#JK Rowling is at the front

[snarlicbread]

if i was harry potter i would be having near-daily panic diarea and probably would have killed myself during the tri wizard tournament when all my classmates including ron were bullying me for something i didnt even do

[sossolei]

things I learned after shifting to Hogwarts ‧₊ ᵎᵎ⋅ ˚ △⃒⃘

SIDENOTE: hogwarts was not the first reality I shifted to ! this is a uni reality ! there is no war ! ask any questions you want !

.☘︎ ݁˖ BATHROOM. I’ve genuinely never seen anyone talk about this but ( at least in my reality ) there’s a bathroom on the Hogwarts Express and holy fuck??? On the outside it looks tiny asf but I went in there to change into my robes and it’s wayyy bigger than it looks on the outside. It works like the tents in Goblet of Fire basically. The toilets and everything look relatively new so I’m assuming they change it every couple years just to keep in good condition.

.☘︎ ݁˖ MUGGLES. Have you ever wondered exactly how the muggles don’t notice wizardry, or at least at the platform? In my personal experience, unless it’s magic very intentionally and obviously done in front of muggles, there will usually be a moment distraction where they don’t see the magic happening. In the sense of platform nine and three quarters, there’s usually a couple trains that arrive around the same time and blare the horn so everyone usually gets distracted by that. But a personal example of this happens when I was standing in front of the barrier getting ready to cross through the wall, a young child was watching me from afar and as soon as started walking forward, he tripped over the wheel of his mothers luggage and didn’t see me go through the wall.

.☘︎ ݁˖ THE GREAT HALL. The candles are never ending. They don’t drip. They don’t melt in any way. I just had to say that cause I legit stared at them for almost an hour trying to see if it would melt. You have to talk pretty loud to be heard at the front where Dumbledore usually gives his lil speeches, which means the students who sing have lungs for DAYSSSS it’s actually so impressive. The benches are uncomfortable, not unbearable but not recommended for sitting for a long time lol. There’s no menu or anything, the food rlly does just appear there but there’s always something for everybody. Some people even walk up and down the table looking for what they want.

.☘︎ ݁˖ OTHER SCHOOLS. I didn’t stay in this reality for very long but I was always asking questions ( sorry mcgonnagall ). Ilvermorny is currently trying to admit more Native American wizards into their school but Native American wizards (as far as I know) have their own kind of magic and legit do not want anything to do with Ilvermorny. Kind of similar issue in Australia and Aboriginals I’m pretty sure. There’s a lot of, like a fuck ton of wizarding schools in Africa. I know JK Rowling has like one wizarding school in Africa but geographically speaking, that never made sense to begin with and I wasn’t surprised when I found out there were different/smaller wizarding schools around Africa.

.☘︎ ݁˖ STUDENTS. I don’t know how many students are in Hogwarts but I do know that it’s never a surprise who comes to Hogwarts. The ministry genuinely keeps track of every single wizard who has children, and even hold records of wizards who have families without wizarding abilities, just in case someone pops out with it. Easiest way to think of it is that families like Ron’s are always kept track of as well as Hermione’s, so it’s never usually a surprise when someone turns up muggleborn cause they’re usually expecting it.

.☘︎ ݁˖ PROFESSORS. The professors are not as silly goofy as they are in the movies guy :( They’re not miserable or anything but they all just remind me of the standing emoji LMAOOO. But seriously, someone like Mcgonnagall is not as welcoming or “chill” as she is in the movies or towards Harry. But some definitely are more chill, especially the younger ones. Slughorn is my silly king but even he has his moments.

Since this is a uni, Snape isn’t as uh…violent (?) as he is in the movies. Neville is a grown ass man, Snape is def not his biggest fear but Neville in general has a strong urge to prove himself and it reflects in his relationship with Snape. Snape isn’t scary, he just demands lots of respect and has respect for people that have proven they are “worthy” of it, i.e., high marks, put together, confidence, strong willed, etc.

.☘︎ ݁˖ DIVINATION. Did you guys know that being a witch/wizard doesn’t automatically make you good at all forms of divination? I scripted Mattheo Riddle into this reality and me and him are soooo good at other forms of divination like tarot, coffee grounds, and even the the crystal ball, but Theodore Nott fucking sucksss at it. Hermione also didn’t do as well in the class as I know she could’ve done, but according to Treylawney, all forms of divination require open mindedness towards something you can’t understand. Someone like hermione, for example, wants to know everything all the time and doesn’t beat around the bush, so tarot isn’t her cup of tea because she doesn’t think it’s giving her exactly what she wants.

.☘︎ ݁˖ HOMEWORK. Homework can either be really fun or really time consuming. It’s just like regular homework where you recall everything you learned in class but homework isn’t very common the more you move up in classes, mainly because the magic you start to do becomes more hands on rather than memorizing. This doesn’t apply to Snape though. He loves homework.

.☘︎ ݁˖ UNIFORMS. THE ROBES ARE INSULATED. It’s very thick, good quality fabric and keeps you real warm during the winter but during the later hot months like September, it’s not uncommon to walk around with the robes open or in your hands, but you have to wear them in your body during class, no exceptions. They absorb stains??? This is one I wasn’t expecting but it’s a magical robe so…okay! I dropped cranberry juice on the sleeve and it just completely absorbed and it didn’t stink or anything. This doesn’t apply to the tie or anything else, those have to washed for sure.

.☘︎ ݁˖ REALITY. If you haven’t shifted yet, you’ll often hear people say “it’ll feel natural because you’ve already lived there your whole life” and while that is true, it’s also not because how am I supposed to be natural walking past Robert fucking Pattinson to get to Defense Against the Dark Arts???? In my mind, he’s always been Edward from Twilight and seeing him in the hogwarts robes just made me stop in my tracks and stare. Some things come natural and some things don’t but I embrace everything with open arms.

.☘︎ ݁˖ EXTRA. Draco is blonde as hell! Like Targaryen level blonde. I do think it’s natural tho cause Luna has the same platinum type of blonde going on. Harry’s scar is soooo much cooler in this reality, it’s thin but branches out on the side of his face and it’s much more noticeable than the one in the movie. Hermione has curly curly hair! I don’t know if she straightens it in the books but I know she does in the movie, in this reality she literally just got a better curl routine. She has a ton of products and really cares for her hair and she’s lowkey embarrassed cause it’s the one thing she considers “vain.”

There’s a “club” of sorts where a bunch of students get together and run around the castle at the crack ass of Dawn for exercise ( best believe they have NEVER seen the likes of me ). I was told there are wizards who are famous in muggle spaces, typically for music or art. The painting will warn people when the stairs are about to move lol. That whole house discrimination stuff doesn’t happen as often as it does in the movies/books, most people don’t actually care and Slytherins get along with Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs well—however, Gryffindor does have the tendency to poke fun and Slytherins respond with dry sarcasm so sometimes it’s not a perfect fit! House discrimination was bigger in our parents age but as the years have gone by, the current gen doesn’t care fr.

