and Hermione about it.

Harry just excused himself and said he did have to go to another class and began walking off again, winding up in a deserted corridor, where he tripped over something on the floor. He glanced over to see something that made his blood freeze over.

"Why?" James drew the word out in trepidation.

Harry sighed, muttering, "you're not going to like the answer."

Lily felt her own mounting fear as she said.

Justin was on the floor, a look of shock stuck in place on his petrified body.

"Crap!" All five of them said at once.

"Okay, twice is coincidence, now I agree with Ernie," Sirius growled, "someone is trying to frame Harry."

"Next time start with the end of that sentence," Remus told him conversationally, "because I almost slapped you."

Harry was still sitting there, a look of shock on his face like he had been petrified himself, and Lily felt her fear continue to mount when she realized there was something else Harry must remember about this attack. Reading fearfully.

The worst part though, was what Harry had almost run into. There was someone else a foot away,

"I don't want to know. I do not want to know," Sirius muttered, quietly enough that Lily didn't even pause.

with the exact same expression, but instead of his usual translucence, Nearly Headless Nick was smoky black.

As Lily read that out, everyone in the room went very still.

James swallowed hard before whispering, "what could do that to a ghost?"

"No-nothing," Remus whispered, "I've never heard of anything like this."

"That's it, I want to pull Harry out of school now," Sirius said weakly.

"I...agree," James finally nodded.

"Well no one does pull me out," Harry sighed, finally coming out of his reverie.

Remus was turning everything possible over in his mind. He thought he knew the answer, there was only one creature that had the abilities to do this...but since these circumstances had never occurred, that he was aware of, was he right?

He hated to think that, if just one more student was petrified, he might have his answer, but he knew how awful that sounded, so he still kept his opinion to himself.

Harry got uneasily to his feet, staring in shock at the apparently dead ghost. He glanced around himself to find some spiders were crawling away.

Remus narrowed his eyes and nodded to himself, which this time James and Sirius took note of. They exchanged a loaded look, and determined they would have to ask about that.

Lily was interrupted by a cry from above, making all of them jump. Sirius was the one to get to his feet and make his way upstairs this time, coming back down with the little baby cuddled in his arms. He was talking in a goofy voice saying, "Were you playing? Huh, did Uncle Sirius come in and find you making a mess of your room. I think we need to have a talk with daddy about his play pen disappearing-"

"He did what?" James asked, getting to his own feet and grinning as he followed Sirius into the kitchen.

You could hear them talking in there, and Harry asked, "was that accidental magic then?"

Remus nodded, saying, "most likely he saw something he wanted outside the pen, like one of his toys, so he made the baby gate disappear. The room's baby proofed, so were not concerned he got

into anything."

"How young do you start doing accidental magic?" Harry asked, since the baby Sirius was now bringing back into the room was only a few months old.

"His age," Lily said, "err, your age, whatever. The point is, magic manifests at very young ages."

This was the best kind of distraction possible for the little group right now. Lily set the book aside, and all of them sat around having a nice normal conversation, avoiding the book altogether, because they didn't want to keep reading and possibly upset the baby again. Sirius even asked if

they could have lunch after the baby was done eating. Lily agreed, and left the boys to it while she got up to go do just this.

By the time the baby was done eating, and had been burped and put back upstairs for a long nap, they were all full and in a much more content mood. What they were reading about was scary, no use in denying that, but after such a nice long break they got a little bit of a reminder that it was going to be okay. Harry was here and fine and safe, which was their most important motive.

When Lily picked up the book to read again, she was almost smiling despite the grim mood of the book.

At either end of the corridor, Harry could hear classrooms in progress, and Harry felt torn. Should he call and ask for help? Would they think he'd been the one to do this?

James hesitated before saying, "I think you should have, ah dang. It's kind of awful both ways."

Sirius nodded and said, "If he stayed, it would have made him look guilty."

"If he made a run for it, and anyone even glimpsed him, it would make him look guilty," Remus agreed.

Lily sighed, hoping dearly her son wasn't going to be blamed for this as well.

Harry remained in place with indecision, as Peeves arrived.

"Well this won't be good," James muttered.

The poltergeist saw the problem at once, and began screaming at the top of his lungs what he'd found.

"Peeves yelled a lot louder than that Mum," Harry said lightly.

"I wasn't going to go shouting that," Lily disagreed.

Everyone in hearing range came running out of the rooms, and so much confusion and chaos happened for a moment that several people began walking through Nick.

Everyone shuddered in disgust at this, Nick still being the most disturbing part of this particular attack.