That’s all I can think of atm, thank you for reading and yes I will be doing this with other places I’ve shifted to!

[gimmick-blog-bracket]

Because there are only (!) 128 polls this round, I've lowered the queue frequency to 32 posts a day, because that is a nice simple power of 2. After this round, I will change the number of posts per day such that all of the polls will be released in 2 days, so the next one will also have 32 a day, then 16, then 8, etc.

Regardless, here are the competitors for round 1:

hasgavlebockenburneddownyet

the-compressor

cantheywinthehungergames

would-you-punt-them

ominous-signs

throckmorton-the-skater

identifying-dogs

identifying-cat-phenotypes

alphabetcompletionist

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rat-detector-detector-detector

yesornopolls

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crane-detector

onionpainter

i-make-things-snakes

onenicebugperday

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hot-take-tournament

cantheykillmacbeth

bear-detector

localairport

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mcmansionhell

ofishal-fish-posts

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identifying-dinosaurs-in-posts

the-actual-ocean

pointless-achievements

making-your-fave-in-fr

creatures-in-posts

e-counter

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the-timeloop-tourney

smashorpassgilf

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earth-updates-today

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haveyouatethisfruit

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does-this-require-cyanobacteria

mammalidentifier

kittybroker

pokemonbattletournament

reallybadblackoutpoems

postsofbabel

incorrectconspiracytheorist

arewebeholdingaman

lowpolyanimals

united-states-health-care

snailifier

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identifying-spacecraft-in-posts

parappa-raps

little-bitch-detector

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whatcoloristhatcat

identifying-maille-weaves

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flametexting-posts

dailyhatsune

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ao3org

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[ebenelephant]

thinking again about jk rowling being a bad writer. like, we all know about the massive flaws in her worldbuilding and i hope by now it's clear she's a bigot on basically every front. (hello, regular reminder that she doesn't even actually like women.) but like. she's especially good at dropping bits of lore and then those not being relevant in the fucking slightest. riddle was told to go home to his orphanage in london during what would have very much been the blitz? whatever. the weasley's are so strapped for cash that they're sending their son to school with a potentially dangerous broken wand? of course they're spending their lottery winnings on visiting their adult son in egypt, what else would they do. snape grew up in what was likely a dying northern industrial town with abusive/neglectful parents, largely cut off from the magical world? almost impressed you caught on to that, with how little it's expanded on. yes hermione has a supposedly good relationship with both her parents, no we're not going to show you it at all, yes she's going to wipe they're memories like it's nothing. lily evans is the moral compass of james and basically the most important person in the series but fuck you if you want to actually know anything about her lmao. even what little we see is wildly inconsistent.

[nobodysavemysoulitsperfectlyfine]

Incorrect Percy Jackson Quotes as things my friends and I have said except I literally forgot the context.

Percy Jackson: "No. I will eat him. Swallow him whole. Shove him down my gullet. You underestimate how much I need him seasoned, battered, baked or fried."

Annabeth Chase: "No, the stupidest thing I've ever heard is anything Jk Rowling ever said."

Jason Grace: (screaming at the top of his lungs) "WHO EVEN IS JEMIMAH THE CONQUEROR??"

Leo Valdez: (breaking out into song whenever the room is quiet)

Piper Mclean: (In front of literal police) "It's because I stole it."

Frank Zhang: (Standing in front of a very wealthy house in the middle of the poorest county in the state) "What? I'm not rich."

Hazel Levesque: (Relentlessly being bullied for looking like a horse girl)

Nico Di Angelo: "I know it's midnight and we don't live here, but I really want to go out in the woods right now."

Will Sollace: "How could there possibly be THIS many things wrong with you?? What the hell?"

Chris Rodriguez: (Spamming calls and texts) "HOW COME EVERY TIME I TAKE COUGH MEDICINE I HAVE VIVID NIGHTMARES OF BEING IN FUCKING LEAGUE OF LEGENDS. I DON'T WANT THEM."

Octavian: "No, I'm really manipulative. It's gotten to a point where I don't even notice, but you guys should keep that in mind."

Reyna Avila Ramirez Allerano: (Aiming nerf guns stolen from a group of rotten kids) "JUSTICE!!"

Dakota: (Taking a drink of literally anything carbonated and visibly twitching uncomfortably) "Ew." (Drinking again) "Ew. Disgusting." (Drinking it again)

Mr. D: "Would you please STOP MAKING BABIES IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RAISE THEM."

Lester Papadopoulos: "How is it that every time a thunderstorm rolls around I have a psychotic break? Like, I have a feeling that's not just anxiety."

Meg Mcaffery: "I always thought Unicorns would be fatter."

Luke Castellan: "Guys, do you think I have bad morals?" (everyone saying yes in unison)

Alex Fierro: (Only ever using hoe as a pronoun when talking about someone to their face)

Magnus Chase: (Being forced to eat an orange peel covered in salt after saying he was bored while other people watched and recorded him gag)

Austin Lake:(Playing Sailor Song every moment he gets the chance)

Rachel Dare: "You know there's a Greek word for that? That describes exactly what you are?"

Georgina: "Right Now my Mom's waiting outside for and I quote "Biker Bitch". It's like a fairy tale."

Rhea: "I genuinely, and wholeheartedly believe that MOST of the world's problems would be solved if all men got a decent pegging. Every world leader, politician, everyone." (Continues to debate this perfectly for twenty minutes)

Ethan Nakumara: "Guys do your parents have nemisisees?"

Litreysis: "My entire face hates me."

Blitzen: "By Peach do you mean fruit or ass?"

Hearth: (Signing slurs in public to his boyfriend while smiling kindly)

Commodus: (Harassing the guy dressed up as Santa by repeatedly smacking his fake stomach and calling his ass a bowl full of jelly)

Thomas Jefferson Junior: "You're only a whore mentally."

Mallory Keen: (Prank calling some poor woman and screaming random scottish as loud as possible)

Marcus: "I'm gonna boil one of them alive and make the other watch."

Samirah Al Abbas: (frowning in response to seeing her friend's scores on the empathy test)

Arrow of Dodona: "Probably cause I am in the woods. They thought I got lost."

Ella The Harpy: (Rewrighting Heather's as a Biden x Trump musical with other world leaders as the Heathers)

I'm tired maybe I'll do more tomorrow or never

[sophie-frm-mars]

So much of leftwing politics is about wanting to make life better for people. The reason that leftists support things like universal healthcare or tuition-free college is because they believe that such things would improve people's lives. It's a perspective that requires a certain love of humanity, genuine compassion for others, and a desire to see life get better for them. And those are values I would like to have. And yet over the years I find myself becoming increasingly resentful and misanthropic. Oftentimes I simply don't like other people and I find myself wishing misfortune on others, sometimes hating them so much that I want nothing more than to see them suffer and die. It doesn't help that there are people out there who genuinely deserve such hatred (TERFs, fascists, cops, etc.). But obviously such a perspective is antithetical to any kind of humanistic, compassionate politics. You can't simultaneously wish for life to get better for people while deep down resenting those people and wishing they were dead. So how does one go about resolving this contradiction? How does one go about cultivating a sense of love and compassion for other people, rather than simply becoming a bitter misanthrope? How does one overcome their own sense of resentment and spitefulness towards other people (especially towards people who did genuinely hurt me and gave me good reason to want to see them suffer and die)? I know the typical answer to this question is the aphorism "fix your heart or die", but that's easier said than done when there's not exactly a solid roadmap for what "fixing your heart" entails.

I've been holding off on answering this one for a bit because it's a big topic.

It's something I struggled with quite a lot when I was younger and pre/early transition. What helped me move through it was a few different things, so you'll have to bear with me a bit.

One thing was this realisation, that emotions and political change aren't the same thing. They're linked - if nobody ever got angry nothing would change! Anger is a potent political force. But if everyone got as angry as they possibly could and then what they did about it was vote for Joe Biden, also nothing would change, right? And that seems unfair, but you know this is real - people feel so deeply, so intensely, and they relate those feelings to the options they see in front of them, and they spend hours and days and weeks and months defending them in arguments online because they earnestly don't see the other affordances they have before them. They invest all their energy into the only thing they think they can do, and then all their energy is gone. So there's your first point. Hating people doesn't actually change anything on its own. In fact, if you read about the concept of ressentiments from Nietzsche and related thinkers, you realise that hating someone gives them a lot of power over you. It makes them this target for all your energies, "if only" you could defeat them it would all be okay, but it never will, so you accept your inferiority and powerlessness. You imbue them with a power over you to explain why you feel so frustrated and useless compared to them, and thereby trap yourself.

Another realisation I had was that the work to be done isn't about hating or anger most of the time. If you are angry that people are being discriminated against, that people are homeless, that people are starving, there are things you can put that energy into, and most of the time it doesn't involved punching someone, shooting someone, killing someone. The work you can do is work to house someone, to feed someone, to make someone safe from bigots or from state attacks. Hating JK Rowling, believing that she deserves to die or suffer or whatever, it quite literally does nothing for trans people. Here maybe you would say well if we get enough cis people to understand then she won't have money to attack trans people with - great, then you're describing a process where you proselytise, you go and bring cis people in and educate them on the struggles of trans people. Did you need the hate to do that? maybe. maybe that's how that individual cis person needed convincing, but maybe not. It was the talking then that made the change, not the hating. And what would help trans people more is robust community structures, material support from cis people and a stronger feminist movement taking back narrative control from the fake feminists. All of that is positive, constructive work that needs to be done to make safer.

But let's talk about Israelis for a second. Let's talk about an example where using violence to stop violence is legitimate. If the ICJ hasn't stopped Israel, the UN declaring a genocide hasn't stopped them, it really seems that only actual military defeat can stop them. So here, surely, we must hate? We must hate the zionists, we must hate Bibi, we must hate Balfour? We can hate them. It is not wrong to hate them, they are killing children. What comes up for me here is when I've been to antifascist demonstrations and I've seen terfs and nazis up close. Mostly they put on a brave face, act smug, try not to seem rattled or threatened when they're outnumbered, try to get the cops involved and play victim if they see an opportunity, but this is of course a performance. I remember once putting on my noise cancelling headphones and watching the fash from a little distance and feeling in my chest that I really knew every feeling they felt in their bodies. Watching them, I could see that there wasn't a single feeling about us that they didn't feel had complete and total compelling legitimacy. They felt scared, angry, frustrated, unheard, and so did we.

When I say that unless we believe truly that our transgressors could stop hurting us tomorrow and become better people, we cannot see how wrong their actions really are, I mean that if we don't believe that then we are naturalising their hurting of us. It's like a hungry wolf and a bunny rabbit. nazi and jew. bigot and queer. israeli and palestinian. But these aren't the same. The very fact that the violence done to us is done by people who could choose otherwise is where we see a moral wrong, and it is their feelings that tell them they are right. I think when we hate these people, we create monsters in our heads who could never be anything but what they are and what they are doing. So no, I don't think we need to hate those who are doing violence even in the case where we need to use violence to stop them.

Eventually I realised that the anger I was carrying my whole life wasn't "at" these people. I wasn't seeing things that make me angry, I was taking an anger that sits in me and letting it find what I thought was a reasonable target. That anger is trauma, that anger is unresolved pain for things that have happened to me and people I love, and it is a bottomless well. It will be with me forever. It will be with me when I die. I will never be without my anger, but I can be free from it. I do that by recognising it for the pain of a wounded and lonely cub who deserved better than she got. Then, when I see someone who hates me because of the kind of person I am, because of the kind of things I believe in, I know that they are also hurting. Things have happened to them that they couldn't stop and it has hurt them deeply and they need a target for the anger that rises out of that pain and they've picked me. And so I see their pain, and I feel that this world has hurt them just like it hurt me, and that's where I let my anger be directed, and that is why I don't have to be rid of it to be free of it, because I may be angry at the world but I know it is only because I want to make it better. Nobody can feel all the pain in the world, but we can look at what has hurt us and others and we can put our energy into making sure it doesn't ever happen again.

It's a long journey, and it never feels like you're going in the right direction until you get there. The first step is the scariest, because to open your heart you have to realise how vulnerable you are, how much better you deserved than what you got, that you will be hurt again, that you can't change the past, that you cannot know the future

As the immortal Michael Brooks said, we must be kind to people, and ruthless to systems.

[tinyowlthoughts]

"I want to be remembered as the Anti-JK-Rowling."

"JK Rowling the billionaire author (which, by the way, billionaires should not exist) who instead of using her wealth and reach to better our world has decided to spend her days on Twitter attacking trans people for having the audacity to exist. Imagine, you are one of the BIGGEST authors the world has ever known, writing books for standing up for what's right, only to turn into the villain you warned about.

"What a slap in the face that is. What an absolute betrayal. People like that - people who think that they are somehow better than others, more human, deserve to be shunned from society, no ifs, ands, or buts, and nothing less than just that. At the end of the day, Rowling has no idea who I am, and that's okay. I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing, writing for my community who deserves to see themselves in books.