Harry was left standing in the middle of it all as McGonagall arrived, her class in tow, with one kid still having badger hair.

James grimaced, no longer finding that the least bit funny.

Ernie also ran into the corridor,

"Great," Sirius drolled, "this should be good."

and theatrically pointed at Harry, claiming he'd been caught in the act.

"Idiot," Remus muttered darkly, "like anyone would stand around after they'd just done something like that. How do they even think you're doing this!"

Harry shrugged, he had never stopped anyone to ask for details, he didn't want to know.

McGonagall cut him off,

"Thank Merlin for McGonagall," Lily smiled.

Peeves seemed to find this whole thing rather funny as he made up a song on the spot about how Harry was doing all of this.

"Why that little-" Lily spluttered in disgust.

James grimaced and said, "yeah, Peeves likes making songs about awful things."

"I thought you got on alright with him?" she asked.

"No," Sirius laughed, "we just know how he works. We never said we liked him."

"He loved picking on me in particular," Remus added with fond remembrance.

"Why's that?" Harry asked curiously.

"Not sure," he shrugged, "guess I was just an easy target. He called me looney loopy, probably because he found me sleeping in random places throughout the castle."

"Why did you do that?" Harry asked further, not feeling nearly as reserved around these people anymore, feeling like he could ask them anything at this point.

"Transforming is exhausting for me," Remus sighed, "and I slept a lot both before and after it happened. Sometimes I just didn't feel like making the long trek up to the dormitory, so I'd curl up somewhere and take a nap. The amount of times Peeves saw me doing that must have inspired his song."

'He was the main reason we invented the map' James thought fondly 'we got tired of looking around for him every time he did that.' He decided against mentioning this to Harry though, since

Harry still knew nothing of the map, he wanted to sit on that for a while longer until he had established what had happened to it.

Lily couldn't believe they were taking Peeves mocking Harry so lightly, but thinking back on all the things she'd seen the Poltergeist do over the years, she guessed making an awful song wasn't even the worst.

McGonagall got Peeves to stop as well, getting rid of him.

"I'm still happy she did that," Lily said.

The boys nodded, knowing that Peeves was more annoying then amusing to most people.

She began telling the rest of the students to get back to class, asked two of the other teachers to take care of Justin, and then created a fan which she gave Ernie and told him to get Nick up to the hospital wing.

"Would that even work?" Harry asked.

"I've no idea, we never tried," James said curiously.

Ernie did as told, using the air to brush Nick along.

"Guess it does," Remus said in surprise.

"At least they didn't just leave him there," Lily agreed.

"How are they even going to fix him?" Sirius asked, "For that matter, what if someone was petrified with their mouth closed? How would they fix that?"

"You poor it down their nose," Lily shrugged.

"I find it fascinating you know that," James said, grinning lovingly at his wife.

She smiled indulgently at him before continuing, "As for Nick, I've no idea honestly."

Harry sighed miserably, he had a feeling he had asked someone this at some time, but he had no clear memory of this now, so he didn't pry into it.

Finally McGonagall turned her attention on Harry, and told him to follow her.

"Where's she taking you?" James asked in trepidation.

"She doesn't think you did it?" Sirius asked with both surprise and anger.

Harry shrugged miserably, he certainly hoped his head of house didn't think that of him.

Harry tried to explain himself, but McGonagall said she curtly replied this was out of her bounds.

"Curtly?" Remus muttered, "that doesn't help."

She took him to a stone gargoyle.

"Crap." James muttered, "she took you to Dumbledore's office."

"Still doesn't answer whether they're blaming you," Sirius said, looking a little jittery. He'd really get mad if Harry was punished for this.

"I don't think he will," Lily said slowly, "after all, if he didn't think it was Harry back during these exact same circumstances with the cat, why would he now?"

This seemed to relieve the rest of them.

She gave the password, and the statue moved aside, allowing Harry to go up a flight of stairs, and only when he reached the top did he realize he was in Dumbledore's office.

"Well, look on the bright side," James said as he took the book from his wife, "Harry got sent to Dumbledore's office before we did. That's an accomplishment."