"Our stories matter. Important stories that show all the different facets of our lives. Stories where we get to be the heroes. Stories where we get to be the villains. Stories where our truths are put down on page. Trans and nonbinary authors like Ryka Aoki, Anna Marie Macklemore, Andrew Joseph White. Those authors are telling trans stories in a way that no one has ever done before, putting trans characters front and center where they belong in stories that defy imagination."

TJ Klune Library Journal Day of Dialog 5/9/2024

[sideprince]

Eileen Prince

I'm relentlessly curious about how a witch from Slytherin, a house that values cunning and ambition on paper, and bloodlines/nobility in its culture, ended up living in a muggle slum.

Unfortunately for me, she's a barely mentioned character written by an author who consistently fails to portray female characters with depth or dimension. The women in Harry Potter are portrayed as either maternal or villains, or, in Ginny Weasley's case, as redeemed by their masculine traits (because Rowling's Thatcher era feminism dictates that equality for women = emulating patriarchal ideas of manhood). About as much as you can expect from an author who's as unable to acknowledge the personhood of trans women as she is to write women as actual people. This leaves a lot of room for interpreting or delving into what Eileen Prince's life may have looked like, and how that would have affected her son's development.

There are three direct mentions of Eileen in the text :

“The picture showed a skinny girl of around fifteen. She was not pretty; she looked simultaneously cross and sullen, with heavy brows and a long, pallid face. Underneath the photograph was the caption: Eileen Prince, Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Team.”

HBP Ch. 25

“I was going through the rest of the old Prophets and there was a tiny announcement about Eileen Prince marrying a man called Tobias Snape, and then later an announcement saying that she’d given birth to a" “ — murderer,” spat Harry.

HBP ch. 30

“Harry looked around: he was on platform nine and three-quarters, and Snape stood beside him, slightly hunched, next to a thin, sallow-faced, sour-looking woman who greatly resembled him.”

DH Ch. 33

(Shoutout to Harry James Potter, who didn't recognize Eileen's fifth year photo despite her resemblance to Snape, the teacher whose classroom he got his used Potions book from. Shoutout also to Harry James Potter who didn't connect the dots between the Prince's handwriting and Snape's, a teacher who regularly wrote instructions on the board. "I needed to make the plot work, ok?" - JK Rowling, probably.)

Other relevant excerpts:

“Snape staggered - his wand flew upwards, away from Harry - and suddenly Harry’s mind was teeming with memories that were not his: a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-haired boy cried in a corner ”

OoTP Ch. 26

“Harry delved into his trunk and pulled out his copy of Advanced Potion-Making before getting into bed. There he turned its pages, searching, until he finally found, at the front of the book, the date that it had been published. It was nearly fifty years old.”

HBP Ch. 16

Supplemental material re: Gobstones from JK Rowling:

"...it remains a minority sport within the wizarding world, and does not enjoy a very ‘cool’ reputation, something its devotees tend to resent. Gobstones is most popular among very young wizards and witches, but they generally ‘grow out’ of the game, becoming more interested in Quidditch as they grow older.  ... Gobstones enjoys limited popularity at Hogwarts, ranking low among recreational activities, way behind Quidditch and even Wizarding Chess." [There's an additional sentence on the Harry Potter wiki's Gobstones page: "...it is also known as 'the thinking wizard's Quidditch.'"]

A few conclusions can be drawn from what little information we're given about Eileen:

She's described as "cross and sullen" around the age of 15, and as "sallow-faced, sour-looking" when she's older.

She's captain of the Gobstones club around her fifth year, so she likely marched to the beat of her own drum - given that Gobstones isn't particularly popular - and owns it proudly enough to take, or even seek out, a leadership role.

The sport is described as "the thinking wizard's Quidditch" which would imply Eileen was more interested in intellectual challenges and was clever (and can be paralleled with a young Severus' comment about "if you'd rather be brawny than brainy" to James Potter when they first meet on the Hogwarts Express).

Her marriage and the birth of her son are both announced in the paper, which might mean the family she came from was of some importance or note, or perhaps something else... but we'll get to that.

If we assume that Severus' secondhand copy of Advanced Potion Making was originally Eileen's (reasonable, though there is no textual evidence) then its publication date is likely around the time she was a sixth year, given that this particular text was specific to students beginning to prep for N.E.W.T. exams. Harry begins his sixth year in 1996 when the book is "nearly fifty years old," so we can assume Eileen was 16 years old sometime not long after 1946. Severus was born in 1960, which would mean Eileen was in her mid-late 20s at the time.

Her marriage was dysfunctional at best, abusive at worst. As per a Pottermore post that is still up on WizardingWorld.com: "...the desperately lonely and unhappy childhood [Severus] had with a harsh father who didn’t hold back when it came to the whip." Based on this, we can assume Tobias was abusive, and given Eileen's cowering as he shouted at her, she presumably feared him.

From these bits of information emerges the image of a woman who either had a surly personality, or at the very least was guarded, though perhaps just formal. There isn't really any difference in how her face is set when she's in an everyday setting like King's Cross, or when she's having her picture taken for the Gobstones Club. It's possible she was a stern, unsmiling person, but it's also possible - given that her wedding and child were announced in the paper - that she came from a family of some standing and was raised to conduct herself with hallmarks of British class, such as dignity and unaffectedness. After all, there are several wizarding families - such as the Potters - who are wealthy purebloods with social standing but are not part of the Sacred 28. Additionally, the Gobstones Club portrait would have been taken around the mid-1940s, when portraits were formal and their subjects did not often smile, and given that we see only a snippet of Eileen, we don't have enough information that she was unhappy or sour. It's also important to remember that we see her portrait and Snape's memory of her through Harry's perspective and, like his perception of Snape himself, this may convey Harry's biases.

We also know from the text that Snape had a house in a deserted part of Cokeworth, a fictional Midlands town that presumably had a collapsed milling industry, at the end of a street called Spinner's End. There's a great thread that goes into details about the kind of 2 up 2 down house it would have been, and we can assume that this is Snape's family home given that we know he and Lily grew up in Cokeworth. For all intents and purposes, the conclusion we can draw from this being the Snape family's home in the 60s is that they were working class and cripplingly poor. Most estates like this had been cleared by the 60s, and no longer exist today.

This begs the question: how did a witch from a possibly well-off family end up in an abusive marriage in an irrelevant slum?

Buckle up kids, we're leaving the world of textual references and veering into deep meta territory now. I won't label any of this as head canon because I'm not set on these interpretations, and am just drawing conclusions from the text, but some of it may be a bit loose even for meta.

If Eileen was 16 years old not long after 1946, then she would have finished school in the late 40s, possibly even 1950. While some people (including past me) posit the theory that Tobias may have been injured in WWII and his injuries debilitated him, forcing him to go on the dole and affecting his mental health, I'm increasingly skeptical of this theory. It would make more sense if Eileen had known him before he was drafted/enlisted and had committed to a relationship with him, which would then have changed when he came back from the war and was altered. If we assume Eileen's age based on the idea that it was her own copy of Advanced Potion Making Severus used, then she would still have been at school during WWII (which makes an interesting parallel with Severus' own experience of spending the bulk of the first wizarding war against Voldemort as a student at school).

I do think, however, that there's merit in the theory that Tobias suffered some kind of altering injury and that he wasn't necessarily abusive before Eileen committed herself to him. It makes little sense for a Slytherin graduate who was confident and self-posessed enough to be the face of an unpopular club to be drawn to a partner so abusive his shouts caused her to cower and who whipped his child freely. If, however, he was a charming, happy man when they met who suffered a life-altering injury, the trauma of which left him a shell of his former self, then someone like Eileen might stick around for the sake of the parts of his old self she can still see in him.

It's interesting that she didn't seem to use her magic to protect herself or her son, or even to dress her son in clothing that fit, but we know from the text that depression can cause a wizard's powers to wane:

“...it is also possible that her unrequited love and the attendant despair sapped her of her powers; that can happen”

HBP Ch. 13 (Dumbledore talking about Merope Gaunt)

The fact that the Snapes retained the house in Spinner's End seems to indicate that they continued to live there even when the local industry dried up and the slum was cleared as workers were moved to other parts of the country where they were needed (presumably what happened given *gestures at British history*). The most likely explanation for this would be that Tobias wasn't able to work, and perhaps did suffer an injury, only it was at work, and not during the war. This would mean the family lived on the dole (ie. welfare) and also that he would have spent a lot more time at home. It would also explain his anger and frustration that led to abusive behavior (which isn't to say that disabled people are abusive by any means, but it would have been emasculating for a man who considered himself the breadwinner in the 60s, and chronic pain coupled with limited abilities would give anyone a short fuse).

Moreover, this living situation seems to indicate that there is no additional support coming from anywhere. Where is Eileen's family? Why were they not helping? There's no indication in the text that there is any connection with them at all. We can infer from Snape's memories that, as a child, he learned what he knew about the magical world from his mother. This implies that she talked to him about it a fair amount, and his conviction that he and Lily were going to Hogwarts well before they got their letters also implies that Eileen expected him to go there and was set on her son having a magical education, despite how little she seemed to use her own powers.

Severus knows a lot about the wizarding world as a child, including that prisoners are sent to Azkaban and that it's guarded by Dementors, Hogwarts' house structure and what to expect when he and Lily get there, and about the Statute of Secrecy and the laws around it. When Lily asks him if it makes a difference being Muggleborn, Severus hesitates before replying no, presumably because he's aware of pureblood bias being a part of wizarding culture.

Perhaps that's the reason Eileen's family doesn't seem to be in the picture. My own theory is that Eileen hadn't planned to commit herself to Tobias long-term, and Severus was an accidental outcome of an innocent tryst in which a young Eileen, an educated witch from a well to do pureblood family, was having fun slumming it with a working class muggle and ended up pregnant. While we don't know the wizarding world's attitude around pregnancy and abortion, we do know it's a conservative and classist society that parallels muggle British culture fairly closely, and that the late 50s/early 60s were a time when an out of wedlock baby would have been considered a disgrace.

Add to that the anti-muggle bias of a pureblood family and it sounds like Eileen was disowned her for her mistake (and don't @ me, but even though I know that not all Slytherins are purebloods, it does seem to be a persistent cultural value of the house reaching back to Salazar Slytherin himself, so Eileen's being sorted into it can reasonably be taken as an indication of her blood status). Perhaps the marriage and birth announcements in the Daily Prophet were put in by Eileen herself, if she was a woman from a family where this was customary. It may have been her way of letting her family know of the events, or even of asserting herself and even deliberately defying them, announcing to the whole wizarding world that a Prince married and had a child with a muggle. It makes sense that the girl who wasn't just in the Gobstones club, but became captain, would also say to herself, why shouldn't I have my marriage announced in the paper like everyone else in the family?

It's worth noting that mid-late 20s is pretty young to have a baby in the wizarding world, where the life expectancy and child bearing years are much longer than they are for a muggle. According to the Harry Potter wiki:

"Wizard life expectancy in Britain reached an average 137¾ years in the mid-1990s, according to the Ministry of Divine Health ... Wizards in general have a much longer life expectancy than Muggles, usually living two or three times as long as their non magical counterparts, some living even longer than that depending on circumstances. In addition, seeing as James Potter's parents had him "late in life,” witches likely have significantly longer childbearing years than Muggle women."

Although we see several characters in Severus' generation getting married and having kids not long after leaving school, there's a mention in the text that a lot of people were doing this during Voldemort's reign, as the fear he inspired made people more eager to get a move on with life since they thought they might die any day (I think Mrs. Weasley says this but I can't find the quote, @ me if you do). It's clear this wasn't the norm in the wizarding world. Eileen was a Slytherin, a house that values cunning, ambition, and strong wizarding heritage. Something must have gone very wrong in Eileen's life for her to end up having a child so young and living in a muggle slum.

And so it's possible Eileen Prince found herself pregnant and alone, having been disowned by her family to save face in light of her disgrace, and dependent on the only person she was still close to, the father of her child. It's the kind of storyline that Rowling would write, and it would parallel fairly closely the story of Voldemort's mother, thus adding another to the long list of similarities between Voldemort and Snape.

Lorrie Kim makes an interesting point when she talks about how Snape has a strong reaction to other people having a love life or romantic experiences (the context being Rowling's intention of his love for Lily being romantic and unrequited), but doesn't react particularly strongly to mothers sacrificing themselves for their children, whereas Voldemort does. Her insight, and I think it's a reasonable one, is that Severus accepts the idea of mothers making sacrifices for their children, whether it's Lily giving her life for Harry or Narcissa risking all she did to ask for his help in protecting Draco, because his own mother protected him from his father as much as she could.

There's a lot of room for interpretation on what Eileen's relationship with her son looked like, and what it says about her own state. She may have prioritized not angering Tobias to protect Severus, who as a child might have perceived her actions as a form of rejection. At the same time, she seems to have prepared him thoroughly for life in the magical world, perhaps in the hope that he would find his place in it and escape home. Perhaps she missed it and told him so much about it so she could live through her own memories.

The only time we see her argue with Tobias, in Severus' memory, she's cowering as he shouts. We know from JK Rowling that Tobias used corporal punishment liberally, which implies Eileen didn't stop him despite her magical abilities. We also see in the text, however, that while at school Severus stood up for himself against bullies and fought back, and that he was an exceptionally clever and powerful wizard. As an adult he was brave enough to face Dumbledore when he betrayed Voldemort, and later fought against Voldemort right under his nose (or lack thereof). So it stands to reason that at some point Severus began to stand up against Tobias too.