[thewritingstar]

Ah well were all at home better ask all 200 questions g, don't really know much about u

200 QUESTIONS???? ALRIGHT HERE YA GO. 

hope you enjoy me spending an hour answering all of these :) 

200: My crush’s name is: N/A 199: I was born in: 2000 198: I am really: nice 197: My cellphone company is: idk 196: My eye color is: Hazel, can turn dark brown or light green sometimes 195: My shoe size is: 8 194: My ring size is: 7 I think 193: My height is: 5′3 192: I am allergic to: penicillin  191: My 1st car was: Toyota  190: My 1st job was: Baskin Robbins  189: Last book you read: Suicide Notes (highly recommend)  188: My bed is: galaxy bedding and is currently on the floor in my bed fram cause my friends broke it... 187: My pet: Black cockapoo and a white cockapoo named Abby and Molly 186: My best friend: is a hoe 185: My favorite shampoo is: herbal essence color me happy  184: Xbox or ps3: I perfer Wii, Wii U or Nintendo switch  183: Piggy banks are: cute, Mine is a ducktales cup  182: In my pockets: nothing rn 181: On my calendar: nothing rn 180: Marriage is: a good thing but not a necessity for a happy life 179: Spongebob can: get it  178: My mom: is a queen  177: The last three songs I bought were? i only buy cds for my car so: Lover, Hozier, Blink 182 176: Last YouTube video watched: The Office deleted scenes 175: How many cousins do you have? 8 but I only see four of them and two of them are adults with kids so i consider them more of aunt and uncle figures 174: Do you have any siblings? One older sister  173: Are your parents divorced? Nope  172: Are you taller than your mom? Nope 171: Do you play an instrument? Nope 170: What did you do yesterday? Sat on ass and watched youtube 

[ I Believe In ] 169: Love at first sight: ye why not 168: Luck: yes  167: Fate: yes 166: Yourself: kinda 165: Aliens: yes 164: Heaven: mmmm yes i guess 163: Hell: yes 162: God: uhhhhh yes and no, kinda indifferent 161: Horoscopes: yep 160: Soul mates: yesss 159: Ghosts: ye 158: Gay Marriage: WHO THE FUCK DOESNT BELIEVE IN THISS?? ITS REAL  157: War: think it does more harm than good 156: Orbs: ye 155: Magic: ye i wanna be a wizard 

[ This or That ] 154: Hugs or Kisses: hugs 153: Drunk or High: drunk, i dont do drugs and i dont drink yet but ill prob get drunk  152: Phone or Online: oo i use both but Online i guess 151: Red heads or Black haired: Black hair 150: Blondes or Brunettes: Brunettes 149: Hot or cold: HOT 148: Summer or winter: Summer 147: Autumn or Spring: Both 146: Chocolate or vanilla: Vanilla  145: Night or Day: Day 144: Oranges or Apples: Oranges 143: Curly or Straight hair: I have straight hair but curly hair is also beautiful 142: McDonalds or Burger King: BURGER KING..I HATE MCDONALDS 141: White Chocolate or Milk Chocolate: MILK 140: Mac or PC: Pc 139: Flip flops or high heals:...High heels prob 138: Ugly and rich OR sweet and poor: SWEET AND POOR, IM ALREADY UGLY 137: Coke or Pepsi: NEITHER 136: Hillary or Obama: obama  135: Burried or cremated: cremated 134: Singing or Dancing: love both but maybe dancing rn 133: Coach or Chanel: Coach  132: Kat McPhee or Taylor Hicks: idk who they are 131: Small town or Big city: Big city, i grew up in a small town 130: Wal-Mart or Target: TARGET 129: Ben Stiller or Adam Sandler: Adam 128: Manicure or Pedicure: Mani 127: East Coast or West Coast: West Coast 126: Your Birthday or Christmas: Christmas  125: Chocolate or Flowers: Chocolate 124: Disney or Six Flags: DISNEY  123: Yankees or Red Sox: eww sports 

[ Here’s What I Think About ] 122: War:....does more harm than good  121: George Bush:....dont know enough to say but im pretty sure he was an awful human  120: Gay Marriage: It should just be called marriage, just because you’re gay doesnt make it any less or any more, its equal to other marriages  119: The presidential election: 118: Abortion: Pro Choice, no one has the right to tell someone what to do with their body 117: MySpace: i never used it cause i was too young but i bet it was lit 116: Reality TV: its funny af  115: Parents: are nice if they care about their child but if they are abusive or horrible then they dont deserve respect  114: Back stabbers: should be stabbed  113: Ebay: its nice  112: Facebook: full of idiots and boomers  111: Work: a scam  110: My Neighbors: they fine 109: Gas Prices: A SCAM 108: Designer Clothes: a nice but really $200 for socks, no mama 107: College: SHOULD BE FREE 106: Sports: fun but no one needs to make that much money for throwing a ball 105: My family: i like them 104: The future: is wild and idk at this point 