How much of that was Eileen's influence, or the result of Severus seeing her acceptance of her fate and rejecting it for himself, is hard to say. As for what happened to Tobias and Eileen that their house was Severus' by the mid-90s and they were nowhere in sight, I don't think there's enough information in the text to infer.

[raphael-angele]

I just overheard this argument...

I was waiting for this friend of mine in a gazebo in front of our building cuz we needed to study. Over to the next gazebo, I overheard these two people arguing. I don't know about what though.

This girl told this guy, "Give me one time a man was better than a woman."

The guy stayed quiet for like 5 seconds before saying, with no hesitation: "Rick Riordan and JK Rowling."

I just looked over at them to see this guy with the smuggest face. The girl just looked at him and said "Touché"

[whumptober]

I don’t really want to participate anymore if y’all are run by a bunch of terfs, putting Harry Potter on my dash

Anon that is a very harmful and hurtful assumption to make.

Especially since I am trans myself.

I apologise that you feel that way, but as far as I am aware only one HP themed work has been reblogged to the archive blog.

While I fundamentally disagree with and dislike JK Rowling due to her blatant and harmful transphobia, I cannot deny the impact Harry Potter has had on many people. While I have had to continue to do my job with a straight face as people debate my rights in front of me, I understand It is possible to appreciate the art while having a strong dislike for the artist. While I have experienced transphobia first hand, and have fought for medical care, I can respect that others still enjoy what I do not like.

I think this sentiment is best worded in Daniel Radcliffe's Letter in response to JK.

I do not personally purchase anything that may provide JK with any revenue, as far as I am aware fanfiction does not financially benefit her.

I am never going to defend or support JK Rowling, but I am not in the business of ostracising those who still engage with the fandom, as everyone has their own reasons.

We are not here to police what people want to create. We provide the prompts list, and encourage everyone to tag their works accordingly. If you do not wish to see Harry Potter works, you can filter the tags.

This is the first and last time I will respond to this, as I am appalled at being labelled something I am not, nor will ever be.

[djuvlipen]

i can't BELIEVE people used to argue if PJO or Harry Potter was better, with the JK Rowling hate ppl are really pretending PJO was better all along lmao. Even kid me knew Harry Potter was so much better that it wasn't even a contest

i used to do that when i was 18yo and a TRA but i didn't even really believe it myself lol. anything from the writing to the message put in each series is MUCH better in hp. the worldbuilding is much more layered and relevant in hp. the characters are much more endearing. and representation (if we're going to talk about that) is much better in hp than in rick's books because yes, there might not be a lot of characters of colour in hp but at least there is no demigod!hitler, there is no 12yo black girl getting into throuples with older boys and 5000yo gods, there is no "i'm including a positive arranged marriage plotline for my underaged character because people shouldn't hate on arranged marriages so much", there is no "the gods follow civilization, that's why they all live in the usa right now". like there is a reason why the hp books were so huge they boosted child literacy rates worldwide while riordan's cultural impact stopped at a disney+ tv show. it's because the hp books are just better on every front

[maxdibert]

CHO LOVER CHO LOVER OMG i never hated her i used to love her sm reading the books and didnt understand why harry was so not very nice at some point?? i usually don't talk much about her bc i know fan opinion and find it very uninspired for jk to name her only asian character CHO CHANG but she was one of my faves (and is!) growing up and i was eating up fanarts and hcs of her

Imagine having such a level of misogyny that you decide to narratively condemn a 15-year-old girl who just lost her boyfriend, calling her whiny for grieving—when she is A DAMN CHILD and her boyfriend JUST DIED. She has no idea how to deal with all that stress, depression, anxiety, and conflicting emotions. The poor girl tries to move on, to live a normal life, but SHE CAN’T because of THE FUCKING TRAUMA.

But no, as an author, you decide that the protagonist should see her as annoying because—HELLO?—she has horrible trauma? And on top of that, you frame it as a negative thing that she “betrays” her little group of wannabe rebels for her FRIEND?

Like, Cho standing up for Marietta even when Marietta messed up isn’t being a traitor—it’s being A FUCKING GREAT FRIEND, AS SHE SHOULD BE. Because real friends call you out in private but defend you to death in front of everyone else, even when you’ve been an idiot.

Cho Chang was literally a girls’ girl and she deserved everything good in life. I will defend her until the day I die against J.K. Rowling’s disgusting misogyny, because she clearly hates women who support other women and express their emotions openly. Period.

[biancasaidstfu]

We are all entitled to our beliefs but it's a shame that JK Rowling is so against it when some of the characters in her Harry Potter and other stories as well as actors are either allies or part of the LBGTQIA community. Some fans are finding it hard to continue to support the books, movies and new series that will be on HBO because of her strong opinions. The casting was already a concern in the fandom for the new series but more people in the fandom are leaving, she was already problematic and they put it aside just to focus support on the work and their fave actors but now some fans aren't willing to support anything. Nicola shared another post about the 70k JK Rowling donated against trans rights which could have supported other issues as well. I get that we want to escape from some of these issues and love the entertainment they give but sometimes it's hard to separate it. Whether we are an ally or not, we can hopefully still be empathetic and understanding.

As for the Jakolas. Just ignore them, today isn't for that. If they can't see what's in front of them then there's no reason to yell in an empty chamber. They will eventually see their error when it comes to light. If on a day of such importance they reduce her plight to a man then there is no hope that they will try to make sense of anything. I hope with all the hoodie and ring analysis they also go and donate or support in some way.

If we can donate or not, let's also be there for our loved ones who may be having a hard time right now and be that support they need.

.

[tanketorskk]

Obvious hate for Rowling and HBO put entirely aside, what do you think about the casting choices?

You’re never gonna catch me talking about that bullshit show on my blog, but since it’s been asked I will clarify my opinion a final time for good measure.

There is no putting entirely aside hate for Rowling and HBO when her hate is so ingrained in everything she does. HBO has clearly shown where they stand simply by working with her and further sharing her IP in a way that makes her money. JK Rowling never puts aside her hate for me as a person, nor my community and thus I cannot do the same for her. If it was me and her in a dark alley I would be swinging at her and I don’t care if that makes me sound like a cunt. Fuck transphobes unconditionally.

That being said when it comes to the casting of this series I hope it becomes everyone’s worst nightmare. I hope no one looks like their book descriptions, I hope you get none of your fancasts, I hope everyone gets to see the actor they hate the most in there, I hope every actor that take part in this delivers their worst performance to date and I deeply, deeply wish associating with her will ruin their career from here on out. I hope with every part of my being that the entire franchise gets completely ruined for the dumbfucks who decide to give JKR and HBO their money because they deserve nothing but the worst. I hope every idiot who gets baited by the promise of wolfstar or drarry or whatever the fuck gay ship you want in there has the worst time of their life. I hope they actively ruin your favourite things about canon and I hope you can never see your favourite characters the same ever again. I hope you get shunned by the marauders fandom, a fandom that is supposedly built on its hatred for JK Rowling and its love for diversity, because you clearly chose the transphobe. I hope your favourite artist and your favourite writers block you and I hope you lose all the friends you’ve created through this fandom because that is exactly what you will deserve. Because by supporting, engaging with or hell, even just talking about this stupid ass series you prove that your support is conditional and that you are not a safe person.

I will be watching who is cast in this series for one reason only and it is so I can assure that I never engage in any of their shit ever again.

If you intend to watch this show, whether pirated or not, you are not welcome on my blog and I urge you to unfollow me right now. I have been blocking people who engage with this cash grab asswipe of a show and I will continue to do so, so there’s that. When I say fuck JKR in my bio I mean it wholeheartedly and a nicely wrapped carrot held in front of my face won’t change that. If it changes that for you know that I have lost all respect for you as a person.

And with that I hope I’ve made myself clear. This is not directed towards anon, I’m choosing to believe that you had the best intentions with your ask, but now that I’ve made myself clear,,, well, no more of that now < 3

[ggensblog]

Hello! I saw ur post abt Barty and I was thinking smth with some angst and miscommunication (it doesn’t matter if happy or sad ending) if that would be okay, thank you 🤍

ask and you shall receive ! this kind of got away from me and somehow ended up super long- enjoy !

back to black | b.c.j.

summary: you knew barty and regulus had history, but you can't help the green monster taking over your mind

content: jealousy, miscommunication (kinda??), barty being clueless, implied past bartylus, angst (with a happy ending because im a sucker), not proof read, i still can't write dialogue, intentional lowercase, gn!reader

i do not in any way support or endorse jk rowling

word count: 2.1k

masterlist

if someone were to ask you to tell them one thing about bartemius crouch junior, you would tell them that he loved hard. that because of the cold walls he grew up in, barty learned to hold on tight to the things he cherished and never intended to let any of them go. outsiders looking in thought him to be strange, all throughout first and second year calling him obsessive and sometimes even dangerous.

not you though.

you had gotten to know barty in your third year, finally happening to be sat next to him in potions class. you had heard about him, of course, though mostly through the stories and rumors that had circled the slytherin common room. from potions partners to slowly being introduced to the inner circle, you had become yet another gem in barty’s collection.

you started dating in your sixth year, his wild declaration of love coming in the winter after a particularly cold snow-ball fight. the two of you had stayed at hogwarts through winter break along with just a few other students from different years and houses.

your christmas and new year was bliss, with barty’s attention only on you and making sure you never had enough time to wallow on the fact that you weren’t spending the holidays with your family.

once your friends had started returning to the castle, you should’ve expected there to be a shift in priorities. after all, barty had a whole month to catch up on with regulus and evan, and you had to debrief the holiday drama with dorcas.

so you found yourselves settled in front of the fire in the common room. it was late, far later than any of you should have been up, but reveling in fact that the five of you could finally enjoy some solitude as the last seventh years went up to bed.

“and then my mother just went ahead and bought him the model rocket anyway! i swear, if he never learns what the word ‘no’ means then-” dorcas paused, her eyes now trained on the more-quiet-than-usual regulus black. “reg are you alright?” her voice was softer, her tone careful- as if she was approaching a wounded animal.

regulus hummed in response, and that seemed to be good enough for her. it seemed good enough for everyone, actually. except barty of course.

the rest of the week, regulus seemed to draw back even more from his friends, seeming to only confide in barty.

you knew barty and regulus had a history. you knew they both came from broken homes. you knew that once upon a time they were all each other had.

you knew all of this, and despite it all, you grew jealous.

barty began to blow you off, excusing himself from lunch or study dates to check on regulus. the two boys became attached at the hip once more. they sat on the far end of the slytherin table and whispered to each other while you watched, stabbing your fork into the pieces of fruit on your place.

“alright there?” you whipped your head around to face evan across from you. you nodded quietly and looked down to your plate, putting your fork down and trying to engage with the conversation dorcas and marlene were having next to you.

what tipped you over the edge was the next evening.

you had a long day, finding yourself humiliated in front of class for completing an assignment wrong, and then missing lunch because you spent extra time in the library studying because of it. you were hungry, exhausted, and all together burnt out. with january in full swing, n.e.w.t.s. felt like they were right around the corner, so finding a peaceful moment was not as easy has it had been over the holidays.

you laid with barty in his bed, bundled under the emerald covers with one of your boyfriend’s arms wrapped around you. you grinned up at him, admiring the glint in his eye.

“i’ve missed you lately. i feel like we never see eachother anymore..” you muttered, bringing a hand up to brush some of the hair away from his face. the rest of the dorm was empty, with everyone else at dinner or in the library.

“i’m sorry, lovely, it’s been a lot lately. i can’t seem to find time to get away.” barty whispered back to you, pressing his lips to the crown of your head as his sentence trailed.

you seem to have enough time to spend every waking moment with black.

there was that ugly green monster again. the words were on the tip of your tongue, daring to spill out. you couldn’t say that. barty was being a good friend to regulus.

but he isn’t being a good friend to you

you willed the thoughts away, feeling your chest squeeze as they kept coming.

“hey, hey- where’d you go?” barty moved his arm from your waist to hold your face affectionately. you brought your eyes back to his and let out a breath.

“i- i just feel like we should talk more. you’re always off with-” before you could finish the door to the dorm room burst open. a furious mop of black hair stormed in and to his bed. regulus sat on the edge of his bed, his fists clenched as they rested on his knees. from where you were you couldn’t tell if he was shivering from the cold or trembling because of something else. 

in an instant, barty was up and moving, flipping back the blanket so your legs were partially exposed to the cold now too. you winced at the sudden movement and sat up. barty crossed the room and knelt down in front of regulus, searching his face for a moment before turning to you.

he said your name, you looked up.

“would you mind leaving?”

your shoulders sunk. you felt like crying. you were jealous. you were angry.

your head swam. told you so, toldyou so, toldyouso, toldyousotoldyouso-

you heard your name again and looked back to barty who simply nodded to the still-ajar door. without another word you got up and left, closing the door behind you with a bit more strength than you meant.

evan came down the hallway as the door shut. you looked up at him.

“barty and regulus are busy in there,” tears forced their way to your eyes but you sniffed them back. evan’s eyebrows pinched together, then he raised one.

“do you want to talk?”

you and evan sat in the astronomy tower as you confessed everything you had been feeling for the past month. the stress, the jealousy, the loneliness. evan listened silently, nodding along and offering a shoulder for you to cry into after you were done. you had never been particularly close to evan, with him being the more quiet one of the group, you never found enough in common with him to really bond.

you sniffed and lifted your head from his shoulder. the hand he had used to draw calming circles on your back patted your shoulder once before he cleared his voice.