[ Last time I ] 103: Hugged someone: my mom like a few days ago 102: Last time you ate: at 11 today! 101: Saw someone I haven’t seen in awhile:  100: Cried in front of someone: my mom after i yelled at her 99: Went to a movie theater: i saw Onward when we were allowed outside 98: Took a vacation: went to disneyland last October  97: Swam in a pool: like almost two years sadly  96: Changed a diaper: when i was like 8  95: Got my nails done: never got them done because my mom wouldnt take me cause i was a ‘tom boy’  94: Went to a wedding: never  93: Broke a bone: when i was three, my big toe 92: Got a piercing: my nose in January  91: Broke the law: i guess i sped the other day  90: Texted: literally as im doing this 

[ MISC ] 89: Who makes you laugh the most: my friend 88: Something I will really miss when I leave home is: the silence of being alone 87: The last movie I saw: Princess and the Frog 86: The thing that I’m looking forward to the most: Moving for college 85: The thing im not looking forward to:  84: People call me: Deanna (real name), Dean, Star (what yall call me) ton of others 83: The most difficult thing to do is: idk  82: I have gotten a speeding ticket: never 81: My zodiac sign is: Aries 80: The first person i talked to today was:  79: First time you had a crush: Ive had  78: The one person who i can’t hide things from: my best friends 77: Last time someone said something you were thinking: my friends over ft  76: Right now I am talking to: no one 75: What are you going to do when you grow up: hopefully being an animator  74: I have/will get a job: at disney  73: Tomorrow: doing nothing 72: Today: doing nothing  71: Next Summer: hopefully not on quarantine  70: Next Weekend: nothing special  69: I have these pets: 2 doggos 68: The worst sound in the world: ICE SCRAPING OR MOUTH BREATHING 67: The person that makes me cry the most is:  66: People that make you happy: my friends 65: Last time I cried: few days ago  64: My friends are: my world 63: My computer is: a Dell  62: My School: is a community college  61: My Car: it goes 60: I lose all respect for people who: are bigots, dehumanize people, republicans  59: The movie I cried at was: Onward had me sobbing  58: Your hair color is: Brown rn 57: TV shows you watch: theres too many 56: Favorite web site: tumblr or youtube 55: Your dream vacation: every disney park  54: The worst pain I was ever in was: i think when i cut my finger or when i went to the hospital for my chest  53: How do you like your steak cooked: Medium rare  52: My room is: disney themed and my safe zone 51: My favorite celebrity is: Tara Strong  50: Where would you like to be: Disneyland 49: Do you want children: ehh maybe  48: Ever been in love: nope 47: Who’s your best friend: my neighbor that ive known since i was 4 46: More guy friends or girl friends: more girl 45: One thing that makes you feel great is: making cake  44: One person that you wish you could see right now: my cousin 43: Do you have a 5 year plan: not really  42: Have you made a list of things to do before you die: ye 41: Have you pre-named your children: kinda 40: Last person I got mad at: my mom 39: I would like to move to: La 38: I wish I was a professional: animator

[ My Favorites ] 37: Candy: Kitkat 36: Vehicle: Cars 35: President: 34: State visited: California, Nevada, Texas, Hawaii,  33: Cellphone provider: 32: Athlete: n/a 31: Actor: Colin O'Donoghue 30: Actress: Lana Parrilla 29: Singer: Joe Jonas, Taylor Swift  28: Band: Big Time Rush 27: Clothing store: Hot topic, Ross,  26: Grocery store: Safeway  25: TV show: Once Upon A Time or PPG  24: Movie: Princess and the Frog and Ratatouille  23: Website: tumblr  22: Animal: elephant  21: Theme park: disneyland  20: Holiday: Halloween  19: Sport to watch: hockey  18: Sport to play:..i do not play  17: Magazine: i dont read mags  16: Book: Kingdom Keepers  15: Day of the week: Friday  14: Beach: one i went to in Hawaii  13: Concert attended: Jonas Brothers  12: Thing to cook: chowmein and strawberry shortcake  11: Food: Chowmein  10: Restaurant: my fav Chinese restaurant  9: Radio station: I don’t listen to the radio  8: Yankee candle scent: Vanilla  7: Perfume: Vanilla  6: Flower: Rose or Larkspur  5: Color: Black or blue  4: Talk show host: umm i dont watch many but i guess Jimmy Fallon  3: Comedian: Jaboukie Young-White or John Mulaney  2: Dog breed: Pomeranian  1: Did you answer all these truthfully? ye