“and you haven’t told barty any of this?”

you shook your head. “how am i supposed to tell him ‘oh yeah i don’t want you to spend time with your best friend who is clearly struggling?’ i sound stupid.” you huffed, then added “and greedy.”

evan shrugged. “barty and regulus have been through a lot together. it seems like the holidays were particularly hard for black this year, and it’s barty’s instinct to try and make it better in any way he can.” evan turned to look back out at the sky.

“it would be his instinct to make sure you’re okay too. you know, if you told him how you were feeling anyway…” evan side-eyed you and you groaned. 

“i know, rosier, but it’s just-”

“it’s what?”

your head whipped around to the door. there stood barty, his form lit up by the light of the moon. your mouth opened and closed like a fish.

evan went to stand up, brushing off imaginary dust from his pants.

“i’ll leave you to it.” you caught the glint in evan’s eye as he walked out, shutting the door behind him and leaving you and barty in the tower alone.

you looked away from your boyfriend and out to the sky. "how's regulus?" you hated the way your voice sounded- bitter, cold.

“he's fine, or at least he will be. what was that about?” barty moved towards you, taking evan’s spot next to you. he crossed his legs and leaned back on his hands, nudging you with his shoulder.

“everything alright, treasure? did something happen? was it someone? give me a name, i’ll make sure they find appreciation for having two lungs instead of just one,” barty leaned closer to you with each question. there was almost a playful look on his face, even though you knew his words were true.

you shook your head.

“it wasn’t anyone, well it was- but it wasn’t anyone you need to go and maim.” your voice was quiet, barely there. barty would’ve missed it had there been any noise in the tower.

barty turned his body so he was fully facing you, taking your hand.

“what’s wrong, lovely? i’m here for you- you know that,” the playfulness was gone now, “right?” he finished, rubbing your palm with his thumb.

“i just- i feel like you haven’t though. been here- i mean. i know you and black have all this history and i know we’re still so new but-”

“is that what this is about? regulus? lovely, he’s had a hard year-”

“i know! gods, i know. and i don’t want you to- not- care for him, because you are such a caring person, barty, but i just- it hurts being blown off for you to go spend every moment with him. like every time there seems to be a minute for the two of us you just go and run back to him. over and over and over again.” you were out of breath by the time you finished. barty stared at you with wide eyes. you expected him to call you inconsiderate, or greedy. you half expected him to just get up and leave you right then and there.

instead he moved his hand up your arm and pulled you into his chest.

whatever tears that were left over from crying to evan were released into barty’s shirt. a hand moved into your hair, scratching your scalp soothingly as you sobbed. barty waited until you calmed down a bit before he pulled back and placed both of his hands on your shoulders.

“treasure. i would never- in a million, billion years want to be the reason you’re hurting. i am so sorry, my love, for the way i’ve treated you. and i’m even more sorry for not noticing it sooner, or at all. i am so sorry that you felt like you couldn’t talk to me.” barty’s hands moved to hold your face. his face was completely serious, almost stern with himself as he recounted everything he felt like he got wrong.

“regulus needed me, and i was there for him. i would have done the exact same if you needed me. and you did, and i wasn’t there, and i am so so sorry, love. you don’t have to forgive me now, i don’t expect you to. hell, please don’t forgive me for being a complete arse to you.”

barty’s thumbs wiped away the rest of your tears. he then leaned forward to press your foreheads together. And whispered once more, “i’m so sorry.”

you nodded, accepting the apology and moving backwards.

“i’m sorry too,” you started and barty opened his mouth to protest- “no, i am sorry. for not talking to you about it. it wasn’t fair of me to be mad at you without you knowing what for.”

you weren’t crying anymore, but the trembling had yet to cease as the chill of the january air penetrated your sweater.

“can we go inside? talk?” you looked up at barty who stared at you fondly. he nodded, “anything, anything for you.” before you moved to the door of the astrology tower, barty leaned down, searching your eyes for a moment before softly pressing his lips to yours. the kiss was chaste, but still warm and full of barty’s love.

barty might have grown up in a cold home, but to his core he was entirely warm.

[doberbutts]

Hey! don't know if anyone mentioned this I know it's been a few months but if you want to see how imane khelif is tme while still being the direct target of a transvestigation- How has the results of that played out? JK Rowling is facing concequences for her transmisogyny for the first time in her 7 years being an open terf. The difference that can be seen is when you transvestigate a trans woman you will find the damning evidence and thus you can ostracize the trans woman without concequence, As JK Rowling has specifically done multiple times. and when you transvestigate a cis woman and attempt to ruin her life- The transvestigation will fail and the cis woman will have legal recourse to demand concequences for the harassment. does that make sense?

Oh I made a followup post about it which I guess you didn't see.

But yes, Khelif was able not only to continue to compete, but also to bring charges against those who were her loudest detractors. Whether anything comes of that, we will see, but it was apparently scary enough for many to either retract their claims or to issue an apology. I also said that while I understand Khelif's legal situation likely will not allow her to do so, I wished she had words of solidarity and support for trans women who do not have this option.

However, not included in my post and not included in your point here is that this does not always work out this way.

Another cis woman by the name of Castor Semenya faced similar accusations, was forced to undergo invasive medical testing and have her results available for the public to see, and was promptly disqualified due to refusing to undergo mandatory hormonal "treatment" for her newly discovered intersex condition she swears she did not know she had.

Khelif was not subjected to this. Khelif swears that she is perisex and states no one has made her undergo any amount of testing nor has she agreed to do so. It may very well be that she also has an intersex condition she is unaware of, but the point is that one cis woman was able to sidestep this process and one was not. Semenya has not been able to make legal headway in her discrimination case.

There are a lot of factors here. Different ruling bodies, different sports, different years. Khelif is North African and Semenya is South African. Semenya is several shades darker than Khelif. Legally speaking, it is illegal for Khelif to exist as a queer woman in her own country, but significantly less so in Semenya's. And it does not help that Khelif's detractors were emboldened by the end result of Semenya's controversy.

In my original post on the subject, I even said that one could say that Khelif does have some level of privilege because she is specifically able to lean on the fact that she is not a trans woman in order to escape the worse of it, IF it works, because it doesn't always. I also mentioned that there were people supporting her who specifically did so because she is not a trans woman. My questioning was more along the lines of- how can we call this exempt when there was absolutely transmisogyny happening to her right at that very moment?

Having privilege is not the point of the conversation, because I do not disagree overall on that front. Saying someone is exempt from their own experiences or deciding for them that something is going to go a certain way, when we have seen that it is not always so clearcut, was more what I was asking about.